Purple Carrot Soup

Purple Carrot Soup, Coconut Flour Cheddar Drop Biscuits, and  fresh Lemonade

So this past week in my Bountiful Basket I got a couple of purple carrots.  I don't know about you, but before they landed in my kitchen, I had no idea they even existed.  Naturally, I went to the web to help me figure out what to do with them.  Turns out you can use them for anything you would do with regular orange carrots, but I wanted to do something special with them since I've never seen them before!  Thus I found a recipe for Purple Carrot Soup courtesy of The Indolent Cook.

Purple Carrot Soup (makes 2 entree-sized serves)

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 medium French shallots
1 small clove garlic, finely chopped
1 cm fresh ginger, finely chopped
1/2 tablespoon fresh chopped rosemary leaves
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander seed
1 very large purple carrot
1 medium potato
1/2 cup water
2 cups vegetable stock
salt, black pepper, and balsamic vinegar to taste

- Heat up the olive oil in a saucepan and fry the shallots until they brown at the edges. Add in the garlic, ginger, rosemary and and ground coriander seed and fry until fragrant.
- Add carrot and potato pieces. Pour in the water and vegetable stock, bring to boil, then simmer, partially covered, for 30 minutes.
- Let it cool for 10 minutes and then puree in a blender in small batches. You may blend all of the mixture for a smooth soup or half of it for a semi-chunky soup.
- Return the soup mixture to the pot and continue to simmer for another 10 minutes.
- Season with salt, black pepper, and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar to taste.

*This makes a light, yet still deliciously comforting soup. For a rich, creamy, non-vegan version, add cream to the soup at the step where the pureed soup is returned to the pot. Or you can still keep it vegan, and use coconut cream instead. Either way, the soup should turn a pretty pastel purple, and taste quite luxurious!


My Notes:  I didn't have any French shallots on hand so just used 1/2 of a small onion.  Couldn't find any coriander seed either (seriously, must be the only spice I don't have!) so I just didn't use it.  I used a couple of purple carrots, two small potatoes, and chicken stock instead of vegetable.  I opted not to add cream as the soup was plenty creamy on its own.  Also only added balsamic to my dish - my husband and daughter don't love it the way I do.  As a note, the soup didn't need it.  It turned out delicious!   The fresh ginger and rosemary flavors were YUM!  Will definitely be making this again, with any color carrots I can find!

My Bountiful Basket also came with a plentiful supply of lemons, so what was I supposed to do besides make a pitcher of fresh lemonade?

Lemonade

6 lemons
6 cups cold water
1 cup sugar

-Juice the lemons to make approximately 1 cup of lemon juice (I got slightly more, which is good because I like a strong head-banging lemonade!).  In a pitcher combine the lemon juice, sugar, and water (I strained my lemon juice as I added it to catch any seeds/pulp).  Serve chilled, over ice garnished with fresh lemon slices.  Enjoy!

Finally, in my world no soup is complete without some kind of biscuit side dish.  I opted to try a recipe for coconut flour biscuits that Jessica found, and they did the trick!  Thanks to the Heavenly Homemakers for this one.


Coconut Flour Cheddar Drop Biscuits

¼ cup coconut oil or butter, melted
1/3 cup sifted coconut flour
4 eggs
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon onion powder
¼ teaspoon baking powder
½ cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Blend together eggs, coconut oil or butter, salt, and onion powder. Combine coconut flour with baking powder and whisk into batter until there are no lumps. Fold in cheese. Drop batter by the spoonful onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. For a cheesier biscuit increase cheese to ¾ cup.

This recipe makes about 10 biscuits.

My Notes:  I used coconut oil, and did add more cheese.  Also, I don't sift flour regardless of the recipe.  Sorry, just lazy.  They turned out awesome, although my 3 year old preferred them dipped in ketchup.  Oh well, to each his own.  Will definitely make again!