More Orange Food: Pureed Carrot Soup (aka Potage de Crecy)

I’ve noticed that most of the food so far has been orange, sorry about that. And now here’s a carrot soup, again from the NY Times Recipes for Health section. We were a tiny bit hung over today, and this seemed like a detoxifying kind of lunch. Yes, lunch. I’m doing penance for my lapse last week, so made not one but two new recipes today.

P.S.:
The wisdom of the internet provides this quote from the Twelve Months of Monastery Soups (by Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette):

"In France, the carrots grown in the vicinity of Crecy have the reputation as best and the tastiest in the whole country -- hence the name given to the soup. From France, the soup crossed the Channel into England, where it has become part of the national folklore. According to an old tradition dating back the the 14th century, loyal Britons should eat carrot soup or "potage de Crecy" on the anniversary (August 26, 1346) of the battle of Crecy, a legendary victory of the English over the French in the the Hundred Years' War."

Well, I've never eaten carrot soup on August 26, or heard of anyone doing so. But I run with a very disloyal crowd.

The Recipe: Pureed Carrot Soup

Here’s the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/health/nutrition/22recipehealth.html?em

Thoughts/Tips/Mistakes

Well, I went a bit overboard in my concern re salt (see below) and ended up with a soup that was OK, but… I made it with one quarter chicken stock, three quarters water, which according to the recipe could have been OK, but have to assume it lost some flavor as a result. Not sure what I could have done to it, apart from using more salt and sugar; one could add other things like curry powder, etc., but the whole point of the soup is that it's just carroty. Any suggestions?

But it looked pretty, and tasted nice enough.

We stirred about a teaspoon of crème fraiche into each bowl.

Pix


A lot of carrots.














The soup.