My photo
Ontario, Canada
I am a wife, mother and grandma who enjoys the many aspects of homemaking. A variety of interests and hobbies combined with travel keep me active. They reflect the importance of family, friends, home and good food.
Cook ingredients that you are used to cooking by other techniques, such as fish, chicken, or hamburgers. In other words be comfortable with the ingredients you are using.
--Bobby Flay

For Your Information

Please watch this area for important information like updates, food recalls, polls, contests, coupons, and freebies.
  • [March 19, 2020] - Effective Mar 17, this blog will no longer accept advertising. The reason is very simple. If I like a product, I will promote it without compensation. If I don't like a product, I will have no problem saying so.
  • [March 17, 2020] - A return to blogging! Stay tuned for new tips, resources and all things food related.
  • [February 1, 2016] - An interesting report on why you should always choose organic tea verses non-organic: Toxic Tea (pdf format)
  • Sticky Post - Warning: 4ever Recap reusable canning lids. The reports are growing daily of these lids losing their seal during storage. Some have lost their entire season's worth of canning to these seal failures! [Update: 4ever Recap appears to be out of business.]

Popular Posts

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Creamy Carrot Soup

Homemade soups are nutritious, easy to make and very versatile. This is one area of cooking where your creativity can shine. Aside of not being laden with salt, sugar or preservatives homemade soups are far superior in flavour, in my opinion. An added bonus is homemade soup is generally considerably cheaper than store bought. I made creamy carrot soup so lets consider the cost.

If cream of carrot soup were available in the stores it would like cost 79¢ to $1.29 per 10 ounce can and since it would be more of a specialty soup somewhat like bean and bacon, it likely wouldn't go on sale. Cost per ounce would range from 7¢ to 9¢. My homemade version using fresh ingredients, purchased carrots and the more expensive cream came out to 4¢ per ounce. It would be less expensive if using carrots from your garden and omitting the cream.

Creamy Carrot Soup

Like all soups I make, I seldom use a recipe from another source. I prefer to create my own soups and record what and how I used ingredients in my cooking journal. That way if the dish was a hit, I can repeat or tweak as needed. The following recipe is a reflection of that. As always, use it as a starting point then add your own touches for something uniquely yours.

All cream soups start out with a vegetable(s), stock, seasonings but might not necessarily contain cream. Seasonings can include herbs, spices, aromatic vegetables. Creamy carrot soup is rich and creamy with a natural light sweetness. Garnished with sour cream and parsley, it makes for a nice presentation.

Creamy Carrot Soup
recipe by: Garden Gnome

3 lb carrots
4 c turkey stock
1 large onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 sprigs fresh thyme
3 tbsp butter
2 c milk
2 c heavy cream
kosher or sea salt to taste
fresh ground pepper to taste
sour cream
parsley, chopped
flour slurry (optional)

Prepare vegetables. Sauté onions until translucent and lightly caramelized in 2 tbsp of the butter in a large saucepan. Stir in carrots, celery, turkey stock and thyme sprigs. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer until carrots are soft. Remove from heat. Remove the thyme sprigs. Purée the mixture using a stick blender. Return to medium heat. Stir in milk, cream and remaining butter. When heated through stir in flour slurry if a thicker consistency is desired. Garnish with a dollop of sour cream and chopped parsley.

My Notes: The fat content in this soup can be reduced by using low fat or skim milk and eliminating the cream. If you do that, you will likely want to use the flour slurry to thicken the soup.


2 food lovers commented:

Anonymous said...

I'll think I'll make some carrot soup for my baby tomorrow! We have a bag of little carrots that I never know what to do with!

Garden Gnome said...

I do hope he or she enjoys the soup! I think with the natural sweetness it will appeal to babies.