There’s a farmer’s market in the nearby park that we’d been hearing about since we moved to St. Louis. I finally made my way over there this week, and I found some lovely carrots. (And blueberries, but they didn’t last long enough to end up in a dish.) I thought I’d do some experimenting with a chilled summer soup.
Chilled Carrot Soup
- 2 pounds carrots, washed and cut into rounds
- 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and cut into rounds
- 2 cups water
- pinch of crushed red pepper
- sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- lemon wedges, for garnish
- Heat the carrots, ginger, water, crushed red pepper, a large pinch of salt and pepper in a medium-large pot. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce heat. Cover and simmer until the carrots are tender, about 30 minutes, then remove from heat.
- Carefully pour soup into a blender. Add the lemon juice. Remove the middle piece from the lid and cover with a towel to allow steam to escape while blending. Puree until smooth. (Alternatively, use an immersion blender.)
- Put soup in the refrigerator and allow to cool completely. (If you need to cool the soup immediately, place soup in a metal bowl, and place the bowl in an ice bath. Stir until soup is completely chilled.)
- When ready to serve, spoon soup into bowls, garnish with lemon wedges.
Serves 4
When I originally wrote this recipe, I included some onion. It wasn’t bad, but I wasn’t thrilled with it. Until I tried it the next day, then I liked it more. Still, I wanted to try it again without the onion. I made another batch and tried them both side-by-side. Initially, I felt without the onion was better. But then again, maybe not. I finally decided I like it without the onion a smidge more. Hence the recipe is written without onion. If you really love your aromatics, start by cooking some onion until soft, then continuing with the rest of the recipe.
I also went back and forth on how “carroty” I wanted it to be. I was using fresh farmer’s market carrots, and I wanted to taste them. But I think keeping extra lemon wedges or lemon juice on hand so everyone can season to their liking is a good idea.
This recipe is also shared in Slightly Indulgent Tuesday and Wellness Weekend.
Lovely! I used to have a recipe for carrot-ginger soup that was heated–gotta try this cold version! Thanks for submitting to WW this week. :)