30 November 2013

When I read soup recipes they are often full of cream and I try to avoid cooking with cream, wonderful unctuous stuff that it is, on account of its asthma inducing qualities.

So I was very pleased to figure out that if one includes a small quantity of rice in a soup that this gives a smooth textural quality to the soup, which if not exactly creamy, certainly comes somewhere near.

I am not anti-dairy, just this specific bit of dairy, namely fresh cream and milk. Fermented milks and creams seem to get round the asthma thing just fine. Hence my love of creme fraiche, and kefir and yoghurt and of course butter!

Carrot and Rice Soup –  a winter’s dish for someone who is under the weather made by someone who had an excess of carrots building up in the vegetable department.

• 10 medium sized carrots, peeled and sliced
• 1 medium onion, peeled and sliced
• 2 tbsp butter melted
• 600-900 ml vegetable stock (about a pint to a pint and a half) – I use Marigold reduced salt vegan stock powder
• salt
• pepper
• 3 tbsp rice (about 40 grams)
• 2 tbsps of lemon juice or Japanese Yuzu dressing (optional)
• Garnish with chopped parsley or other herbs

 Method

1. Peel and slice onion and carrots.
2. Sweat in melted butter over a low to medium heat till beginning to get soft but don’t let them brown if you can – about ten minutes.
3. Stir frequently and add a little water if you think the vegetables are catching on the bottom of the pan. It helps if you put the lid on as this keeps the steam in the pan.
4. Add the vegetable stock and rice and stir well, put the lid back on and cook for about twenty minutes.
5. I removed some of the vegetables at this point and then return them to the soup at the end as I like texture, but this is up to you. I take out about a halfpint jug’s worth of veggies.
6. Blend with a wand on in a food processor.
7. Add back the reserved vegetables if you did.
8. Season to taste with salt and pepper and reheat gently.
9. Garnish and serve with any good bread that you like.

I garnished our soup with chopped Mustard Red Frills, a lovely and easy to grow salad green which has little yellow flowers, and is a prolific self-seeder. It is still doing its thing in the garden, even at the end of November and I found some curly parsley that is hanging on in there.

I also added some Yuzu Japanese citrus dressing which brightens up the taste of the carrots, but you can of course use lemon juice – I only have this exotic sounding dressing because it waved at me one day in the supermarket…. Other options are to swirl a little thick yoghurt in at the end, or indeed a drool of  cream if that is the way you roll.

What soups do you make for comfort food? I like this one and I like pea and ham, leek and potato, and I am working up to making Chinese congee, but need to find some broken Thai rice I think….