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.