Recipe for carrot soup

This delicious and easy recipe for carrot soup is not only tasty and healthy, but everybody will just love it. Warning: this could turn you into a vegan…

Serves 6 in 1 hour 30 minutes, originally posted with permission by Ana Patuleia Ortins, 6th March 2006 (Soup / Portugal / Stove / No marination)

This "Sopa de Cenoura" is a Portuguese healthy carrot soup recipe: freshly harvested carrots make this a truly wonderful dish that is easy-to-make and is loaded with vitamin A. It’s perfect in the fall and especially as a first course dish for Thanksgiving.

For the Portuguese, the recipe is unique: because it is unusual to have a straight-forward puréed soup in Portuguese cooking that does not require other ingredients to give it additional texture. Although no cream is used, the creamy texture comes from all the different veggies and the potatoes.

This is one of the many delicious recipes from Guest Chef of the Month March : Ana Patuleia Ortins, famous chef and author of Portuguese Homestyle Cooking.

Healthy carrot soup ingredients

Completely vegan!

• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small onion, coarsely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, left whole
• 2 peeled, seeded, and coarsely chopped very-ripe big tomato
• 1 pound (460 gr) carrots, peeled, roughly chopped
• 1 medium white sweet potato, peeled and roughly chopped into 1-inch (2.5 cm) pieces (about 1 cup)
• 1 cup (80gr) peeled and roughly chopped yellow turnip (rutabaga)
• 4 cups (950 ml) water
• 1 tablespoon coarse salt or to taste
• 1/8 teaspoon white pepper

How to make carrot soup

1. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a 4-quart (3.7 l) stockpot over medium-high heat. Add and sauté the onion until lightly golden. Stir in the garlic and tomato. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover and continue cooking until the tomato is soft and partially dissolved, about 15 minutes.
2. Put in the carrots, sweet potato, and turnip. Pour in the water, cover, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer until the vegetables are very tender, about 30 to 40 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and purée the soup.
3. Stir in the remaining oil and season with salt and pepper. Bring the soup back to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 2 more minutes and serve.

Tips:

• For entertaining or special occasions, I steer away from tradition and dress this dish up with a drizzle of heavy cream.
• Variation: With step 3, add 3/4 pound fresh spinach, coarsely chopped. Simmer for 5 minutes until the spinach is just tender.
• For more Portuguese Recipes as easy to make as this recipe for carrot soup: CLICK HERE to buy the book "Portuguese Homestyle Cooking".