While grocery shopping yesterday I scored a five pound bag of fresh organic carrots for $1.49 at Stanley’s, my favorite neighborhood produce market. I knew they would make for a delicious batch of homemade carrot soup, so I happily scooped up a bag. I am always on the look out for last minute inspiration while grocery shopping. Even though carrots weren’t on my list, I knew I could whip up something fabulous with this buy.

Here’s my recipe for a very easy carrot soup. Since the soup will be blended, there is no need to carefully chop the vegetables into pretty and even sizes. This is a good basic recipe to know because you can easily swap in whatever you find at the grocery store – instead of carrots try asparagus or broccoli or a mixture of spinach and kale. This recipe makes about 8 servings and cost me about 20 minutes and less than $7.00 to make.

Ingredients:
5 lbs organic carrots, peeled and chopped
2 medium potatoes, chopped (you can remove the skin, but I think it only adds to the soup so leave it on!)
2 quarts chicken broth
1 cup water
1/2 stick butter (yes, it seems like a lot of butter, but this is the only fat in the recipe and it really serves to round out the taste)
2 small yellow onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
salt, pepper

Directions

In a large stock pot, bring the broth, carrots and potatoes to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes (or until vegetables are softened). Meanwhile, melt the butter in a medium saute pan. Add onions and garlic and cook until translucent, about 8-10 minutes. Add to broth mixture and turn off the heat.

Once the soup has cooled a bit, generously sprinkle in some fresh ground pepper. Now, blend it all together using either a blender or, as I prefer, an immersion blender right in the stock pot (which makes the process much neater).

Taste the puree and add in some salt or more pepper if necessary. I served this for lunch today with simple buttered Tuscan Pane toast and it was so hearty and satisfying. Bonus: this made for a great lunch for little Evelyn, too, so all three of us ate this healthy meal together!