Make soup!
Readers might remember that earlier this summer a friend exhorted me to thin my carrots, and I did. Then I went away for three weeks. Happily, my roommate and I had two great dog sitters who stayed in our house and looked after everything beautifully.
One of them is an avid gardener. She looked at my carrots and said, “Her carrots are gonna be tiny if I don’t thin them for her.” So, she thinned them, not just once but twice. Now, that is a good house sitter!
The happy result was that in early October our little garden yielded about eight pounds of good-sized carrots—nothing to compare with Sarah’s Harvest or Yukon Grain Farm, but respectable. (Our dog sitters/gardeners got to eat a few of the smaller ones, and if they weren’t going off travelling, trust me they’d get a lot more!)
We don’t have a cold spot in the house, and storing them in layers of sand in a box isn’t an option, so we must keep them in the fridge. I learned from a gardener friend that the best way to do that is to scrub the carrots, transfer them to a resealable bag, tuck a piece of paper towel into the bag and leave the top open. (Other gardener friends follow this same method but don’t remove the dirt first.)
Storing eight pounds of fresh carrots in the fridge doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for other things. So, I pickled some. And I made soup, a really nice roasted carrot soup with warming spices, to take the edge off chilly fall days. Roasting the carrots first gives them a lovely, deep caramelized flavour, and adding a new potato to the mix makes the soup that much creamier.
October is a time of gratitude, and I’m feeling mighty grateful to our garden, to the forest, to the Indigenous Peoples who’ve stewarded this land for thousands of years, and to the friends and housesitters whose advice and diligence contributed to our carrot success.
Enjoy the harvest!
Roasted Carrot Soup with Ginger and Turmeric
Ingredients
- 1 lb carrots scrubbed clean (no need to peel if they’re new)
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 medium onion diced
- 1 Tbsp butter or coconut oil
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 inch piece of ginger peeled and minced
- 1 tsp powdered ginger
- 2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 medium potato peeled and diced
- 1/2 red pepper diced
- 3 cups vegetable stock
- 1 cup heavy cream or coconut milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 F. Cut scrubbed carrots in half lengthwise, and the thicker carrots into quarters. Toss with olive oil and kosher salt and arrange in one layer on a large baking sheet. Roast for 30 minutes, flipping halfway so they’re nicely browned and caramelized. Remove from the oven.
- While the carrots are roasting, prepare the rest of the soup. Melt butter or coconut oil in a medium-sized pot over medium heat, add onion and sauté until onions are soft and translucent, about 5 to 7 minutes.
- Add minced garlic, ginger, powdered ginger and turmeric, and stir to combine. Cook for 2 minutes. Add potato and pepper and cook for another 5 minutes, until vegetables are softened.
- Add roasted carrots and vegetable stock to the pot, stir, cover and bring to the boil. Once boiling, turn heat to medium-low and simmer for about 20 minutes, until potatoes and carrots are quite soft.
- Remove from heat, let soup cool for 10 minutes and blend with an immersion blender or in a food processor, until soup is a thick and creamy puree, with no lumpy bits whatsoever. Take your time with this step—texture is everything with a creamed soup.
- Return soup to a clean pot. Turn heat to medium and whisk in the heavy cream or coconut milk. Allow soup to come to the boil, whisking occasionally. Remove from heat and check seasoning, adding salt as necessary.
- Serve as is or with a spoonful of plain yogurt or coconut yogurt. Will keep in the fridge for up to a week, or in the freezer for 3 months.
