Soup! Make an Easy, Healthy, Kid-friendly Carrot Vichyssoise

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Intro: Soup! Make an Easy, Healthy, Kid-friendly Carrot Vichyssoise

Today we're making soup! This particular soup is a carrot vichyssoise. This particular version is easy, quick, and cheap..and warm.

It has some great things going for it:
1. Sounds fancy! and French! Well, it isn't really french in origin, but was invented at the Ritz, so that makes it fancy, right!? (By the way, it's pronounced 'vishee-swahz', sounds like 'fishy bras')
2. Easy, quick and inexpensive to make.
3. Kid friendly way of getting them to eat their vegetables. I serve this with cheddar cheese on top, and call it "Cheese Soup" and my 3 yr old is happy!
4. Soup is great on a cold day to warm you up! Well, technically, vichyssoise should be served cold, but I like it hot. Especially in cold weather. But in the summer, this works great as a cold soup too, nice for brunch!

This is based on my mom's recipe, with some changes of my own..
(If you want to go vegan, just sub veggie broth for the water & bouillon cubes)

There are fancier and less short-cutty ways to make soup like this, but this recipe is intentionally simple to be tasty, easy, and cheap!

So let's make Soup!

Dot
Dabbled.org

STEP 1: Ingredients and Materials

Ingredients:

A)
4 c Potatoes, chunked
3 c Carrots, chunked
1 small onion (or about 1/2 c) sliced (or 3 leeks, thinly sliced, white part - Leeks are more authentic, but I never have leeks on hand so I always use onion)
1 1/2 teas salt
6 chicken bouillon cubes
3 3/4 c hot water

B)
2 Tbs butter
1 1/2 c (12 oz) light cream or evaporated milk (evaporated milk is healthier option)
1 1/2 c (12 oz) milk
1/2 teas tabasco

Hardware:

Pressure Cooker (faster) or Large Pot
Food processor, blender, or hand blender

STEP 2: Cook Your Veggies.

Take ingredient set A, and place in pressure cooker or large pot.

If you have a pressure cooker, heat on high til the thing on top jiggles, then turn down to low and cook for 6 minutes.

If you don't have a pressure cooker, that's fine, just put in a large pot and cook over med high heat until the veggies are soft (20-30 min, just check occasionally with a fork). It will just take longer, and you may need to add additional liquid later.

When it's cooked, you should still have a good amount of liquid in there, see picture.

STEP 3: Puree the Veggies.

After your veggies are soft, you'll want to puree everything together, including the liquid.

There are several ways to do this.

The easiest is one of those immersion hand blenders -- if you have one of those, just stick it in the pot and blend everything together, and you should be able to blend it all with very little work and no transferring out of the pot.

I don't have one of those, so I do it all in the food processor. It takes about batches to get it all blended into a nice soupy consistency (see picture).
You can also use a blender -- most everyone has those, right?
Pour everything back in the pot, and stir.

STEP 4: Add the Creamy Goodness

Now, add the ingredient set B to the pot.

Stir together, mixing well. The hot mixture should melt your butter for you.




STEP 5: Serve

You can either serve this soup hot or cold.

If cool is desired, chill prior to serving. You can grate a little fresh nutmeg on top for an interesting flavor.

If you like it hot, simply heat the mixture back up to soup temperature before serving.
For the hot soup, I like to serve it with grated cheddar cheese to sprinkle on top. Kids love this, and it's a nice flavor combination.

For my particular picky child, we call this "Cheese Soup", because it's cheesy in color, and after you sprinkle the cheese on top, it has a nice cheesy flavor.

This makes a nice amount. -- 9-10 servings maybe.

10 Comments

Great Soup!Just add bit of fresh ground pepper and sprinkle with fresh parsley and its even better!
I can't wait to make this!

I will use my stick blender but if I have leeks that won't break down I'll transfer the soup to my vitamix. (I know, they're expensive but I got mine refurbished and for no shipping. Ask me if you want the code for the free shipping.) The vitamix breaks EVERYTHING down, it's unbelievable.
Just some ideas. I have made a soup that has you puree veggies in the soup to, but i only puree some so that way get the flavor and some bits of stuff and if you have a picky eater you could puree the ones they don't like and leave the ones they do. Or you could puree them all and serve with grilled cheese!
This is a kind of soup we lived on when we were broke.  I love it.  Variations included adding cauliflower and/or red lentils to the process, right at the start with the rest.  Garlic and cumin make excellent flavour additions.  

Great Ible.  And kids do love it.  It's orange!  How can you go wrong?  If you have to, go for fishie crackers in it and have them scoop the little guys out.  
...ohhhh. You know I thought that you meant Tea Salt by Teas salt. Which doesn't make any sense, so yeah... Anyway, Teaspoon is usually abbreviated Tsp and Tablespoon is Tbsp.
Ok, Bonus points. Raise your hands if you actually know how to pronounce Vichyssoise correctly!

Anyone?
Good soup. If I may. Try browning the onions first. Adds more flavour. Oh, and for a smoother soup. I run this through a coarse strainer. Leeks are lovely. But. They have a tendency to be bit slimy when they don't break down completely. You end up with these long threads of clumpy leak. Straining it gives the smoothest, silkiest soup. //oh, and a spring of fresh thyme and rosemary (a few leaves) really brighten the flavours. J>
hmmm.... sounds good, and looks like it could make for a nice light meal. i'll have to try and make this. thanks!
Oh yes, it's hearty enough to be a meal. I served this the other night, with rye bread cheese toast on the side. Yummy!