Fresh Tomatoes at Borough Market, London

I love tomato soup, love, love, love it.  All kinds, all flavors, hot or cold, even from a can.  But it’s so easy to make it yourself.  I love to whip up a big pot, and stash away servings in the freezer to have on hand whenever the mood strikes.  In the winter months, I make it with good canned Italian tomatoes, but in the summer when local tomatoes are in abundance I go fresh all the way. 

But I get stuck sometimes – one big pot of soup, lots of servings stashed in the freezer, what flavor?  I may have a taste for tomato and dill now, but in a month, after a long day, when all I want to do is heat up some soup, will I be craving a more Italian flair?  So this idea came to me one day.  Make the simplest base for soup with rich, roasted fresh tomatoes, and then I can flavor it up as I’d like each time I heat up a bowl.

This recipe makes about 6 cups, which works great for me.  I freeze some 2 cup bags and a couple of 1 cup bags.  One cup is a great lunch or on the side with a sandwich, 2 cups makes dinner.  Feel completely free to double the recipe, but you may need to put the tomatoes on two baking sheets and rotate them in the oven.

Tomato Soup Base

This is a very simple soup base to keep in the freezer, then add the flavors that take your fancy.

6 large ripe red tomatoes

1 large yellow onion

1 large shallot

3 cloves of garlic

32 ounces rich chicken stock

Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Halve the tomatoes and scoop out the seeds.  Place the halves cut size up on a baking sheet (lining it with non-stick foil makes the whole thing easier), then drizzle with a little olive oil.  Roast the tomatoes until they are wrinkled and beginning to collapse in on themselves, 40 – 50 minutes depending on the size of your tomatoes.  A little black char on the skin is okay, but don’t let the tomatoes burn.

Meanwhile, dice the onion, shallots and garlic cloves.  Pour 2 – 3 Tablespoons of olive oil into a 5 quart stockpot or Dutch oven.  Add the onions and shallots and sauté over medium heat until soft and translucent, but not browned.  Add the garlic and sauté a few minutes more.  Remove from the heat until the tomatoes are roasted.

Remove the tomatoes from the oven and add to the pot with the onion mixture.  Put the pot back on high heat and break up the tomatoes with the back of a spoon.  Pour in the chicken stock and continue to break up the tomatoes.  Bring the soup to a boil, boil for 4 -5 minutes, then reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for a least half an hour.  During this time, use a stick blender to puree the soup base.  You can also simmer the soup, leave it to cool a bit then carefully puree in a blender in batches.

Taste the soup and season lightly with salt and pepper.  The point of this base is that you can add flavors as you please, so don’t go overboard on seasoning now.

Cool the soup completely, ladle into ziptop freezer bags in the portions you prefer (I usually do some one-portion and two-portion bags).  Freeze.

Makes 6 cups

Variations:

There is no end to how you use this base to make your favorite flavored tomato soup.  How much of the added ingredients you use will depend on how large a serving of soup you are making.  These directions are for 2 cups of base.

Italian Tomato Soup

Place the thawed soup base in a saucepan with another clove of finely chopped garlic, a handful of chopped basil leaves and a few Tablespoons of chopped fresh oregano. Bring the soup to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 10 – 15 minutes.  Season to taste

Fennel and Tomato Soup

Finely dice some fennel bulb and a little of the feathery fronds.  Saute over medium heat until soft.  Add a splash of pernod or white vermouth, then the thawed tomato soup base.   Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer.

Tomato Dill Soup with Vodka

Place the thawed soup base in a saucepan, then stir in a nice handful of chopped fresh dill.  Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes or so.  Stir in a splash of vodka, then season to taste.

Tomato Curry Soup

Saute the finely chopped white of a green onion in a little oil.  Sprinkle over curry powder to taste and stir until fragrant.  Add the thawed tomato soup base, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and stir in 2 Tablespoons coconut milk.  Heat through, and serve topped with shredded coconut, chopped cashews, chopped cilantro and chopped green onion tops.

I honed my squash cooking techniques years ago when I first started planning events for a living.  I had two wonderful clients planning a big, beautiful outdoor wedding for their daughter on their sprawling, picturesque property.  The father of the bride had an elaborate garden, raised, tiered beds all surrounded by a critter-proof cage.  Every time I came out to meet with my clients, the FOB sent me home with huge sacks of squash and zucchini from his garden.  I am not much of a gardener, but I do understand that well-tended squashes can produce like gangbusters in our climate and those who grow them are often looking for excuses to get rid of the bounty.  I’ll admit, at the time I found all this a bit of a burden.  I am not talking about one or two little squash.  I am talking about large paper grocery sacks overflowing with large zucchini and several varieties of yellow squash.  He was so sweet, and this was a big event to me, that I felt obligated to make use all that produce (I passed as much as I could off on my own family).  Basically, I am too polite to accept the gift, then not cook with it.  I took them a few loaves of zucchini bread, but by the look on the Mother of the Bride’s face, I could tell she’d her fill of that as well.  So that summer, between weddings and parties, it was all squash, all the time.

My favorite way to eat yellow squash has always been in a good, old-fashioned creamy casserole.  This is one of those dishes that people prefer “their way.”  You know, “I make my squash casserole with…” But here is my version.  I’ve added lots of fresh thyme, which grows beautifully in my small garden, mild Monterrey jack cheese and tangy sour cream.  The buttery cracker topping is an oldy but a goody.

Summer Squash Casserole

2 pounds yellow summer crookneck squash

1 sweet yellow onion, preferably Vidalia

2 Tablespoons butter

2 Tablespoons olive oil

8 ounces Monterrey jack cheese, grated

3 eggs

1 cup (8-ounce container) sour cream

1 bunch fresh thyme leaves

2 Tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

45 buttery round crackers, like Ritz, to make 2 cups crumbs

2 Tablespoons butter, melted

Wash and dry the squash and slice into rounds about ¼ inch thick.  You can use a mandoline, or the slicing disk on a food processor (then you can switch disks to grate the cheese).  Place the squash slices in a large sauté pan and add ¾ cup salted water.  Cook the squash, covered, over medium-high heat until the squash is just tender, about 5 minutes.  Drain the squash in the colander, shaking gently several times to remove as much water as possible.

Dice the onion.  Wipe out the sauté pan, then melt the butter with olive oil over medium heat.  Add the onions and cook slowly until soft and translucent, stirring frequently.  You want the onions to be glassy and soft, but not browned.  Transfer the drained squash to a large bowl and add the cooked onion, stirring gently to combine.  Leave to cool.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.   Spray a 2 quart baking dish with nonstick spray.

Strip the thyme leaves from the stems and finely chop.  In a small bowl, beat the eggs, add the sour cream and thyme leaves and stir until smooth.  Season with salt and a liberal amount of pepper. 

Drain any accumulated liquid from the squash and onions in the bowl and gently stir in ½ of the grated cheese.  Stir in the sour cream mixture to coat the squash.  Taste to see if you need anymore salt.  Scrape the squash into the prepared baking dish and smooth the top.  Sprinkle the remaining cheese evenly over the squash.

Place the crackers in a ziptop bag and crush very fine using a rolling pin or the heel of your hand.  Mix the crumbs, chopped parsley and melted butter in a small bowl and stir to combine.  Sprinkle the crumbs over the squash and spread out to evenly cover.

Cover the casserole loosely with foil and bake for 30 minutes, until it is golden brown, puffed and bubbling at the edges. Remove the foil in the last 10 minutes of baking to brown the crumbs. Serve immediately.

The unbaked casserole will keep covered in the fridge for up to a day.

Serves 6 – 8

I love community cookbooks. The great and broad recipe collections gathered together by Junior Leagues, Junior Auxiliaries, symphony groups, historic homes, garden clubs.  I have a large and ever-growing collection of these treasures.  Some of them are quite professional nowadays, with editors and trained photographers.  But I particularly love the old-school cookbooks, from the Forties, Fifties and Sixties.  Spiral-bound, ragged covers, hand-drawn illustrations and spelling mistakes. These to me are like a glimpse into the life and kitchens of the ladies of a community, how they fed their families and how they entertained.  Little added notes like “good for a ladies lunch” or “feeds a crowd” or my favorite “the menfolk will eat this up.”  Often, the recipes themselves lack detail or clear instructions – you can tell the person who submitted it just jotted down how she makes it, and it seems so second nature to her it doesn’t occur to explain in at any length.  I’ve gotten pretty good at teasing out these recipes. I’ve tried some over and over that just never worked and others, with a little help, are standards in my repertoire.  And isn’t it amazing how recipes seem to resonate around the world?  I have old cookbooks from Detroit, from New Jersey and all over this region and the same recipes keep popping up – with the same unusual ingredients and colorful names.

Of course, my favorite community cookbooks are the ones from the communities I feel connected too.  There are many great ones here in Memphis, and part of what I enjoy about these books is that they are familiar to so many friends and families.  How often have I been at a party and someone comments on a dish and the hostess says, “oh you know, it’s that recipe from Heart and Soul” with that assumption that everyone owns the cookbook.  Or asked a friend how she makes a dish and the answer is “I just use the recipe in Party Potpourri”.  Some recipes do transcend ownership of the actual book.  Everyone just knows a certain recipe and how it’s made – and can recognize it immediately when it’s served.  I love that.

One recipe that has always been in my consciousness is Fire and Ice Tomatoes.  How it got in my mind, I can’t imagine, because as I child I would never have eaten anything resembling a raw tomato.  The original recipe, to the best of my knowledge, is from The James K. Polk Cookbook, produced by the James K. Polk Memorial Auxiliary of Columbia, Tennessee in 1978.  Columbia is the town my mother grew up in, and President Polk had a home there that is now a historical site.  My aunt served on the committee that produced the wonderful Provisions and Politics: Recipes Honoring First Lady Sarah Childress Polk, a follow up to the original Polk cookbook published in 2003.  The book is a collection of new and fresh recipes, with a few old favorites thrown in.  When she started with the project, my first question was “it will include Fire and Ice Tomatoes, right?”  Both my mother and my aunt had no idea what I was talking about – they had to be reminded of the recipe.  So how it became a part of my recipe memory bank, I will never know.  But I do know that it is good.  And it’s the perfect weekend recipe – not that it takes a weekend to prepare, but once you’ve made it, it can sit in it’s container in the fridge to be served up and snacked on all weekend.  These make a great side to a grilled meal, a refreshing accompainemt to a lunch time sandwich, or an elegant first course salad.

Fire and Ice Tomatoes

The original recipe says these tomatoes will keep in the fridge up to 3 days, but I happily keep them up to five. 

6 large ripe, red tomatoes

1 yellow onion

1 green bell pepper

¾ cup white wine vinegar

¼ cup cold water

1 ½ teaspoons mustard seed

1 ½ teaspoons sugar

1 ½ teaspoons celery salt

½ teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Cut the tomatoes into eight wedges each and place in a 9 by 13 inch glass or ceramic dish.  Finely dice the onion and sprinkle over the tomatoes.  Core, seed and remove the ribs of the bell pepper and cut into thin strips (if the pepper is long, cut the strips in half).  Scatter the peppers over the tomatoes and onions.

In a saucepan, combine the vinegar, water, mustard seeds, sugar, celery salt, salt and peppers.  Bring to a boil, stirring, and boil for one minute.  Immediately pour the hot vinegar mixture over the tomatoes, then stir gently to combine. Leave the tomatoes to cool slightly, then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.  Leave to marinate for several hours, stirring occasionally.

Serve on its own as a salad or a side dish or atop some lettuce leaves.  You can pull out some of the tomato wedges and cut them into smaller pieces, stir in some of the dressing and vegetables and use this like a salsa as well.

Serves 6 to 8

Adapted from Provisions and Politics: Recipes Honoring Sarah Childress Polk

I know.  Frankly, it’s just fun to say.  Succotash.  I could go here with Sweet Summer Succotash Salad. Sunny Season Succotash Salad. Or the trite but amusing Sufferin’ Succotash Salad.  But more than being a pleasure to say, it’s a pleasure to eat. Crispy corn, creamy limas, crunchy bell pepper in a sweet-tart Vidalia dressing.  It screams summer.  And it looks like a big bowl of summer’s bounty. But you may be surprised to see that I use frozen vegetables here. Particularly after I waxed so poetic about fresh butter beans.  But I do think this is a perfect summer dish – because frozen vegetables are easy to prepare, and a quick zap in the microwave keeps the kitchen cool. And in the hot Southern summer, standing in a stuffy kitchen over pots of boiling water while everyone else is out having fun is the last thing anyone wants to do.  Now, I have done this with fresh vegetables – cook the beans in water until just crisp tender, cook the corn in boiling water until also crisp, then scrape the kernels off the cob.  But it takes quite a few cobs of corn to get a good amount for this salad.  If you have the patience and the air-conditioning to go for the fresh, by all means, knock yourself out.  

This salad is also a hostess’s dream. It’s beautiful in a big glass bowl, or charmingly rustic in a big mason jar, or scooped into small jars for individual servings.  Plus, with no mayo, this salad can sit out at your next buffet or barbecue with no worries, and it can be made ahead and is easily transportable to a picnic or a lake, beach or mountain house weekend.  And, it’s just so fun to say.

Succotash Salad

If you can find the vegetables packaged in ready-to-steam bags, go for it, cooking the vegetables for a few minutes less than the package instructions.  You want the veg crunchy not mushy.

16 ounces frozen baby lima beans

10 ounces frozen yellow corn

1 red bell pepper, finely diced

3 green onions, white and green parts, finely chopped

2 Tablespoons chopped Vidalia onion

2 Tablespoons cider vinegar

2 Tablespoons honey

1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/4 cup olive oil

Place the lima beans with about 1/3 cup of water in a microwave safe bowl.  Cover with microwave-safe plastic wrap.  Microwave on high for 3- 4 minutes, just until the beans are tender.  Drain off the water and dump the beans in a large mixing bowl.  Place the corn in the microwave bowl, cover and zap for 2 to 3 minutes, just until the corn is tender.  Drain any accumulated water and add to the beans.

Add the bell pepper and green onions to the bowl and toss to combine.

In a blender or a mini food processor, blend the onion, vinegar, honey and Dijon mustard until smooth. Drizzle in the oil and continue to blend until thoroughly combined.

 Pour the dressing over the vegetables and gently stir to coat.  The salad will keep in the fridge up to two days.

 Serves 8

I love Southern field peas or of all kinds. Crowders, lady, purple hulls, cream peas, black-eyed, pink-eyed, you name it.  And at the beginning of summer, when they show up at the farmer’s market in abundance, I grab them up. I stand around with all the kids, watching them shoot out of the big shelling machine, ready to scoop into paper bags to carry home. 

This recipe, in some ways, goes against everything I believe in.  Peas in a pot with pork.  But I figured I should try something different – even vegetarian.  Peppers and field peas go well together – I frequently throw one in the pot with the pork.  But simmering the fresh peas in a flavorful, peppery broth and stirring through the piquant puree creates a complex dish with enough flavor that you won’t even miss the pork.  I’m a little silly with the alliteration, but you can use any field pea here.

Pink-Eyed Pea Pepper Pot

If you are the spicy type, feel free to add more chile peppers to the broth, though you may want to remove the extras before pureeing.

1 red chile pepper

1 red bell pepper

1 medium sweet yellow onion

4 cloves garlic

½ teaspoon black peppercorns

2 pounds fresh pink-eyed peas

Red pepper hot sauce (I like Crystal Louisiana Hot Sauce)

Place 6 cups of water in a heavy pot.  Remove the stem and seeds from both peppers, cut into chunks and drop into the water.  Add the quartered onion, garlic cloves and peppercorns.  Bring the water to a boil, reduce the heat, cover and simmer for an hour.

Strain the broth, reserving the solids, and return the liquid to the pan.  Add the peas, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until the peas are tender, about 30 – 45  minutes. While the peas are simmering, place the reserved solids from the broth in a blender.  Add about ½ cup of the liquid with the peas and puree until smooth.  Push the puree through the strainer to remove any whole peppercorns and tough pepper skin.

When the peas are tender, drain off the cooking liquid.  Return the peas to the pot and stir in the pepper puree.  Liberally salt the peas to taste, and add a dash or two of hot sauce.  Heat to warm through.  Serve hot.

Serves 4- 6

Want some peas with pork? Check out Black-Eyed Peas for Luck and Southern Girl Butter Beans

Butter beans, lima beans, whatever you want to call them, good, fresh butter beans are a real treat.  When I start to see these fresh little green gems at the farmer’s market and produce stand, I load up on them.  And I love to cook them in the Southern manner – with pork.  Here I use bacon and add a simple, old-fashioned sauce.  These would be great alongside a pork chop (maybe even a fried pork chop) with some sweet potatoes and cornbread.  These are great in a big bowl with a slab of that cornbread hovering on the edge.  Truthfully, I usually make myself a big pot and eat off of it for a few days.  I say this recipe serves four, but that utterly depends on how you eat them – and your love for butter beans!

Southern Girl Butter Beans

For the Beans:

2 pounds fresh butter beans

3 strips bacon

1 half of an onion

1 clove garlic

½ – 1 teaspoon creole seasoning to taste (I prefer Tony Chachere’s)

For the Sauce:

2 Tablespoons butter

3 green onions (scallions), finely chopped

1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 cup cooking liquid from beans

¼ teaspoon paprika

Salt and black pepper to taste

Place the beans, bacon, onion half, garlic clove and seasoning in a heavy saucepan.  Add water just to cover the beans.  Bring to a boil and skim off any scum that rises.  Reduce the heat to a simmer and cover the pot.  Cook until the beans are tender, about thirty minutes.  When the beans are done, strain the beans, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.  Remove and discard the bacon, onion (which may have fallen into pieces – fish them all out) and garlic clove if you can find it.

Now make the sauce.  Wipe out the bean pot and melt the butter in it.  Add the green onions and sauté for a few minutes until soft, but do not brown.  Sprinkle over the flour and stir until smooth.  Slowly pour in the cooking liquid, whisking until the sauce is smooth and thickened.  Add the paprika and lots of pepper to taste.  Add the beans and stir to coat with the sauce.  Warm the beans through.  Season with salt to taste.

 Serves 4

A few years ago, in the hot, hot summer, we had a big storm that knocked out power for over two weeks.  They say it was a wind storm, but we all called it Hurricane Elvis.  As it was summer, many people were away on vacation, had vacations planned, or just left town during the power outage.  But I was a busy little event planner and had a wedding and a private event to plan and execute, so no leaving town for me.  I lived in my hot, hot house with no lights and no air conditioning for the duration.  My parents had two giant trees fall on their house, then breezily left for a planned trip overseas with the parting words “we expect the trees to be gone when we get back.”  So despite the catastrophe, I was a busy little bee.

As it happened, this was the first year I had planted a garden in my newly constructed raised beds.  I had carefully tended my tomato plants, and wouldn’t you know they all produced a bumper crop of gorgeous red tomatoes right during the storm. Now, I can only eat so many raw sliced tomatoes and I had way more than I could ever finish.  Everyone I knew had left town, so there was no one to share them with.  Under other circumstances, I would have made vats and vats of sauce and soup and frozen my bounty for the long winter.  My gas stove worked, but of course I had no refrigeration and it was just too darn hot to slave over the burners.  So the tomatoes wilted on the vine.  After that, I decided planting tomatoes just wasn’t worth it.

But this year, I have re-entered the wannabe gardener world.  My lettuce is magnificent, my radishes a triumph, and I am awaiting the zucchini.  And I have planted tomatoes.  I watch them carefully – one variety plant has already got some little green babies on it, the other plants are flowering.  So barring any natural disasters, I hope to have another grand crop.  But it is not here yet.  So in the meantime, I am using the ripe, red cherry variety for my tomato fix.  I find they are pretty tasty throughout the year, and pretty darn cute too.

Caprese Tart

I use a rectangular tart tin, but a round tin will work just as well. It may take more or less tomatoes.

1 sheet puff pastry, room temperature

45 round cherry tomatoes

1 ball fresh mozzarella cheese

2 bunches (about 1 ounce each) fresh basil

2 Tablespoons freshly grated parmesan cheese

2 Tablespoons pine nuts

1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese

1 egg

Salt and pepper to taste

Olive oil for drizzling

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Wash the tomatoes and pat them dry.  Using a small, sharp paring knife, gently cut out the core of each tomato, scraping the inside lightly to remove seeds.  I find a sturdy ¼ teaspoon measuring spoon helps with this job.  Be carefully not to cut through the flesh or squash the tomato.  You want to create a little cavity for the mozzarella to fit in.  Place each tomato cut side down on a few layers of paper towels to drain for 20 – 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, on a lightly floured surface, roll out the puff pastry to fit into a removable bottom 10 inch round or an 11 by 7 inch rectangular tin. Gently fit the pastry into the tin, using a small ball of pastry to press the dough into the corners and sides. Poke all over with the tines of fork

In a food processor (I like the mini one for this), pulse one bunch of basil leaves a few times until roughly chopped.  Add the parmesan and pine nuts and pulse a few more times to chop the nuts.  Add the ricotta and egg, a grind of pepper and a pinch of salt and process to a smooth paste, scraping down the sides of the bowl at least once.  Using a small offset spatula (or the back of a big spoon), spread the filling in an even layer over the bottom of the pastry.  Set aside.

Cut the mozzarella into small cubes to fit in the tomato cavities.  Lightly press on cube of mozzarella into each tomato. If some seeds or juice squish out of the tomatoes, carefully wipe it away.  Place the filled tomatoes in rows in the prepared tart, pressing lightly into the filling. Sprinkle pepper and salt lightly over the tomatoes.

Very gently brush the top of the tart with extra virgin olive oil and place in the oven.  While the tart is baking, cut about 6 of the remaining basil leaves into a chiffonade (Stack the leaves up, roll them like a cigar, then cut very thin ribbons with a sharp knife or scissors).  When the tart has been in the oven 15 minutes, remove it and sprinkle the basil over the top.  Return to the oven and cook a further 15 – 20 minutes until the tomatoes are shriveled and the mozzarella is melted.

Leave to cool for 15 minutes before slicing and serving.  Sprinkle additional basil chiffonade on top if desired.

Serves 6 – 8

I am still waiting for the bounty of spring vegetables to arrive.  It’s almost here, but has not fully taken over, and it’s a few more weeks to the opening of the Farmer’s Market.  So in the meantime, my need for something green leads me back to my favorite way of preparing that old standby, frozen peas.  Fresh mint, crispy, salty pancetta and creamy crème fraiche make this simple preparation as elegant as it is attractive.

Peas with Pancetta, Mint and Crème Fraiche

1 (16 – ounce) bag frozen peas

5 ounces pancetta

4 Tablespoons white wine or vermouth

4 sprigs fresh mint

2 cups chicken broth

7 ounces crème fraiche

sea salt

ground black pepper

Finely chop the mint leaves and set aside.  Dice the pancetta and drop in a sauté pan. Fry the pancetta until crispy.  Remove the pancetta to a paper towel to drain. Add the white wine to deglaze the pan, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.  Reduce the wine by half. Add the peas to the pan and pour in the chicken broth.  Sprinkle over half of the mint leaves.  Bring to a boil over medium heat and cook uncovered until the liquid is almost completely evaporated and the peas are nicely glazed.  (The peas can hold at this point, covered, for half an hour).

Stir in the crème fraiche and stir gently to coat the peas.  Warm through over medium-low heat.  Stir in the pancetta and remaining mint leaves.  Season with sea salt and ground black pepper

Serve immediately.

Serves 4

Spring is about to be bustin’ out all over, but the bounty of fresh seasonal vegetables isn’t quite here yet.  So give this underrated root vegetable a try, in a recipe proving once again that everything is better with bacon.  And this dish couldn’t be easier.

Bacon Glazed Parsnips

6 parsnips

6 strips of bacon

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Peel the parsnips and cut them in half lengthwise.  Place one layer of parsnip halves in a baking dish, around 8 x 8 inches.  Snip three strips of bacon into small pieces with scissors and sprinkle over the parsnips.  Layer over the remaining parsnip halves and sprinkle over the rest of the bacon pieces.  Pour hot water over the parsnips to just barely cover and place the dish in the oven.  Cook for three hours until the water has been absorbed by the parsnips and they are lightly glazed, and the bacon is crispy. 

Serves 6

In the many years I was planning events professionally, clients hosting lavish buffets, or even rather simple ones, always came around to that one question – “Shouldn’t we serve some kind of vegetable that’s, you know, healthy?” Not creamy spinach dip, or cheesy stuffed mushrooms, but something that would presumably appease the guest who didn’t want, well, food. Caterers were full of suggestions, but it always seemed to come back to the old stand-by – the crudités tray.  Cut vegetables surrounding a bowl of dip.  Easy – and cheap.  Some caterers made these vegetable trays absolute works of art, with a variety of veg in beautiful colors with a choice of fresh-made dips.  But the truth was invariably that this tray of food was never empty at the end of the event.  And we always cleaned up lots of plates with a stray carrot or broccoli floret in a puddle of dip sitting next to the crumpled up napkin.  People go through the buffet line and put some vegetables on their plate to look virtuous, but never actually eat them. And despite many efforts, it was virtually impossible to convince a client that this stab at virtue was unnecessary.  After a long night on my feet at an event, I never got to have any leftovers of the good stuff, but was always welcome to as much raw veg as I could carry.

And I am guilty of this behavior myself.  When entertaining at home, I’d plan a spectacular spread of rich and delicious foods, then right at the end feel guilty for not offering anything “light”, so outcome the pre-cut vegetables and fat-free yogurt based dip.  I even once put the crudités tray on my beautiful buffet, but thought it ruined the look that I had so carefully constructed and put it back in the fridge.  I, in fact, think that the success of the “baby” carrot (really just whole carrots cut to look like miniature versions) was built on buffet guilt.

So this recipe was born of an overabundance of baby carrots, left over after a pitiful attempt to healthify a party spread.  Roasting the carrots and using carrot juice make this an intensely flavored soup.  I actually prefer canned 100% carrot juice or the kind that comes in tetrapack boxes from the juice aisle at the store to the refrigerated variety, which I find a bit sweet and expensive.  If you can’t find any of these, low-sodium vegetable stock will work. You can, of course, use an equal weight of peeled whole carrots cut into chunks.

Roasted Carrot and Cumin Soup

Scatter a little chopped fresh cilantro over the soup if you’d like to add a dash of color. This is particularly good accompanied by toast slathered with cream cheese.

1 (16 ounce) bag baby carrots

1 large shallot, cut into wedges

1 Tablespoon olive oil

2 ¾ cup 100% carrot juice

1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt (or to taste)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Toss the carrots and the shallot in the olive oil and spread in one layer in a rimmed baking sheet.  Roast for 45 minutes to one hour, until the carrots are soft, wrinkled and browned in places and the shallot is lightly browned.

Transfer the carrots and shallots to a blender, and add half of the carrot juice, the spices and the salt.  Puree until smooth, scraping down the sides of the carafe if needed.  Add the remaining juice and puree until smooth and combined.

Pour the contents into a saucepan and heat over medium heat until warmed through.

Makes 2 large bowls or 4 small ones