Chilled Carrot Soup

Weather and nature is often the mother of invention. I have generally shied away from cold soups, just for some unknown reason. Well, the NYT magazine last Sunday has a nice piece about a teenager who had launched her own CSA and a nice recipe for pink beet borcht. A nice and spicy departure from the classic recipe. This week, we ended up with 25-30 carrots in our yard, I had to adapt the recipe for carrots. Instinctively I felt that the sweet taste of the carrots would be a good substitute. I also made an interesting carrot salad that I shall post about. The carrot soup also ended up turning pale orange, I color that facinated by better half. I have to confess, this time of the year, I end up with so many fun recipes, I sometimes lose them because I do not have time to blog them. This soup actually would be nice and refreshing in the morning as well.

Chilled Carrot Soup

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Chilling Time: 3-4 hours (note this soup improves significantly in flavor the following day)
Makes 4 servings

Ingredients

2 tablespoon olive oil
1 red onion, coarsely chopped
2-3 pods of garlic, grated
1 teaspoon of freshly grated ginger
10 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon red chili powder
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
2 cups of water
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 cup of drained low fat yogurt
1-2 teaspoons chopped cilantro

Method of Preparation

1. Heat the oil and add the onion, garlic and ginger and saute for about 3-4 minutes until the mixture is soft and very fragrant. Note, I do this in the base of a small pressure cooker.
2. Add in the carrots, salt, red chili powder, coriander seeds, black pepercorns, bay leaves, vinegar and water and cook under pressure for about 7 minutes.
3. Cool and remove the lid of the cooker. Discard the bay leaves.
4. Puree the mixture in a blender with the yogurt until smooth.
5. Chill for a couple of hours or overnight.
6. Serve with the cilantro.