Minimal Monday: Wild Porcini Salt

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Chilled Carrot Soup with Scape-Pistachio Pesto {vegan}

Make this chilled carrot soup the night before, and you’ll be all set with a simple yet elegant weeknight meal. Swirl in an easy pesto made from garlic scapes and pistachios for extra flavor!

The other day I was helping pick out a menu for an event at work when one of the appetizer options caught my eye. Chilled carrot and yogurt soup with toasted cumin and almond oil drizzle definitely wouldn’t work for the event, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I grabbed a post-it and scribbled down the description so I could make something similar at home.

I made a few pretty big changes to my version – I didn’t want to spend a fortune on cumin seeds or almond oil, and since I’m still doing my month-long plant-based eating challenge yogurt was out of the question. Instead of the toasted cumin pods, I used roasted ground cumin, which is one of my favorite spices. I stirred in light coconut milk for creaminess – it’s sweetness is perfect with the earthy carrots. (Regular coconut milk will also work, I find that the light version blends easier.)

The soup was pretty good just like that, but I wanted to serve it as a main course and it needed something else to take it over the top. I swirled in some pesto that I made with garlic scapes from the farmer’s market (20 for $1 – get ‘em while you can!). Perfect.

This soup is really thick and filling and the flavors are intense – a little goes a long way so you only need about a cup of soup per person. With bread or another starchy side, it’s a great light meal. I served it with oven fries that I tossed with minced shallot, lemon zest, and parley and suggest that you do, too.

Chilled Carrot Soup with Scape-Pistachio Pesto

Author: Lauren Keating

Serves: 6

Ingredients

For the Soup:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 leek (white and pale green parts only), chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons roasted ground cumin
1 pound carrots, peeled and chopped (about 2.5 cups)
4 cups vegetable broth
1 cup light coconut milk (canned)

For the Pesto:

⅓ cup olive oil
5 garlic scapes, cut into 1-inch pieces
¼ cup raw pistachios
1 teaspoon nutritional yeast or vegan parmesan (optional)

Preparation

Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot set over medium heat. Add the leeks, garlic, and cumin. Cook, stirring occasionally, until soft – 5-7 minutes. Add the carrots and vegetable broth. Bring to a boil and cook until the carrots are soft – about 30 minutes.
Transfer the soup to a blender, working in batched if necessary, and blend until smooth. Chill at least two hours.
Just before serving, stir in the coconut milk. Swirl 1 teaspoon pesto (recipe follows) into each serving of soup.

To Make the Pesto:

Add the olive oil, garlic scapes, and pistachios to a blender. Blend until a paste forms. Add the nutritional yeast/parmesan is using and pulse 3 or 4 times to combine. Thin with additional olive oil if needed. (This recipe will make more pesto than you need for the soup.)

Nutrition Information

Calories: 175 Fat: 12.1 Carbohydrates: 12.9 Fiber: 2.4 Protein: 5.2

3.2.2708

(This post contains affiliate links)

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Pumpkin Ale Battered Onion Rings

I made these on a whim. Sometimes there’s no better explanation for a recipe than that, so I’m not going to try to flesh it out for the sake of a chatty post. I had a ginormous red onion, and I had a bottle of Pumpkin Ale. They got together. End of story.

It’s not necessary to use a red onion, I just happened to have one. And you don’t necessarily need pumpkin ale, either, you can substitute any beer you have around. I’ll admit, though, that I like the subtle spice notes in a good pumpkin ale. A couple of rounds of pumpkin ale and a big plate piled high with these onion rings and you have yourself an instant fall themed party.

Pumpkin Ale Battered Onion Rings

What You Will Need

Vegetable oil for frying
1 large or 2 medium red or yellow onions
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp onion salt
fresh cracked black pepper
1 12 oz bottle pumpkin ale
2 tsp hot sauce

Instructions

Pour the oil into a large pot to a depth of 3 or 4 inches. Heat over medium heat until it reaches 350F.
Peel the onion and slice it into 1/2 inch slices. Carefully separate the rings.
In a large bowl whisk the flour, onion salt, and lots of pepper. Stir in the beer until you have a thick batter, much like waffle batter. Stir in the hot sauce.
Working in batches, dip the rings in the batter and then shake off the excess before dropping them into the hot oil. Do a few at a time so you don’t crowd them or they will stick to each other. If your oil is at the proper temperature, they should fry to golden in a couple of minutes. Flip once or twice during the cooking process.
Drain on paper towels.
Serve right away or, if necessary, heat leftovers in a 350F oven for a few minutes. Set a rack over a baking sheet and lay the onions on it so they will re-crisp.

Notes

Add a little more flour if your batter seems to thin, or a little water if it seems too thick.

2.2

http://theviewfromgreatisland.com/2013/09/pumpkin-ale-battered-onion-rings.html

*Recipe from [The View from Great Island|http://theviewfromgreatisland.com] All images and content are copyright protected. If you want to use this recipe, please link back to this page.

One thing, don’t expect these rings to be picture perfect…they are definitely a little disheveled, and that’s part of their charm. I’m always wary of perfectly formed onion rings There should be globs of fried batter sticking out in random directions, cracks where the onion shows through, and lots of lumpy, messy bits.

Enjoy the weekend!