A long time ago I was invited to the home of one of the deans of a college in our town for supper and his charming "hostess" of the month was a beautiful young student from Ethiopia who also happened to be the creator of our lovely dinner. One of the vegetables she served was a combination of mashed potatoes and carrots which were delicious.
Right now many gardens around the countryside are delivering up carrots which are delicious in their raw state, but understated in their cooking state in this fine country of ours.
At our home we love carrots and have experimented with them in many forms. Since I also love spices and herbs we have also experimented with them. Often in our travels we have come across many fine meals that have had the local spices and herbs added to them. The last time I was in North Africa I was able to walk through a local Casbah and marvel at the spice baskets filled to the brim with their intoxicating aromas.
Cumin and coriander both are spices that are used a lot in North Africa. When our garden gives up its carrots I drag out my old recipe for carrot soup and I want to share it with you now.
Arlene's Carrot Soup You need about 5 cups of light vegetable stock or you can use chicken stock. Today I use the kind that comes in containers. However, years ago when I was cooking for 7 or more I would always save the vegetable water from any vegetables I was cooking and freeze it until I had enough to use in a soup.
I would then chop up one medium size onion until I had 1 & ½ cups of diced onion and gently sauté them in 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
I would then add in 2 cloves of finely chopped garlic, 1&1/4 tsp. of ground cumin and 1 tsp. of ground coriander, 2 tsp. of fresh grated ginger and a pinch of cayenne, gently sautéing until the onion was soft. This takes about 10 minutes.
While this was doing its stuff I would thinly chop up about 2 pounds of carrots until I had about 7 cups of them. I would peel 1 medium white potato or sweet potato and thinly slice that until I had 1 cup of them.
I would then add them to 1 quart of my vegetable or chicken stock with 1 tsp. salt and bring to a gentle boil, cover and let it simmer for about 15 minutes until the vegetables are really tender.
I then put in all in my blender or food processor and puree until smooth adding the extra stock if necessary. I then pour it all back into my pot and add ½ cup fresh orange juice and thin with any extra stock if necessary and reheat. At this time I taste it and season with extra salt if I feel it is necessary.
To make you soup extra elegant you can add a swirl of crème fraiche and sprinkle with fresh chopped cilantro.
This soup is so good that you can make it any time of the year since carrots are abundant all year round in our local supermarkets.
