Velvety Carrot & Cilantro Soup
Velvety Carrot & Cilantro Soup
American Vinegar Works
4
Velvety Carrot & Cilantro Soup
This soup is so velvety you would bet is full of cream or butter. Zero. Just a whole lot of root vegetables coming together for a velvety soup that is easy to make, inexpensive, and wonderfully comforting. To get the velvetiest of finishes and emulsify all of the ingredients you will need access to a strong a blender like a Vitamix or an equally powerful emersion blender.
This soup can easily be made purely vegetarian or vegan and, for those that have an aversion you can skip the cilantro all together as this is the final step to the soup. If you can find them, using purslane leaves instead of cilantro adds both a nice flavor and a unique texture.
This soup features our California Olive Oil and American Barrel California Sherry or Rose Wine Vinegar.
Ingredients
- 1/3 Cup AVW CA Organic Olive Oil
- 3 leeks; top removed, cleaned, and white portion cut into quarter inch rounds
- 2 lbs of carrots peeled and roughly cut into 2 inch pieces
- 1 russet potato, peeled and roughly cut into cubes
- 1 celery root, peeled and roughly cut into cubes
- 2 teaspoons of fish sauce (to keep it vegetarian use Koji or white miso and increase to two tablespoons)
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
- 4 cups of chicken (or vegetable) stock, —this produces a thick/creamy soup. Add more later if you want to thin it out post blending
- 3 tablespoons of Rose Wine Vinegar or Sherry Wine Vinegar, ; 2 at cooking, one at finishing
- One bunch of cilantro, —only the leaves plucked from the stems
- Salt to taste, —go light to start, especially if your stock has salt or you are using miso
Directions
Use a large stock pot or a pressure cooker
Prepare leeks by discarding green tops and root. Then carefully wash and cut in rounds the white portion of the leek
Add AVW olive oil to warm pot
Add leek rounds to pot and let them cook for 4 to 5 minutes stirring occasionally
Add all of the prepared and chopped vegetables – carrots, celery root, potato, garlic – to the pot. Do NOT add the cilantro
Add stock, fish sauce and TWO tablespoons of vinegar to the pot. Retain one tablespoon of vinegar for later in the cooking process
Add a smaller amount of salt—you can adjust later
Cook vegetables on medium high until the potatoes are fully cooked (check with a fork)
While the vegetables cook pluck all the leaves from a large cilantro bunch. It will look like a lot but that’s what we are going for.
Blend the vegetables and stock fully. This may take two batches in a Vitamix blender or use a powerful emersion blender in the cooking pot
Return the blended soup to the pot. Add more stock if you want to adjust the consistency of the soup.
Add final tablespoon of vinegar, stir and add more salt if needed
Add cilantro leaves to pot and cook on low for 3 to 4 minutes so that they cook slightly and blend into the soup flavor
Serve immediately or save for later. Toasted butter bread is a nice side for this soup (or practically anything else…)
