Carrot Soup

It has finally started to get cold here.  It even snowed for the first time since Halloween this weekend.  I have been on a bit of a soup kick and I like to have it for lunch since I spend most of the morning in my office typing in mittens.  I have been wanting to try a carrot soup for a while, but have never got around to it until last weekend.  Big Girls Small Kitchen posted up a recipe for Roasted Carrot Red Curry Soup and it sounded delicious and not too time consuming.   

I personally did not think the recipe had enough curry paste in it.  After I doubled the amount, I just keep tossing in teaspoons until I decided it was enough- I think I probably quadrupled it.  That was the only thing I really changed in the recipe.  It was a bit cool for my liking, so I would suggest warming it more before serving, or at least testing it before hand. I also have to keep stealing the neighbors blender/processor since mine broke and then I have to repay them in soup.  I might need to invest in an attachment for my Kitchenaid sooner than later...


Roasted Carrot Red Curry Soup
Makes 4 servings

• 1 pound carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces 
• 2 small red onions, quartered
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 inch ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 garlic cloves roughly chopped
• 1 to 2  tablespoons Thai red curry paste (some of you may want to start with less and do taste test as you go adding more. 
• 2 cups vegetable stock
• One 15-ounce can coconut milk 

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, toss carrot and onion with oil, sugar, and salt. 
3. Spread the veggies evenly on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Roast in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until browned and tender, stirring once halfway through.
4. Transfer the vegetables to a food processor or blender along with the ginger, 1 teaspoon curry paste, and the stock.  Blend until incorporated. 
5. Add coconut milk and blend until smooth. Taste for seasoning and add salt and additional curry paste if you like. 
6. Reheat and serve. 

Enjoy! 

Santa Fe Soup

I'll admit it, I'm not much of a cook. I like to cook but sometimes just can't be bothered to go to the trouble. I live in Brooklyn and have a tiny kitchen which I share with two other people. It makes it difficult to really spread out and enjoy the process of making a meal. Plus, I generally just cook for myself, which isn't all that fun to begin with. Well, then there's just laziness. My boyfriend, tired of all my cooking related excuses, recently bought me a crock pot. I like the idea of throwing a bunch of ingredients together and leaving it to cook on its own. There are limited dishes created and it doesn't require a lot of attention. Brilliant! 

What I love even more is opening a bunch of cans, dumping them in the slow cooker, and letting it all go to town while I enjoyed one of the last football Saturdays of the season! This soup is very much like a chili and is the perfect compliment to the increasingly chilly November weekends. I must give credit for the recipe to the lovely Hale Family. I lived with twins Jen and Sarah my last year at Auburn University and it was the center of many communal dinners at our house. Thanks, ladies!

Onions make me tear up terribly, so my boyfriend, Kurt, was kind enough to chop it for me. I will take credit for the rest of the grueling can and packaging opening though. Phew! Exhausting!

Isn't it beautiful?! My first real appliance! Thanks, Kurt!

The finished result. Pretty delicious if I do say so myself. It ended up a little spicier than I planned (I think due to a tangy can of tomatoes), so I garnished with lots of sour cream.

Santa Fe Soup Slow Cook Version

2 lb ground turkey or beef (I use turkey)

1 onion, chopped 

1 package Ranch dressing mix*

1 package taco seasoning mix

1 can black beans

1 can kidney beans

1 can pinto beans

1 can diced tomatoes with chilies (Rotel works well)

1 can tomato wedges

2 cans white corn (I used 1 bag of frozen corn)

some crushed garlic, to taste, very scientific

Add meat and onions to large crock pot. Sprinkle on the ranch dressing and taco seasoning so it coats the meat. Dump in all the remaining ingredients with juices from all. Add one extra can of water. Set the crock pot on high and let cook for 4 or 5 hours until meat is cooked through. Garnish with shredded cheese, sour cream, and green onions. Enjoy!

*I feel that powdered Ranch dressing is a suburban specialty because I can never find it in New York City. Instead, this time I used a powdered onion soup mix. It seemed to work fine but I think the Ranch gives it something extra special.

xoxo

Melissa

One Potato, Two Potato

So two weekends ago I was going through my recipes and picked out Loaded Potato Soup as something to make that weekend, but I didn't get around to making it until this Saturday.  I haven't had potato soup since I was in middle school (maybe high school?) at my best friends house.  I remember it was delicious with carrots and celery and ever since then I have meant to make it again and probably have three or four recipes.

From MyRecipes.com

This version is a take on the Load Potato Skins, another one of my favorite ways to have potatoes. I may have been short a piece of bacon and had a shallot to use instead of an onion and of course I was using whole milk.  I think that have the extra bacon and onion would have made it a bit more flavorful, but it was still good and it will stay good in the fridge of a few days.

Since a whole week had passed, I was at the farmers market again and saw sweet potatoes, which have become a new favorite of mine. So yummy, so many things to do with them.  A few weeks ago I came across this recipe for Sweet Potato Fries and have been thinking about making them. So I bought a few and as the guys at Simply Recipes says "These. Are. So. Addictive."

From Simply Recipes

I used just paprika and salt for the seasoning and baked them for a lot longer cause I was trying to get them crispy, which I failed at but they were still very tasty and completed my very potato dinner.  Does anyone have any ideas how to get them crispy?