Meatless Monday: Carrot Soup

In a previous post, I mentioned that we were starting to get a box of fresh fruits and veggies from a local farm once a week. So far, it's working out pretty well. Well, pretty well with one exception. Every week so far, in with all the other things in the box, has been a rather large bunch of carrots.

Now, don't get me wrong, carrots are great! Love 'em. Really. It's just that, well, it's been kind of difficult to get through the big bunch of them in one week's time before the next bunch is sitting there in the vegetable crisper drawer in the refrigerator taunting me - "Vhat vill you do vith me dis time, ehhh?" (Yes, my carrots have a very bad Russian/French-Canadian accident.) And, you know - lather-rinse-repeat - I don't want to make the same things with them over and over. Sure, they're great by themselves or with a dip as a snack or hors d'oeuvre, they're yummy shredded and sprinkled in salad, you know how much I love them in carrot cake (see post), and most of us know about their magic in mirepoix (a.k.a., the holy trinity), but, um, . . . yea, then what?

My recent culinary adventure with carrots involved this next recipe for soup, which my husband really loved. I'm happy to share it with you, but then I'm going to have to ask for a little quid pro quo. Seriously, we're talking LARGE bunches of carrots every week for three weeks straight, . . . and I suspect I'll see more come Tuesday. I need your suggestions for other great carrot recipes!

Carrot Soup
Recipe

The recipe author encourages you to play with the consistency until you're happy with it. We made ours pretty smooth and I would recommend that to you too. Why? Because it's great in a bread bowl that way, that's why! Mmm, bread bowls can make even the best soups that much better. I highly recommend. We picked up a couple of sourdough ones at Panera and were really happy with them. After cutting off the top of the little round loaf and coring out the middle, I toasted mine before filling it with soup. *Drool* So good.

The recipe also suggests you experiment with different finishing oils. That's a great idea (and a little evoo did taste good with ours), but I would also recommend adding a dash of vinegar to sharpen the soup flavors and balance it out a little better.


Got any favorite vegetarian or vegan recipes?? Please share!

Other Meatless Monday soup posts:

Pea Soup
Curried Lentil Soup
Tortellini, White, Bean & Spinach Soup

Other Meatless Monday posts

Meatless Monday: Spinach-Strawberry Salad with Goat Cheese Bruschetta

Last week, my husband and I picked up our first box of fresh fruits and veggies from Underwood Family Farms in Moorpark (CA) as part of a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program that we joined. Now, weekly, we'll be getting a mystery box of delicious, locally-grown produce that was harvested from the field just the day before. Let me tell you, I have not tasted such fresh fruits and veggies in a LONG time. Yum! Seriously, it's remarkable just how good everything has been. It's as if my taste buds had completely forgotten how fruits and veggies were really supposed to taste. And it was so fun to open the box not knowing what might be inside. (Of course, it will be a selection of what's in season every time, but it's still a surprise.) This week, it was spinach, purple cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, Easter radishes, leeks, Albion strawberries, romaine lettuce, and red leaf lettuce.

The box is bigger than it may appear here. You can only see one layer, but there's an entire other layer under there. In other words, it's a whole lot of fruit and veggies for only two people to get through in just one week! But we're up for the challenge. If anything, it should make it more likely that we get our daily recommended servings of fruits and veggies. And hopefully, it will also mean that we end up eating more fruits and veggies than meat, choosing healthier snacks, and making more really great recipes like this next one.


Spinach-Strawberry Salad with Goat Cheese Bruschetta
Recipe

This recipe was a great choice for us this week because it made use of two of our CSA box ingredients - spinach and strawberries - and also because . . . it calls for goat cheese! In an earlier post, I mentioned how much I love goat cheese, so it's not surprising that I've since posted a couple of recipes with goat cheese in them. What is surprising is that it's taken me so long to share this particular recipe containing goat cheese with you because it's one of my favorites. I was also surprised to realize that, since this regular Meatless Monday post started with its first post back in October, I haven't introduced even one leafy salad recipe (although there have been a few other types of salad recipe posts). So, in short, I'm overdue in sharing this with you and, for that, I apologize. (And I do feel the need to apologize - people, it's that good!)

Three notes about this recipe: 1) be very careful when toasting the almonds; if you don't watch closely, they'll burn before you can blink an eye; 2) use baby spinach if you can because it's more tender; and 3) did I mention this stuff is delicious? Even the salad dressing on its own is so good you might consider carrying a secret flask of it in an inside pocket, dabbing it behind your ears, writing it a love letter, . . . or, at the very least, using it on other sorts of salads too.

With the California Strawberry Festival just around the corner, I definitely see more of this salad in my immediate future. . . . That's right, Albion, I've got my eye on you!


Got any favorite vegetarian or vegan recipes?? Please share!

Other Meatless Monday posts