Cream of Carrot Soup

This is such a nice soup and an easy way to enjoy the naturally sweet taste of carrots. When using chicken broth mix, I've given 3 tablespoons in the recipe, but follow the instructions on the band of mix you use. By using the water you used to cook the vegetables to make the broth, you're not just tossing out any of the nutrients from the process. If you use your own homemade broth, just cook the vegetables in that broth; thus, retaining the nutrients. I use a chicken broth mix, so I don't add salt to this recipe at all, as the broth mix has salt. 

Ingredients (about 5 servings):

2 cups sliced carrots

1 cup roughly chopped onion 

2 cloves garlic, sliced

2 inch piece peeled ginger, sliced

3 1/4 cups water for cooking the vegetables, then for making the broth

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons chicken broth mix (or use your own homemade chicken broth)

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon dry mustard

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

1 cup heavy cream or half and half*

To a thick bottomed pan, add the carrot slices, onion, garlic and ginger, over medium high heat until the water begins to boil; then, reduce the heat to maintain a gentle steady simmer until the vegetables are cooked, but still somewhat firm, and definitely not mushy. Add the vegetables to a blender/food processor. Add the chicken mix to the water used to cook the vegetables and stir until the mix is dissolved (or use your own homemade chicken broth to cook the vegetables), and add the ground turmeric, ground cumin, ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, dry mustard and ground cinnamon, then blend/process until smooth (or leave somewhat "chunky," if you like that texture). Pour the blended soup back into the pan over medium heat. Stir in the cream or 1/2 & 1/2 and let the soup heat up, but do not boil.   

 

* Half and half is 50% milk and 50% cream, but that can be deceiving, as some people use lower fat cream (like about 20% fat), while others use heavy cream (about 36% to 40% fat).

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Easter-This religious holiday name is related to "east," a word from the Germanic roots of English, and further, it is related to "Australia," a word (name) from Latin "Terra Australis" (long a in 'tralis'), and "Austria," a Latinized form from Old High German "Ostarrihhi" (modern German "Österreich"). English and German are the only two Germanic languages to retain "Easter" as their main word for the Christian holiday.^ "Easter" goes back to Indo European "aus," which meant "to dawn, to give light, to shine." This gave Old Germanic "austro," meaning "toward the light, toward the dawn;" thus also, "east." This gave Old English "Eastre," which was the name given to a Germanic goddess of spring; perhaps, from the notion of increasing daylight at that time of year and the "renewal" of plant and animal life. This fits into Christian belief and the former pagan holiday celebrating the goddess in the spring, simply transferred to Christianity. The modern German form of "Easter" is "Ostern." Low German has "Oostern" as a secondary and a somewhat antiquated word for Easter (common Low German forms for Easter: "Paasch" and "Paaschen"). Low German is not a standardized language, but rather a collection of dialects. Dutch has "Pasen."

 

^ Other European languages use forms of Latin "pasha" as their word for "Easter." The word goes back to Greek and Greek got it from Hebrew, where it meant "Passover."