Recipes From Our Members

Hi! We really enjoyed be honorary farmers this weekend. Thank you for the opportunity to see our food growing. Since we had a lot of carrots, we made carrot soup. You are probably familiar with this recipe, it comes from the Moosewood Cookbook by Molly Katzen. (I am not sure if it is totally the original, as I got it off the internet) I used it to make a soup that went over really well the adults here and OK with the kids.
Alicia L.

• 2 pounds peeled or scrubbed, chopped carrots
• 4 cups stock or water
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 medium potato, chopped (optional, for heartier soup)
• 3-4 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1-2 small cloves crushed garlic (I used more)
• 1/3 cup chopped cashews or almonds
• 1t minced ginger (I used more)
• Choose one: 1 cup milk, or 1 cup yogurt or buttermilk plus a little honey, 1/2 pint heavy cream, 3/4 cup sour cream
• 1/2 tsp each: cumin, ground fennel seed, allspice, dried mint

Place carrots, liquid and salt (and potato if you are using it) into a medium sized soup pot and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer it for 12-15 minutes. Let it cool to room temp. Saute the onion, garlic and nuts in the butter until the onions are clear. You can sprinkle in a little salt to help draw the moisture out of the onions. Towards the end of cooking, stir in the seasoning combo of your choice. Puree everything together in a blender until smooth (I deviate from her recipe at this stage. I dump the sauteed onions, garlic and nuts into the pot with the cooked carrots and use an immersion blender to puree. It saves dishes and energy). Whisk in one of the dairy products. As I mentioned in the beginning, I often leave this step out until I'm just about to eat a bowl of soup. I'll stir in a little milk, a spoonful of yogurt or some cottage cheese just before serving (and just after reheating, if I'm using the microwave).
Garnish with toasted nuts, some toasted bread crumbs or eat just as it is.