Love soup? You'll love this one! Carrot soup is versatile, nutritious, and good on a warm summer day or cool winter evening.
Since this ible is for the hungry scientist contest, itll have a healthy smattering of science in it. Bear with it, the science will help make you a better cook, and youll soon be improvising, making additions and substitutions, and eyeballing ingredients in no time.
By the by, I LOVE to cook, especially with a bunch of friends and a favorite beverage in hand. I recommend cooking this soup as part of a fall or winter meal with some friends; have them bring crusty bread, pungent cheese, and beverages.
Since this ible is for the hungry scientist contest, itll have a healthy smattering of science in it. Bear with it, the science will help make you a better cook, and youll soon be improvising, making additions and substitutions, and eyeballing ingredients in no time.
By the by, I LOVE to cook, especially with a bunch of friends and a favorite beverage in hand. I recommend cooking this soup as part of a fall or winter meal with some friends; have them bring crusty bread, pungent cheese, and beverages.
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Signing UpStep 1: Gathering your ingredients
1 lb organic carrots
1 large baking potato
6-8 medium shallots
6 cloves garlic
1 bunch basil
2 tbs butter
1 tsp sugar
several tsp salt
several tsp pepper
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp coriander
1-2 tsp thyme
1-4 tsp cyanne pepper OR several whole dried chilies
3/4 - 1 lb boneless skinless chicken brest
5 cups chicken stock
1 can coconut milk
1 cup heavy whipping cream
A few stale dinner rolls, or any bread you have lying around
So lets discuss some of the ingredients so you know what youre looking for. This step is ridiculously long, so you can skip all the stuff below if you want (except for the first part about carrots, its REALLY REALLY REALLY important!), but its there if you should have a question about an ingredient.
The veggies are the stars of the show, so spend a little money on them, youll still probably end up spending the same amount on all of them as you do on just the chicken and cream.
The carrots should be flavorful, so buy organic if you can. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES BUY BABY CARROTS!!!!!! Baby carrots have a much higher sugar content than mature carrots do, and your soup will end up tasting really sweet and gross. If you skimp and cut corners on every other step, make sure you dont ignore this one.
I know there are plenty of delicious potatoes out there, but we want a baking (russet) potato because of its grainy texture, which will add a full creamy texture to the soup when it is done. Waxy potatoes add flavor, but they dont puree as well. If you want to use a Yukon gold or some other type of waxy potato, make sure you also use a russet.
Shallots are more closely related to garlic than onions, so if you cant find any or prefer not to fuss with them, add one medium onion (something flavorful, I like sweet onions) and a few extra cloves of garlic. Elephant garlic is more closely related to shallots than garlic, so it can be directly substituted (note: Ive never tried this substitution, let me know what you think if you do!).
Garlic will make your kitchen smell flavorful and welcoming, so if nothing else use it to set the theres about to be a ton of great food mood for your guests. Any garlic will do, but some options are better than others. Some special pungent species of garlic you find at your local farmers market is the best, the pre-minced garlic is fine, and even the dry powdered stuff is perfectly acceptable.
The basil and coconut milk lend the soup a Thai theme. Dried basil will work, but the fresh stuff is best. If you can find Thai basil or some other special basil, go for it.
The sugar may seem like an odd ingredient considering my dire warning above about how baby carrots are too sweet for this soup. The recipe calls for browning all of your veggies first. The sugar helps to caramalize the veggies. Caramalizing involves cooking foods with high sugar contents down so you get lots of browning reactions going. Browning reactions (known as Maillard reactions to professional chefs and hungry scientists) are basically chemical reactions that take place when food is cooked on a high heat. They produce new flavor compounds that did not start in the original foods. A good example is the production of butterscotch flavor (from the compound diaciteal) when making beer (for the record, if youve made a beer that has a butterscotch flavor, youve done something wrong, the big beer companies will throw out hundreds of gallons of beer of they detect this flavor in their beer!), or hints of vanilla when caramelizing onions. Adding sugar to your veggies when you brown them will help the Millard reactions along and make your soup nice and flavorful! For more information about Maillard reactions, check out On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee. Its literally THE textbook for food science majors, and one of my favorite reference books ever.
The spices are to taste. Black pepper adds a nice kick to the soup, salt enhances the flavors in general. I defiantly recommend something spicy. Aside from contributing to the pseudo-Thai theme weve got going, it rounds out the body of the soup. If you are adverse to spice, consider adding one pepper from the store that isnt all that spicy (the produce guy/girl at your supermarket can help you find these). The chemical in peppers and chilies that makes them spicy is capseasen. Capseasen is housed in the seeds and white flesh of chilies and peppers, so if you dislike spice, consider using a poblano or Serrano and scooping the seeds and white flesh out. Be careful when you do this, the spice is contained in an oil that tends to stick to your skin, so wear rubber gloves, or wash your hands and use LOTS of soap, and avoid rubbing your eyes for a few hours. My personal spice preference is dried chipotles. They add a smokey flavor to the soup, and the ones I have a good and hot. Speaking of smoke, paprika is there for smoke, so if you dont have it, dont fret just leave it out if you dont care to go out and buy some.
The chicken breast can be anything you like. It can even be some other part of the chicken, I just find boneless skinless breasts the easiest to work with and keep moist.
For the coconut milk, I recommend the normal stuff, not the light stuff, but I understand a lot of people out there like to cook light. If you use the light stuff just be aware your soup will be a little less creamy, maybe add more potato or stale bread. The same goes for the heavy whipping cream. It will make your soup rich and creamy and fantastic, but if you dont want all of the calories, use less of it and add more bread, or substitute regular milk and more bread. If you are going to use skim milk just skip it all together. Milk has fat in it, and this fat will absorb the flavor of the soup (flavor compounds are fat soluble), so using too much cream will mute your flavors a bit. This isnt always a bad thing, it can help tame a pepper that ended up being too spicy or the garlic you accidently burned.
The chicken stock can be anything, but in my expierence Kroger brand stock sucks. The stock will add more flavor than you might think, but it will be subtle, so if you go cheap it wont be super apparent, but if you go expensive or home made it will defiantly come through in the yum factor. Low sodium stock is great because it gives you the option of salting the soup the way you like it (although I always end up using a lot of salt because of the cream and such anyway).
The bread may seem like a kooky idea. I admit its not mine, Cooks Illustrated has a recipe for creamy tomato soup that I stole it from. But hey, it works! The bread disintegrates and makes your soup more creamy. It doesnt have to be stale, but if you have half a loaf of French bread lying around, heres how you can get rid of it without tossing it out.
1 large baking potato
6-8 medium shallots
6 cloves garlic
1 bunch basil
2 tbs butter
1 tsp sugar
several tsp salt
several tsp pepper
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp coriander
1-2 tsp thyme
1-4 tsp cyanne pepper OR several whole dried chilies
3/4 - 1 lb boneless skinless chicken brest
5 cups chicken stock
1 can coconut milk
1 cup heavy whipping cream
A few stale dinner rolls, or any bread you have lying around
So lets discuss some of the ingredients so you know what youre looking for. This step is ridiculously long, so you can skip all the stuff below if you want (except for the first part about carrots, its REALLY REALLY REALLY important!), but its there if you should have a question about an ingredient.
The veggies are the stars of the show, so spend a little money on them, youll still probably end up spending the same amount on all of them as you do on just the chicken and cream.
The carrots should be flavorful, so buy organic if you can. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES BUY BABY CARROTS!!!!!! Baby carrots have a much higher sugar content than mature carrots do, and your soup will end up tasting really sweet and gross. If you skimp and cut corners on every other step, make sure you dont ignore this one.
I know there are plenty of delicious potatoes out there, but we want a baking (russet) potato because of its grainy texture, which will add a full creamy texture to the soup when it is done. Waxy potatoes add flavor, but they dont puree as well. If you want to use a Yukon gold or some other type of waxy potato, make sure you also use a russet.
Shallots are more closely related to garlic than onions, so if you cant find any or prefer not to fuss with them, add one medium onion (something flavorful, I like sweet onions) and a few extra cloves of garlic. Elephant garlic is more closely related to shallots than garlic, so it can be directly substituted (note: Ive never tried this substitution, let me know what you think if you do!).
Garlic will make your kitchen smell flavorful and welcoming, so if nothing else use it to set the theres about to be a ton of great food mood for your guests. Any garlic will do, but some options are better than others. Some special pungent species of garlic you find at your local farmers market is the best, the pre-minced garlic is fine, and even the dry powdered stuff is perfectly acceptable.
The basil and coconut milk lend the soup a Thai theme. Dried basil will work, but the fresh stuff is best. If you can find Thai basil or some other special basil, go for it.
The sugar may seem like an odd ingredient considering my dire warning above about how baby carrots are too sweet for this soup. The recipe calls for browning all of your veggies first. The sugar helps to caramalize the veggies. Caramalizing involves cooking foods with high sugar contents down so you get lots of browning reactions going. Browning reactions (known as Maillard reactions to professional chefs and hungry scientists) are basically chemical reactions that take place when food is cooked on a high heat. They produce new flavor compounds that did not start in the original foods. A good example is the production of butterscotch flavor (from the compound diaciteal) when making beer (for the record, if youve made a beer that has a butterscotch flavor, youve done something wrong, the big beer companies will throw out hundreds of gallons of beer of they detect this flavor in their beer!), or hints of vanilla when caramelizing onions. Adding sugar to your veggies when you brown them will help the Millard reactions along and make your soup nice and flavorful! For more information about Maillard reactions, check out On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee. Its literally THE textbook for food science majors, and one of my favorite reference books ever.
The spices are to taste. Black pepper adds a nice kick to the soup, salt enhances the flavors in general. I defiantly recommend something spicy. Aside from contributing to the pseudo-Thai theme weve got going, it rounds out the body of the soup. If you are adverse to spice, consider adding one pepper from the store that isnt all that spicy (the produce guy/girl at your supermarket can help you find these). The chemical in peppers and chilies that makes them spicy is capseasen. Capseasen is housed in the seeds and white flesh of chilies and peppers, so if you dislike spice, consider using a poblano or Serrano and scooping the seeds and white flesh out. Be careful when you do this, the spice is contained in an oil that tends to stick to your skin, so wear rubber gloves, or wash your hands and use LOTS of soap, and avoid rubbing your eyes for a few hours. My personal spice preference is dried chipotles. They add a smokey flavor to the soup, and the ones I have a good and hot. Speaking of smoke, paprika is there for smoke, so if you dont have it, dont fret just leave it out if you dont care to go out and buy some.
The chicken breast can be anything you like. It can even be some other part of the chicken, I just find boneless skinless breasts the easiest to work with and keep moist.
For the coconut milk, I recommend the normal stuff, not the light stuff, but I understand a lot of people out there like to cook light. If you use the light stuff just be aware your soup will be a little less creamy, maybe add more potato or stale bread. The same goes for the heavy whipping cream. It will make your soup rich and creamy and fantastic, but if you dont want all of the calories, use less of it and add more bread, or substitute regular milk and more bread. If you are going to use skim milk just skip it all together. Milk has fat in it, and this fat will absorb the flavor of the soup (flavor compounds are fat soluble), so using too much cream will mute your flavors a bit. This isnt always a bad thing, it can help tame a pepper that ended up being too spicy or the garlic you accidently burned.
The chicken stock can be anything, but in my expierence Kroger brand stock sucks. The stock will add more flavor than you might think, but it will be subtle, so if you go cheap it wont be super apparent, but if you go expensive or home made it will defiantly come through in the yum factor. Low sodium stock is great because it gives you the option of salting the soup the way you like it (although I always end up using a lot of salt because of the cream and such anyway).
The bread may seem like a kooky idea. I admit its not mine, Cooks Illustrated has a recipe for creamy tomato soup that I stole it from. But hey, it works! The bread disintegrates and makes your soup more creamy. It doesnt have to be stale, but if you have half a loaf of French bread lying around, heres how you can get rid of it without tossing it out.
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Also added in a big handful of fresh Thai basil from the garden which really gave it a nice flavour - something like Thai 'gaeng fuk' (yeah, I know how that sounds, but it really does mean pumpkin curry), but fuller and creamier.
Thanks for the stale bread tip - great idea for thickening soups!
All the other ingredients sound so yummy, I'm hoping maybe this could be a dish that will make me enjoy eating carrots!