Carrot Soup and Tomato Basil Salad

Well, the daylight is fading. It’s been a fun summer of food blogging… I’m going to have to find a solution so I can keep taking pictures of food even when it’s dark by 5. Maybe we should have dinner at breakfast time. Or not.

Vegetable soups seem so simple and fuss-free, but we didn’t eat dinner till 7:30 last night… Worth waiting for though – this soup came out pretty good. One nice thing about soups is they usually taste even better for lunch the following day.

Carrot-Ginger Soup
Inspired by: Soup by Anne-Catherine Bley

1-1/2 lb carrots – farm-fresh if you can get ’em! – sliced
1 onion, finely chopped
1 T butter
2-inch piece ginger
1 tsp whole coriander seeds
a few seeds of star anise – I used a whole one and it was a little overpowering…

1/4 cup cream or half-n-half
Juice from 1/2 a lime or small lemon
1/2 t. sugar
Salt to taste

Melt the butter in a large saucepan and fry the onions until they are soft and golden-brown. Stir in the carrots and add 4 cups water and some salt.

Peel the ginger and cut it into thin slices. I put half the slices into a large mesh tea-ball with the coriander and anise, and submerged that in the soup pot. (You could use cheesecloth…) The other half of the ginger I crushed in my garlic press to extract the juice which I stirred into the soup just before blending it.

Bring the soup to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer 30-40 minutes or until the carrots are soft. Remove from the heat, stir in the ginger juice, and allow to cool slightly – I stirred in a handful of ice cubes to help with this. Working in two batches, blend the soup thoroughly until it’s very smooth. Pour it back in the pan. Stir in the cream. Add lime juice, sugar, and salt to taste.

Serve with a bit of extra cream on top – if you want to make a swirl, prettier than the one in my picture, use a spoon to lay it across the surface of the soup. Don’t do what I did and pour it from the carton!

We’ve been getting a few tomatoes a week from our garden. I love it! Fresh home-grown tomatoes are hard to beat.

Caprese salad

Butter lettuce, torn into bite-sized pieces
Fresh tomatoes… at least 1 good-sized tomato per serving, or a generous handful of cherry tomatoes works!
Bocconcini – you know, those little balls of fresh mozzarella.
Red onion, sliced
Garlic (optional)
Lots of fresh basil, chopped
Olive oil and balsamic vinegar – at least 1 tablespoon of each per person.
Salt and freshly-ground pepper

Put a handful of lettuce on each plate. Layer on the tomatoes, onion, and cheese. If you’re garlic lovers like us, crush a couple of cloves directly onto the salad. Sprinkle on the basil, drizzle with oil and vinegar, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Nice served with a crusty bread to sop up the extra juices.