Smokey carrot, potato, onion soup

I literally just finished a bowl of this stuff and had to make sure I wrote down the recipe.

This soup is healthy thanks to the carrots, onion, herbs and spices, the white potatoes and bacon pull it down a little on the healthy chart, but the white potatoes give the soup a creaminess usually gotten from dairy. If you’re using organic, (or small farm) local, free-roaming, no-nitrate bacon you deserve a few more points. Good news is you only use 4 slices of bacon to serve about 6 people, totally worth it in my book.

You’ll need:

  • 1 Large Spanish onion, chopped
  • 2 Medium-sized white baking potatoes
  • 8 medium to large carrots
  • 4 slices bacon cooked crisp
  • 1 Bay leaf
  • A pinch of Bouquet Garni
  • 2 pinches Celtic sea salt
  • a pinch of paprika

And this is what you do with it:

  1. Take the onion, chop it up and put it in a small put. Add a pat of butter and about a tablespoon of water and let cook on medium-low heat for at least 30 minutes. Stir it once in a while, but you want to let it cook slowly. Once it’s done, set aside.
  2. Take a medium sized pot and add enough water to be able to cover the carrots and potatoes.
  3. Peel and chop the carrots and potatoes and put in the pot, along with a bay leaf, the bouquet garni, a pinch of sea salt, the paprika and some red pepper of your choice. (I used Szechwan dried peppers and left them intact, but a dash of cayenne would be good too.)
  4. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.
  5. Take out a skillet and make the bacon, get it nice and crisp. Set aside.
  6. When the potatoes and carrots are done (they should fall apart when poked with a fork), remove the bay leaf and peppercorns and blend until smooth. Add a little water if you like.
  7. Add the onions and blend a little more, check your seasonings, I had to add a little more sea salt.
  8. Chop up the bacon really well and add it to the soup.
  9. Put the soup back on a low flame and let sit for at least 10 minutes, you don’t want it to bubble, just hang out below simmering. A half hour would be better, but I couldn’t wait any longer.

This soup cost less than $10 and it made about 6 portions. Good luck on having leftovers, we can’t seem to leave it alone long enough to cool. Serve as a first course or on it’s own with a good, crusty, rugged bread and some cultured butter, you don’t really need much more.

Leave a Reply

Trackback URI | Comments RSS