Dark Days Carrot-Celeriac Soup

Mmmmm, it's finally time for me to transition into those warm, warming, thick, nourishing, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink soups! This week I had a friend come to visit from out of town and I did what any good host would do; I put her to work chopping carrots. We made a tasty soup that was very warming and fulfilling, and ended up having much more flavor the second day after the spices had had time to steep.



Ingredients:

BIG bag of carrots
One celeriac
a few stalks of celery
a couple inches of fresh ginger
one onion
cayenne pepper
cumin
curry powder
kelp strips
olive oil

The how-to:

Have your guest chop all the carrots into bite-sized pieces. When she thinks she's done, present her with an onion and some ginger to mince and slice, respectively.

Meanwhile, you put on a large pot of water with a kelp strip to boil. Then peel and chop the celeriac and add it with all of the chopped carrots into the water to boil. Chop the celery stalks.



In a cast iron pan, pour a few tablespoons of olive oil and put your guest to work sauteing the onions, ginger, and celery chunks while you expertly add the spices with pure intuition and no measurement. Our theme was "spicy."



When the onions look a little wilted and glassy, pour the saute mixture into the soup mixture and simmer for approximately an hour and a half. Then run all contents through a blender until you reach your desired consistency.

Serve hot, and garnish with kale chips.

Kale chips:

Chop several leaves of green and several leaves of red kale into two-inch pieces, removing the thick part of the stalks. Rub with olive oil and salt (or soy sauce if you have it, which I didn't).



Spread evenly on a cookie sheet and bake on convection setting at 300-325 degrees, turning/stirring once, for approximately 15 minutes or until nice and crispy.


Extra garnish:

If you can get local sunflower seeds, which we couldn't but decided to include anyway because they were only a tiny garnish to a completely local menu, saute them until brown in butter and add a bit of salt. Sprinkle onto soup. Yum!

Broth Bag:

I also started a "broth bag" with this project, which includes the ends and bits of all non-cucurbit and non-nightshade veggies. I will keep it in the freezer and, when it is overly full, I will simmer all these bits in water for a day to make a nice soup stock.