Creamy Carrot Soup made Healthier (Potage Crécy)

The local farmer's market is coming to a close in a few weeks.  The summer fruits are slowly being replaced by root vegetables and winter squashes.  This year, I am trying to adopt a better attitude to the changing of the seasons.  This means instead of looking at those root vegetables with disdain because they aren't summer fruits, I'm going to embrace them!  Yesterday, carrots and sweet potatoes looked really good at the market, so I made them into this sweet soup.  I made it early in the day, refrigerated it and served it cold along with a piece of whole wheat bread smeared with peanut butter.  It was a yummy, healthy way to herald the first day of autumn.

I worked from Mark Bittman's recipe for Potage Crécy found in his cookbook titled The Best Recipes in the World but made it a little healthier to suit my needs.  Enjoy!

Creamy Carrot Soup (Potage Crécy) by Joie de vivre
Makes 4 hearty servings

Ingredients:


1 1/2 Tbls. olive oil
1 small onion (4.5 oz.), chopped
1 lb. carrots, peeled and chopped
1 small sweet potato (6.75 oz.), peeled and chopped
1 tomato, chopped (don't worry about peeling or seeding)
1 tsp. salt (more or less to taste)
pepper to taste
2 tsp. sugar
4 c. chicken stock
1 c. water
1/2 c. light sour cream

Directions:

1.  Place a large saucepan over medium heat and add the olive oil.  Add the onion, carrots, sweet potato, tomato, salt, pepper and sugar.  Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes until the vegetables start to break down.  If the vegetables start to stick to the bottom of the pan, lower the heat slightly and add 1/4 c. water.
2.  When the vegetables are tender, add the stock and 1 c. water.  Raise the heat to high and bring the soup to a boil.  Once the soup is boiling, lower the heat to low and gently simmer the soup for 15 minutes.
3.  Using an immersion blender, puree the soup until completely smooth.  Place the soup in the refrigerator and refrigerate until cold.
4.  When ready to serve, stir in the sour cream.  Serve cold.

An Irish Feast for the non-Irish Joie

I do not have a lick of Irish in me, but I love the food and festivities associated with the day.
Even if you are like me and lack the Irish gene, St. Patrick's day is a day where we can all be Irish.  So lift your glass of Guinness high and get cooking!

On the menu:

Guinness braised corned beef
Whole wheat Irish soda bread with butter
Colcannon
Steamed carrots with butter
Guinness


Guinness braised corned beef by Joie de vivre

Ingredients:

1 corned beef roast
the spice packet that comes with your corned beef
1 bottle of Guinness

Directions:

1.  Place your corned beef in the insert of your crock pot.
2.  Open the spice packet that came with the corned beef and sprinkle on top of the beef.
3.  Pour the bottle of Guinness over the corned beef.
4.  Cover the crock pot and set on LOW for 8-10 hours.
5.  Remove the corned beef from the crock pot.  Trim off all of the external fat and slice the roast into pieces going against the grain of the meat.

Colcannon by Joie de vivre

Ingredients:

2 lb. russet potatoes, peeled and diced into 1-2 inch chunks.
1 bunch of scallions (about 8), white part only, sliced thinly
1 small head of green cabbage, cored and sliced thinly
2 Tbls. butter
1/2 cup 2% milk
1 scant tsp. salt
black pepper to taste

Directions:

1.  In a tall soup pot, place the potatoes and add cool water until the potatoes are just covered.
2.  Sprinkle the scallions on top of the potatoes
3.  Layer the shredded cabbage on top of the scallions
4.  Cover the pot and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes until the potatoes are tender.
5.  Drain the contents in a colander and return them to the pot.
6.  Add butter, milk, salt and pepper and mash with a potato masher until potato chunks are thoroughly mashed.

A Carrot Cake to celebrate my 100th post!

Dearest Readers,

To celebrate my 100th post, I thought I'd share with you a fabulous carrot cake recipe.  I made this for my husband's birthday when we first started dating and I'm pretty sure it is the reason he first fell in love with me!  (Of course he has since discovered a million other reasons to love me!).  I'm sending this over to Debbie at The Friday Friends for her Carrot Cake Showdown!

Carrot-Ginger Layer Cake with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting adapted from Martha Stewart Living Magazine, April 1999.

Ingredients for cake:

unsalted butter, for pans

3 c. all purpose flour

1 c. (3 oz.) pecan halves, toasted and chopped

1 lb. large carrots, peeled and grated finely (should yield 2 1/2 cups grated)

3 large eggs, room temperature

1/3 c. lowfat buttermilk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 c. sugar

1 1/2 c. vegetable oil

1 Tbls. freshly grated ginger

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 recipe for Orange Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe follows)

Directions:

1.  Butter and flour two 8 x 2 inch round cake pans.  Tap out excess and set aside.  

2.  Pre-heat the oven to 300 degrees F.

3.  In a large bowl, place grated carrots, eggs, buttermilk, vanilla extract, sugar, vegetable oil and ginger.  Whisk until combined.

4.  In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.  Using a rubber spatula, fold the flour mixture into the carrot mixture until combined.  Fold in the chopped pecans.

5.  Divide the batter between 2 cake pans and cook until a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean.  Approx. 1 hour and 20 minutes.

6.  Remove the pans from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool, 15 minutes.  Turn cakes out onto the rack and let stand until completely cool.

7.  When completely cool, cut each cake in half crosswise to make 4 layers.  Place a layer on a cake stand and spread 3/4 c. frosting on top.  Repeat with the other layers.  On the last layer, spread the frosting on the top and sides of the cake.  Transfer to the refrigerator and chill for 3-4 hours.

Orange Cream-Cheese Frosting adapted from Martha Stewart Living, April 1999

Ingredients:

3/4 c. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

3 8 oz. bars of cream cheese, room temperature

3 c. confectioners sugar

1 Tbls. freshly grated orange zest

2 Tbls. freshly grated ginger

pinch of salt

Directions:

1.  Beat together the butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer approximately 2-3 minutes until fluffy.  

2.  Add the orange zest, ginger and salt and continue to beat well.

3.  Turn the mixer to low and beat in the 3 c. of confectioners sugar.  Beat until fluffy, approximately 5 minutes.

Staying resolute

Part of my New Year's resolution was to entertain more.  Well, here it is February and I finally entertained my first guests of the New Year yesterday.  It took me a while, but I had so much fun that I'm going to be doing it more frequently.  Getting over that first hurdle is always the hardest. 

My skills were challenged yesterday as I was cooking not only for people I had never before cooked for, but for a vegetarian.  It being Sunday, my plan was to make a soup that I could put in the crock pot before church.  I knew that my Red Lentil and Carrot Soup with Coconut would impress, but as luck would have it, I could not find red lentils at any of my usual sources.  What's a girl to do who's pressed for time and who is having her first guests of the New Year over?  Improvise, of course!

I adapted the red lentil soup recipe to use something I could readily find, split peas, and the rest is soup history.  This soup was flavorful, delicious, had a wonderful texture and was warming and filling.  I'm sending this over to Deb at Kahakai Kitchen for her weekly Souper Sunday event.  Enjoy!

Split Pea Soup with Carrots and Coconut by Joie de vivre

Ingredients:

2 cups dried split peas

1 Tbls. vegetable oil

2 large onions, chopped

5 carrots, peeled and chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp. tumeric

2 tsp. cumin seeds

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. black pepper

8 cups vegetable stock

1 14 oz. can coconut milk

1/8 tsp. chili pepper

Directions:

1.  In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat.  Add the onions and carrots and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions start to brown.  

2. Add the minced garlic and stir for 30 seconds, until fragrant.  Add the tumeric and cumin seeds and cook, stirring, for an additional 30 seconds.

3.  Add the vegetable stock and the salt and pepper.  Stir in the split peas.

4.  Transfer the entire mixture to the insert of a large (6 qt) crock pot.  Cover and cook on LOW for 8 - 10 hours or on HIGH for 4 - 5 hours.

5.  Stir in the coconut milk and chili pepper and cook on HIGH for an additional 20 - 30 minutes before serving.