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.

My week in food

Although I haven't been cooking anything fabulous this week, I have been concentrating on fresh ingredients and healthy cooking.  The peach season up here is almost at an end, so you'll notice that all of my meals have peaches in them.  Thinking hard at this moment, I think peaches (fully ripe, local, summer peaches) may be my favorite food in the world.  (Okay, so that's an overstatement, but I just LOVE them!)  I'm trying to get my fill of them before they are gone for the year.  I thought I'd share with you what I've been eating this week to give you some inspiration in your own healthy meal planning.

Breakfasts

Thursday:  1/2 c. oatmeal, a fresh peach, 1 c. whole milk, coffee.  Notice my little rooster milk pourer?  This week, I discovered it holds exactly 1 c. milk.  Not only is it darling, but it's a good way to portion control!

Friday:  The same breakfast but with Kambaa tea instead of coffee.  Kambaa is an extremely strong tea from Kenya.  My tea supplier gave me a sample of it.  It is very astringent, but I think I like it.  Milk smoothed the tea out.

Saturday:  Sensing a theme this week with oatmeal and peaches?  I served my oatmeal with 1/2 c. whole milk.  (My little cow pourer holds exactly 1/2 c.)

Sunday:  1 fried egg, 1 piece of whole wheat toast spread with 1 tsp. Vegemite, 1 peach, coffee with 1/2 c. whole milk

Monday:  3 Tbls. grits, 1 tsp. butter, 1 c. nonfat milk, 1 peach

Tuesday:  3/4 c. plain, whole milk yogurt, 1/3 c. muesli, 1 peach, coffee with 1 Tbls. half and half.


Lunches

This week, I've been concentrating on incorporating a lean protein in each of my lunches to help satisfy my stomach until dinner

Wednesday:  Bowl of vegetable/chickpea/tomato soup I made from my Farmer's market haul.

Thursday:  Two egg omelette stuffed with chopped tomatoes, 1 piece of whole wheat toast spread with 1 tsp. Vegemite, 1 peach

Friday:  Tuna fish sandwich on whole wheat, 1 peach, 1/2 c. lowfat cottage cheese

Saturday:  Tuna fish sandwich on whole wheat, 1 peach, slices of tomato and cucumber, 1 Tbls. ranch dressing.

Sunday:  Last of the tuna on whole wheat bread, 1 peach, baby carrots and celery with 1 Tbls. ranch dressing.


Dinners

Thursday:  Bowl of leftover vegetable/chickpea/tomato soup, steamed broccoli with 1 tsp. butter, salad with 1 Tbls. ranch dressing, 1/2 c. lowfat cottage cheese, 1/2 c. raspberries.

Friday:  1 pieces (1/3 pizza) of California Pizza Kitchen's BBQ chicken pizza, steamed broccoli with 1 tsp. butter, raw carrots with 1 Tbls. ranch dressing.

Monday:  Fully loaded turkey burrito (turkey breast strips, 1 Tbls. light sour cream, 2 Tbls. soy cheese, salsa with a Flatout flat bread) sauteed turnip greens (are they always that bitter?) 1/2 c. lowfat cottage cheese.


I hope this gave you some inspiration in your own meal planning.  As for me, the farmer's market is tomorrow and I'm praying I can get a few more weeks of peaches in.  Even though I've eaten them practically every meal for a week, I still haven't had my fill to last me until next summer.

Black Bean Salad Farmer's Market Style

As a continuation of yesterday's post on Dinner from the Farmer's Market, I thought I'd share with you this lovely lunch made with the vegetables from my farmer's market haul, sardine sandwich on toasted ciabatta topped with slices of fresh heirloom tomatoes seasoned with homemade lavender salt, with black bean salad on the side.  I felt like an Italian grandfather eating this dish, and I was sure to brush my teeth vigorously after it, but it was so soul-satisfyingly good.  

To make the sandwich, I halved and toasted a section of ciabatta bread, opened a tin of sardines packed in water, drained them, added a little mayo and smashed it up.  I smeared the sardines onto the bread and topped with tomatoes and salt.  One tin of sardines made one hearty serving.  On the side, I had this little salad.  The leftovers of it kept for days and kept getting better and better.  Enjoy.

Black Bean Salad Farmer's Market Style by Joie de vivre

Salad Ingredients:

1 15 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed

kernels of corn from 3 ears of corn, cooked and cooled

1/2 bulb fennel, chopped somewhat finely

1 red pepper (choose your level of heat) chopped 

1 medium sized red onion, chopped finely

1/3 c. finely chopped cilantro

Dressing:

1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil

1/4 c. lime juice (I just used bottled)

1 garlic clove, minced

Pinch of ground cumin

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1.  Combine all of salad ingredients in a large bowl.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours to allow the flavors to meld.

2.  One hour before serving, combine all of the dressing ingredients in a small bowl and whisk together.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

3.  Before serving, combine the dressing with the salad and stir together.  Salad gets even better the next day.