By Steven Biggs
An Impulse Buy and Lots of Carrot Soup with Cream
A velvety carrot soup with cream.
It was an impulse buy. Pure and simple.
But a bushel of carrots for $10? I couldn’t help it.
“They’ll keep nicely in the basement,” I thought to myself.
They didn’t. My basement is too warm…even my unheated storage room.
I needed to do something with the carrots quickly,before they spoiled.
So into the stockpot they went. That fall, my family ate a lot of smooth, velvety, cream of carrot soup.
(A bushel of carrots makes a lot of this pureed carrot soup!)
Luckily, this cream of carrot soup freezes well. So make up a big pot of this carrot cream in the fall, and enjoy it through the winter.
Finding Carrots in Bulk
Look for seconds…those imperfect carrots that don’t make the grade so they get sold in large quantities for very little.
I often see seconds at farm markets in the fall.
Grow Your Own Carrots
Cream of carrot soup is a great way to enjoy homegrown carrots.
Carrots are a great home garden crop. I start planting them in spring, and continue planting until August—and then harvest right into the winter. (Cover carrots with a straw bale to extend the harvest window as the ground freezes.)
Carrots are also an excellent succession crop to follow other crops. Find out more about succession crops.
For gardeners who are interested in a year-round harvest, carrots and onions are great storage crops—even if you don’t have a root cellar. Find out how to store them—and find out 25 storage crops you can grow in your garden.
Serving Ideas - Cream of Carrot Soup
Serve with homemade garlicky croutons sprinkled on top.
(Don’t add the croutons too soon…only at the last minute, so they don’t get soggy.)
Dill seed in the garden.
Secret Ingredient – Dill Seed
Dill seed is like little nuggets of dill flavour. It’s easy to grow your own dill seed; just let a couple of dill plants flower and go to seed, and then harvest the dill seed once it’s dry.
I also use dill seed in my homemade beet borsch. Here’s Mom’s borsch recipe…it’s fantastic!
If you don’t have dill seed, chopped dill works well instead. Add it at the end, when you add the cream.
Recipe for Mom’s Cream of Carrot Soup
Mom made this soup every fall…but not using bushels of carrots, as I did in my cream-of-carrot misadventure.
Ingredients
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Onion, coarsely chopped (I use 2 onions, adjust to your preference)
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp. dill seed
5 cups chicken stock
2 lbs. coarsely chopped carrots
1 cup cream
I often use my homemade turkey stock in this recipe instead of chicken stock. I make turkey stock from my BBQ-roasted turkey. Find out how I roast turkey on my charcoal barbecue.
Directions
Brown onions in butter in the stock pot (don’t rush this step…if they’re not browned, they’re not as sweet and flavourful)
When onions are browned, add the rest of the ingredients
Cook for about half an hour, until the carrots are soft
Blend (mom always did this in her blender, but I find a hand-immersion blender is easier)
Add cream
