carrot jalapeño soup with basil pesto

We made a road trip to play golf a few weeks ago to the Oregon coast at Bandon Dunes, it's beautiful. This was our fourth trip to play golf in the past several years at Bandon. We cancelled our trip to Ireland this summer and don't know when we will make it back over there to play golf at some of our favorite courses in the world. I'm not complaining, yes its disappointing to cancel all your vacations but I have this new food blog and I can drive back up to Oregon and play golf there again soon, so there's that. We played the new course at Bandon called Sheep Ranch and it was incredible just like the other courses. I can't even say which one is my favorite because in their own ways they are all equally challenging and ruggedly beautiful, in that Oregon coast kind of way. Which brings me to this carrot Jalapeño soup recipe that I enjoyed at the Pacific Grill at Bandon Dunes. They would not give me the recipe, of course I asked. But, then I went googling and there it was everywhere, who knew what a thing carrot Jalapeño soup is and has been over a fair amount of time. My main question about the soup was, how much Jalapeño do you put in? So, I decided to deseed my jalapeno and start out with just two for two bunches of carrots, some recipes called for five Jalapeño for the same amount of carrots, that kind of scared me, but I knew in my heart that I had the ultimate control over the heat in my soup. The main thing about this soup is that you want the strong jalapeño flavor which is bomb with the carrots, without all that heat. But, you never know when you might get a hot pepper off the vine, that's another story. Also, the basil pesto was my addition, I just thought that it sounded good, it was. 

 Ingredients for Carrot Jalapeño Soup with Basil Pesto 

Makes enough for 4 servings

for the soup

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 bunches of carrots, about 3 cups peeled and sliced

2 Jalapeños, deseeded, sliced and minced

1/2 cup dry white wine

4 cups vegetable broth

sea salt and freshly black ground pepper to taste

for the basil pesto

1/4 cup lightly toasted pine nuts

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 cups loosely packed sweet basil leaves

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

In a heavy large soup pot or dutch oven heat the oil and sauté the onions for 5-7 minutes or until translucent, stir in the carrots and Jalapeños.  Stir and cook for several minutes then add the white wine.

Let the wine cook down and add the vegetable broth to cover the carrot mixture adding more as it cooks down.  Simmer until the carrots are tender.  Turn off the heat and pulverize the soup, I used my Nutri -Bullet.

Meanwhile make the pesto.  Place the pine nuts, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and basil with salt and pepper in a food processor and pulse, stirring down as needed, until blended.  Spoon the pesto on the soup as desired.