Sichuan Carrot Soup

Ever since I had it at the now defunct Sunroom spin-off (the one formerly on Odana), I've been wanting to attempt a Sichuan carrot soup. And now I've done it! ;) This version from The Art of Doing Stuff is a pretty decent version. I included the directions for making it on the stove top, but I did it in the crockpot. Let's see. I left out the sugar, as per usual, and I at least doubled, if not tripled, the red pepper flakes. It is afterall Sichuan, so it should be on the the kick-your-ass end of the spicy spectrum. I may not have added the milk at all, and if I did, it would've been plain almond milk. I also threw in some leftover roasted chicken. I pureed it with a stick blender, but I kept a few of the carrot chunks since I'm not a huge fan of completely pureed soups.

Ingredients

2 stalks celery

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tsp vegetable oil

1 lb carrots, cut 1″ (or baby carrots uncut)

1/2″ piece of fresh ginger (peeled & sliced)

1/4 tsp pepper flakes

3 cups chicken broth

1 1/2 Tbsps soy sauce

1/2 Tbsp peanut butter

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp sesame oil (I use toasted)

1 cup milk

Directions

Chop up your onions, celery and garlic. Cook the onion, celery and garlic in oil until the onion is softened. Meanwhile…Grab yourself a fresh hunk of ginger. About 1/2 an inch is good for me, but you can add more (if you’re crazy like that) or less (if you’re crazy like that). Peel your knob of ginger, then slice it thinly. The easiest way to peel ginger, is to just scrape the skin off with a spoon. Add the sliced ginger to the softened onions along with …… about 1/4 tsp of red pepper flakes. More if you like it hot, less if you don’t. Are you sensing a pattern here?

Measure out 3 cups of chicken broth. It’s probably right about here where you think … but karen … i thought you made all your own stock. that stuff looks almost as if it’s coming out of a box. Yes, um, well … if I’m running low I save the good stuff for gravies and sauces. The stuff in the box is organic if that makes you judge me less. Dirty old judgers. Add the broth to the pot which now includes onion, celery, garlic, ginger, pepper flakes and TA-DA … the star of the show, carrots!

Cover the pot and simmer until the carrots are as tender as, um … something very tender. Silly Putty! Would that do? Simmer until they’re as tender as Silly Putty. Jeez … I’m really off today, aren’t I? About 30 minutes.

Remove pot from heat. Add the remaining ingredients to the pot. Soy Sauce, Peanut Butter, Sugar, Sesame Oil and Milk. Keep a close eye on your almost finished soup while you look for your blender. This is very important.

Blend the soup with either an immersion or regular blender. Rewarm the soup on the stove if necessary, but be careful not to boil it ’cause of the milk.

Garnish with a big dollop of sour cream! I forgot about the sour cream and I’m still angry about it. As with any recipe feel free to change things up a bit, adding more or less of this and that. And if, by chance, something VERY exciting happens to you while making or eating this soup, let me know. Evidently I’m in need of a really good Szechwan Carrot Soup story.