Bugs Bunny I Might Be

The vegetable of the day is the carrot.  Not those tiny cocktail type carrots you buy for lunch boxes all bright orange and cute.  Not the ones that come all ready cleaned and 50 to a bag. 

No, I’m talking about good old fashioned carrots, 8 to 11 inches long, medium orange in colour, with a fancy, frilly bouquet of greenery on the top.  So good raw or roasted or ‘coin’ sliced and boiled or steamed with olive oil or butter and a little salt.  If you are an old movie buff (I mean the movies are old, not you), you may remember Scarlet O’Hara in ‘Gone with the Wind,’ on her knees in the mud, holding a carrot up to the heavens.  “As God is my witness, I will never be hungry again!” She was pretty darn grateful for that dirty stick of a carrot.

I would suggest that you don’t need to be near starving to appreciate a good carrot.  One way I prepare carrots to give them yet another dimension of deliciousness is to turn them into soup.  Here’s all I do:

Wash 8-10 carrots and cut off the ends.  Cut the carrots in to 3 inch chunks.  Put them in a pan of cold water, just enough to cover them, and bring the water to a boil.  Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the carrots are tender.  Take them out of the pan with a slotted spoon and retain the cooking water.  Let the carrots cool to room temperature.

When the carrots are cooled down, put them in a blender or ‘bullet’ and add about half of the cooking water.  You could use vegetable or chicken broth if you like.  Blend and add extra water/broth to thin down the soup to the consistency you desire.

Put the mixture back in the pan and reheat.  You can add milk or some cream to this soup and make it more decadent.  I season mine with some nutmeg, a little salt and some white pepper and serve it with a little sour cream and some pepitas on top. 

Very fast recipe, especially if you prepare the carrots ahead of time.  When you get home from work, you can just toss the carrots in the blender and get started.  The process will only take about 20 minutes, including reheat time.  Another great thing about this soup is that it is very inexpensive.  I usually get either a 2 lb bag of carrots for $.99 or a 5 lb bag for about $2.  

Simple, yummy, inexpensive, and so very good for you.  All that cartoon watching when I was a kid did pay off.  Love my Bugs Bunny.