Carrot Soup

A rich and creamy carrot soup for cold nights.

Using freshly harvested carrots and sweet potatoes, even better if they came from your own garden, this is a wonderful dish that is easy to make and loaded with vitamin A. It is unique because a straight forward puréed soup that does not require other ingredients to give it additional texture is unusual in Portuguese cooking.

Ingredients

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 small onion, coarsely chopped

1 very ripe tomato, peeled, and coarsely chopped

1 clove garlic, left whole

 500g carrots, peeled, and coarsely chopped

1 sweet potato (250g), peeled & chopped

1 peeled and roughly chopped turnip

1litre of water

1 teaspoon salt or to taste

1/8 teaspoon white pepper

 

Method

1. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a big pan over medium-high heat. Add and sauté the onion until a light brown. Stir in the tomato and garlic. Reduce the heat to a simmer. Cover and continue cooking until the tomato is soft and partially dissolved, about 15 minutes.

2. Add the carrots, sweet potato, and turnip. Pour in the water, cover, and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the vegetables are very tender, about 30 to 40 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and purée the soup.

3. Stir in the remaining oil and season with salt and pepper. Bring the soup back to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 2 more minutes, and serve with lots of crusty bread.

Additional Notes

Note: Regular white potatoes are typically used for this soup but it tastes better with sweet potato.

Variation: For a change in colour and texture, in step 3 add 200g fresh spinach, coarsely chopped or even chopped fresh green beans. Simmer for 5 minutes until vegetables are just tender