Caramelized Carrot Soup
When I was a kid who was far too old to adore these sort of cartoons, I was a huge fan of The Magic School Bus. For those of you not familiar with the show (and you have my deepest sympathies), the Magic School Bus was a TV series about a unique teacher named Ms. Frizzle who would take her class on crazy adventures, like flying into space and traveling through the human body. Boy, did I want to drive through the large intestine like Ms. Frizzle’s ethnically diverse class of incredibly lucky ten-year-olds.
(Now that I’m an adult, the most amazing aspect of this show isn’t the weird places the students went; rather, it’s that the class had only nine or ten kids. A friend of mine teaches a class of 35 students. And that’s not the largest class out there.)
Why am I sharing this awesome Jessie factoid with you? Because of an episode in which Arnold, a bespectacled kid who’s the Molesley of Ms. Frizzle’s class, turns orange from eating a snack with tons of carotene in it. Carotene is the same biochemical that makes carrots orange, and you really can turn orange from eating a lot of carrots … but, just a little orange. In other words, don’t eat a bushel of carrots with the expectation you’ll be an Oompa Loompa for Hallowe’en.
Where was I? Oh, yes. Carrots. This soup is full of ’em. And not much else.
The bright flavors of this carotene-packed creamy soup are only eclipsed by its intense orange color. You can prepare this soup without a pressure cooker, but then you’ll miss out on the slightly sweet caramelized flavor of the carrots. Either way, you’ll get plenty of taste and nutrition in this soup. Serve with crackers or a slice of warm bread.
By the way, if you want an awesome song you can whip out at parties and look TOTALLY COOL, learn the Magic School Bus theme song. You’ll impress all your friends. Trust me.
Caramelized Carrot Soup
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Keywords: soup/stew vegan carrots
Ingredients (6 servings)
- 5 cups carrots, peeled
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 1/2 cups carrot juice
Instructions
If desired, remove slightly bitter carrot cores by quartering them lengthwise and slicing away core. Slice carrots into 2-inch lengths.
Add olive oil to base of pressure cooker and swirl to coat. In a small bowl, combine water, salt and baking soda. Add to pressure cooker along with sliced carrots. Pressure-cook at 1 bar/15 psi for 20 minutes once pressure is reached. Depressurize cooker by running tepid water over the rim. Using a blender or immersion blender, puree carrot mixture. Optional: Pass puree through sieve to remove any solid pieces.
In a medium sauce pan, heat carrot juice until boiling. Add to carrot puree and thin with additional water, if desired. Season to taste and serve immediately.
Q (Time to bring this back!): What were your favorite kids’ shows?
P.S. Want more carrot recipes? Check ’em out!
P.P.S. Hark! What do I spy?
During my sampling at Strawberry Fields, I wanted to serve the carrot soup warm so I kept it in a carafe and poured as customers wanted it. I can’t tell you how many times a customer walked by and said something along the lines of “today’s sample must be really healthy – air!”
After a little while, I wised up and paired the soup with thyme-infused crackers to catch customers’ eyes. Sample requests doubled immediately afterward.
Perfect pairing prevents people protesting pitiful portions.
(Not quite grammatically correct, but come on. Gimme some cred.)
I loved the magic school bus and as soon as I saw magic school bus in the tags paired with a carrot dish I knew where you were going with it! I loved ms Frizzle’s earrings!
Yes I was way to old for watching it too ;P
I’m impressed! Those earring were AWESOME 🙂
Speaking of travels through the human body, my childhood was made awesome by this little French series:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxdUEvuYE4E
It also sports an awesome title song and makes biology so interesting I was bitterly disappointed when I found out red blood cells are not little girls carrying bubbles of oxygen on their backs.
I love creamy soups! But maybe putting in just carrot is a bit too much orange for me. What else can I add? Potatoes? Cream?
That theme song is mesmerizing – I just watched it three times. I especially like those flying ships. I’m guessing they’re lymphocytes? Now I wish I knew French 🙂
Potatoes would definitely work if you add them to the blender. Cream would be delicious, too, but I wouldn’t be able to recommend it to the vast majority of my clients 😉
My older son used to watch The Magic School bus! Brings back memories! 🙂
I love carrots, and the soup sounds delicious!
Awesome alliteration!
Arranged above after awful artistic accomplishments. Appalling, aye?
I loved the Magic School Bus. I sort of wish I were Ms Frizzle instead of a much less exciting Ms F… except that I don’t want to teach science. In the original book series, the class was a little larger, but for the TV series and its companion book series, I think they eliminated a bunch of students to have a more manageable number of characters. They also published some of those books in Spanish, and I own a few, because I’m a slightly exciting Sra. F.
I also loved Square One; when we learned to add fractions in school, I already knew what to do because of Square One. A more recent favorite kids’ show is Avatar: the Last Airbender. It’s quite a clever cartoon with humor and sincerity, and Mike and I recommend it. I don’t know how he learned about it, but that’s what he does.
I think you’re a very exciting Ms. F! 🙂 I was a huge Square One fan, too – do you remember Mathnet? I still remember the theme song: duum duh duh dum (which I’m sure totally comes across here). I’ll have to check out Avatar. If you guys like it, I know I’ll like it, too.
I loved the Magic School Bus! This brings back great memories. I also watched Arthur, Wishbone, and Ghostwriter. Oh, the good old days haha 🙂
This soup looks great, I love eating soups that are blended. I usually add some sweet potato to make them creamy, yum yum 🙂
Oh man..I totally miss The Magic School Bus! That is all my kids are going to read/watch. 😛
The more orange the better, in my opinion!
So I’m a pressure cooker newbie…why do you add baking soda? The soup looks awesome! (:
Hi Serena! I just saw your question – sorry for the delay! Because you’re cooking the carrots for such a short length of time, the baking soda helps to soften the carrots. However, I’m going to skip the soda in my next batch and see how it goes 🙂
What a stunning soup, Jessie! These caramelized carrots and that color, are just beautiful! I want to serve it with some yummy raw sour cream! I remember the show, The Magic School Bus – that was a pretty epic show! Great idea on pairing the soup with thyme-infused crackers, it provides some texture! 🙂 I hope you are having a lovely weekend, Jessie!