10. ZOMG Potage Crécy

It is ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous, that anything this simple could taste this good.

This is apparently the second in a series of Monday night soups--soups that can be prepared at a late hour (though tonight's 10:00 was rather easier than last week's 1:15), feed plenty of people and deliver rich, punchy, unapologetic flavor.

And you get to say "Potage Crécy" instead of "carrot soup." Fancy-freakin-pants.

I was inspired to make this soup by recipes from two cookbooks: Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book (which deserves its own post or two) and Vegan with a Vengeance. But I made it with no book before me, and hence it is more or less my own.

Potage Crécy
Serves six

2 Tbsp butter
One medium onion, chopped
5 medium carrots, peeled and roughly chopped (really, size/shape don't much matter here)
1 smallish potato, peeled and diced
2 Tbsp rice
4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 cup half-and-half (or, better yet, heavy cream)
1/4 cup sour cream
1 Tbsp flour
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill

Heat butter in a soup pot; add onion and saute until translucent and beginning to brown, 5 to 7 minutes. Add carrots, potato and rice; cook, stirring, for one minute.

Add broth; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 15 to 20 minutes, or until carrot and potato are meltingly tender.

With a slotted spoon, remove solids to a blender or food processor. Add a cup or so of cooking liquid. Puree until fairly smooth. Return to pot.

Whisk together sour cream and flour until there is no visible powdery flour residue. Add salt, pepper, half-and-half and sour cream mixture to pot; whisk until smooth. Heat over very gentle flame until soup reaches serving temperature; do not boil. Stir in dill and serve.

Nutritional information, because I found a calculator online--this in no way means I'm going to start doing this regularly--and thought it would be fun: 122 calories per serving, 6.4 g fat, 137% of your vitamin A for the day.

We had this with toasted, buttered halves of cinnamon-raisin English muffins, which I grabbed at first because I couldn't find any bread and then thought made really an ideal complement. Raisins and carrots, man. One cannot successfully mess with success.

Comments

[Amy]

Wait, where does all that Vitamin A come from? I'm not allowed to have that much, so if I can cut something out, maybe it would work.

[Molly]

The carrots, fo' sho'. You could probably cut out one or two of the carrots and sub another small potato, though you'd lose the gorgeous orange color.

[April Anderton]

I saw you make this soup. :) How cool is that? Heh.

[Allpraxis]

Another winner!!! My modifications: kale, garlic, lemon juice, cayenne, and roasted sunflower seeds (pine nuts would have been better but I didn't have any).