Carrot Soup and a Big Shiny Spoon

The first whiff of fall on the breeze sends me running for a cozy sweater and soup spoon. Leg warmers and tea kettles more your thing? A hand-knit scarf and a casserole dish? Sure. Fine. I prefer a hot bowl of homemade soup and a hunk of crusty bread. Throw some cheese on that plate and you've got yourself a meal. Well, I should say, I've got myself a meal. You might still be waiting for that casserole to heat through.

Time for the recipe. This carrot soup is sweet and rich, the drizzle of balsamic vinegar actually highlights the sweetness of the carrots and momentarily confuses your mouth, to a happy effect (the Japanese call it "umami"). At the time I made the soup I happened to have some oven-dried roma tomatoes on hand. If you lack said tomatoes you could use rehydrated sun-dried tomatoes, just use a few less and make sure they are well-blended. Or you could make a batch of oven-dried tomatoes (recipe below). Its really simple and you won't mind having a few left over!

Balsamic-Carrot Soup with Oven-Dried Tomatoes

1 1/2 pounds carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks
4-5 cloves garlic, peeled
6 cups vegetable broth
10-12 oven-dried tomatoes, more for garnish if you wanna be all fancy
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400. Drizzle garlic cloves with olive oil and wrap tightly in foil, put in the oven to roast until soft (about 10 -15 min). Meanwhile, toss carrots in 1 Tbs vinegar and 1-2 tsp olive oil, place on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet and put in the oven alongside the garlic packet. Roast carrots 15 minutes, or until they are starting to brown on the edges. (The vinegar will burn a little but don't be alarmed, that's why you lined the baking sheet with foil)
2. While the carrots and garlic are roasting bring the broth to a simmer in a large stock pot. Once the carrots have browned, carefully slide them (along with any browned bits you can scrape up) off the pan and into simmering broth. Do the same with the garlic and the oil it roasted in. Continue to simmer until the carrots are soft when pierced with a fork (about 25 minutes).
3. Time for blending. Using a measuring cup, place 2 cups carrots into a blender along with 4-5 tomatoes, 2 tsp. balsamic vinegar, and about 1/2 cup broth. Puree on low speed until smooth (you may need to add a little extra broth to achieve the desired consistency). Pour pureed soup into a medium sauce pan. Repeat this step until all the carrots have been pureed. Taste for seasoning. You may end up with 1/2 - 1 cup of left over broth, but you don't want your soup to be too thin, so just save the extra broth and use it later in the week or freeze it for the next time you make soup.
4. To serve, ladle soup into bowls, top with an oven-dried tomato, and drizzle with balsamic vinegar, using a butter knife or toothpick to pull the vinegar through the surface of the soup and create pretty swirly patterns, if that's your thing. Another nice touch is to heat the bowls before you fill them with soup by filling them with super-hot water. Just don't forget to empty them before you ladle in the soup!

Oven-Dried Tomatoes

roma tomatoes
garlic, thinly sliced
fresh thyme leaves
olive oil
salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Slice tomatoes in half lengthwise. Place on an oiled, rimmed baking sheet cut side up. Place a slice of garlic on each tomato half. Sprinkle with thyme leaves. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle liberally with salt and freshly ground pepper.
2. Bake for 4-5 hours at 200 degrees or until the tomatoes have shrunk to about 1/4 of their original size and the edges are crinkly. Once cooled, layer between wax paper in an air tight container.
*delicious on just about everything! with fresh mozzerella, in pasta, chopped and tossed with arugula and balsamic on crudite, smeared on bread, or just straight up!