Skip to main content

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.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

springtime chamomile tea cake with strawberry icing

 Good grief, Easter is in the rear view mirror and we are deep into this new year.  And once again it's tea time at my house.  This chamomile tea cake is a beautiful sweet addition to any tea ritual, especially my favorite, chamomile tea, which I rediscovered in my hotel room in Carmel earlier this fast moving year.  I highly recommend a slice of chamomile tea cake with strawberry 🍓 icing with a cup of chamomile tea to just take a moment and slow this year down.  Baking with tea is both creative and fun.  Earlier this year I made Earl Gray sugar cookies which are made using the same method of infusing the butter with loose tea.  For my tea cake I also rubbed the lemon zest into the sugar -another way to lend a pop of citrus to your baking. The strawberry icing is made using freeze dried strawberries, I pulverize them in my spice mill and then they are pressed through a fine sieve into the confectioner's sugar.  In addition to using lemon zest rub...

chermoula spiced multi colored cauliflower salad

 What do you do when you've said, "no"to the same person so many times that you feel like a new approach is needed, like I'll get back to you, or say something that's not true- I did that or whatever when you haven't done anything at all.  Or you could try being honest and say I'm never going to say yes or do that thing that you keep asking me about, not going to happen in this lifetime.  I wish that everything in life would be as straight forward as making a salad, especially a salad that could be made ahead of time and brought to a potluck in a beautiful handmade pottery bowl.  Should you tell people at the potluck that you made the bowl yourself?  In your pottery studio overlooking the Pacific Ocean ??  Probably should draw a line on that one, I don't know, maybe you could give it a try.  Or you could share that you made up the recipe while doing brain surgery.  Might be a good way to make some crazy new friends because the people you know alre...

kale quinoa apple pecan salad with feta

Salade Kale Quinoa Apple Pecan with Feta  1&1/2 cups water or vegetable broth  3/4 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained 1/2 cup dried cranberries  6 cups curly leaf kale, washed, rinsed, trimmed and chopped Sea salt  1 Fuji apple, cored and thinly sliced 1 small shallot, thinly sliced 1/3 cup toasted pecans, chopped 2 ounces crumbled Feta 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard  1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil 1 tablespoon maple syrup 1 tablespoon lemon juice Piment d’Espelette, to taste, or a generous pinch Freshly ground fermented white pepper, to taste In a medium saucepan bring the water or vegetable broth to a boil and add the quinoa, reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes or until water is absorbed and quinoa is tender.  Fluff with a fork and place the cranberries on top.  Cover the pan and let steam for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, place the kale in a large salad bowl and season with the sea salt, rub in about 1 teaspoon salt and massage with y...