Pureed Carrot Soup
serves four to six
NOTE: Use oil instead of butter when serving this soup
cold.
2 tablespoons unsalted butter or extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, 3 medium shallots, or 1 medium leek (white and light green parts only), chopped
1/4 cup dry sherry or white wine
11/2 pounds (about 8 medium) carrots, peeled, halved lengthwise, and sliced thin (about 4 cups)
2 cups Chicken Stock or low-sodium canned broth
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper, or more to taste
Pinch freshly grated nutmeg11/4-11/2 cups whole milk
2 teaspoons minced fresh tarragon, chives, or parsley leaves
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Heat butter or oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion; sauté until golden, about 5 minutes. Stir in sherry and carrots; cook until sherry evaporates, about 30 seconds.
2. Add stock, salt, pepper, and nutmeg to saucepan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer, cover, and cook until carrots are tender, 20 to 25 minutes.
3. Ladle carrot mixture into blender. Add 1 cup milk; blend until very smooth. Return soup to saucepan; cook over low heat until warmed through. If soup is too thick, stir in up to 1/2 cup more milk to thin consistency. Adjust seasonings. Serve hot, garnishing bowls with minced herb.
VARIATIONS:
Pureed Butternut Squash Soup with Ginger
Follow recipe for Puréed Carrot Soup, adding 1 tablespoon finely minced fresh gingerroot to onions after onions have sautéed for 4 minutes. Continue cooking for 1 minute. Replace carrots with 1 medium butternut squash (about 21/2 pounds), which has been halved, seeded, peeled, and cut into 1/2-inch cubes to yield 5 cups. Omit nutmeg and cook squash until tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Thin with 1 to 11/4 cups milk and garnish with minced chives or parsley.
Pureed Cauliflower Soup with Curry
Follow recipe for Puréed Carrot Soup, adding 11/2 teaspoons curry powder to onions after onions have sautéed for 4 minutes. Continue cooking for 1 minute. Replace carrots with 1 medium head cauliflower (about 2 pounds), stems discarded and florets cut into bite-sized pieces to yield 5 cups. Omit nutmeg and cook cauliflower until tender, about 15 minutes. Thin with 3/4 to 1 cup milk and garnish with minced chives or parsley.
SOUPS WITH GREEN VEGETABLES
Soups made with green vegetables behave quite differently from other pureed vegetable soups. Some green vegetables, such asparagus, are not starchy enough to create a thick texture when pureed. They need help from flour and/or cream. Loss of color is another key issue that affects all soups made with green vegetables.
Our goal was to develop pureed green vegetable soups with bright color and strong flavor. The color issue was fairly easy to solve. Green vegetables should not be simmered too long in soup. This means cutting the vegetables into small pieces so they cook quickly. Also, it is best to serve creamy green vegetable soups as soon as they are ready. Reheating is not kind to these soups, which are prone to turning a drab olive green.
The more problematic issue is flavor. As we found in earlier tests with carrots, flour and cream have a dulling effect on vegetable flavor. However, while carrots are sturdy enough to create a thick soup without either flour or cream, green vegetables are too watery. We tried to get around using flour and cream but were disappointed with the results. While soups made with starchy vegetables can become dull when thickened with these ingredients, pureed green vegetable soups are thin unless flour and cream are used. Our mission was clear: improve and enhance the vegetable flavor despite the need to add flour and cream.
We found that keeping simmering times to a minimum helped to preserve the flavor of green vegetables. Puréeing or finely chopping them in the food processor improved the texture of the soup and cut cooking time to a matter of minutes. For instance, we discovered that processing partly frozen peas in the food processor and simmering them briefly in the soup released their starch and flavor quickly. Boston lettuce, a common component in many pea soup recipes, gave our soup a marvelous, almost frothy texture.
For broccoli, the key was to pulse the trimmed stems and florets in the food processor. When cut so finely, broccoli will become completely tender in just seven or eight minutes of cooking, before its strong-smelling compounds have had a chance to form.
Asparagus proved more troublesome. No matter what we tried, the flavor in soups simmered for only a short time was too mild. When we allowed the asparagus to cook for a longer time (more than 15 minutes), the flavor was better, but the color was army green. We tried broiling the asparagus, hoping that this method would boost its flavor and help to break down its stringy texture. Broiled asparagus remained bright green and contributed much more flavor to the soup, but the texture was still too stringy.
We tried pureeing chopped raw asparagus before adding it to the soup, and this greatly improved the texture. Unfortunately, the flavor of this soup paled in comparison with the soup made with broiled asparagus. The solution was simple: puree half of the asparagus for smooth texture and broil the other half for strong flavor. We found the results to be admirable; although the finished texture is not perfectly smooth—even after straining—the flavor and color are lovely.