Chilled Carrot Ginger Soup

For my birthday this year Jack bought us a CSA membership. Every week we get a box full of fresh veggies. Our CSA even sends us emails with recipe ideas. They're even having a CSA member BBQ at the end of this month. This CSA rocks...we've heard complaints about other CSAs delivering the same thing week after week, not getting many veggies, etc. That is not the case for us! We have so much food we have to bring people over to our place for dinner to eat it all before it goes bad!

This week among some of the veggies we got in the delivery were a bunch of carrots, some red onions and some garlic.

Now I know that soups are usually a winter thing, but when I saw these veggies together I immediately thought carrot ginger soup! Because it's been so hot this weekend I made the soup and then chilled it while I helped Jack on a photo project.

Carrot Ginger Soup

-a bunch of carrots (a little more than a cup and a half) chopped
-2 tsp olive oil
-4 tbsp minced ginger
-2-3 cloves minced garlic
-3 cups veggie broth
-1/4 cup orange juice
-1/2 cup cream
-salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil over medium heat in soup pot. Add onions and cook until soft. Add ginger and garlic and cook for 2-4 minutes.

Add carrots, broth and orange juice. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until carrots are exceedingly tender. In batches puree soup in a blender. I add the cream, which is optional, when I begin the puree process.

Eggplant and Potatoes

My first year at Hunter is finished. I now have a few days off from both Lexington and Hunter. Jack is on another shoot. Therefore I have had the opportunity to catch up on reading, relax...I've learned that I much prefer to be busy. With this knowledge I set out on this gloriously sunny day in Sunnyside to the local market to find the makings for potato salad, eggplant and garlic dip, and a quiche. Good thing that tomorrow brings good weather and hopefully a bike ride with 5bbc.org , so all these yummy treats won't force me to wear only clothing with an elastic nature.

I have posted an eggplant dip recipe in the past, but this one is slightly different. It's currently cooling in the fridge. Preliminary tasting makes me think it might turn out to be a decent dip. If it's utterly distasteful...I'll post a warning.

1 eggplant
2 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 large garlic clove
2 tbsp minced onion (i used more..we'll see how that turns out)
Salt and pepper

-Place eggplant on baking sheet. Cut off stem and cut some slashes on the sides. Broil for about 20 minutes or once skin is charred.
-Once cooked discard skin and mash.
-Add all other ingredients and cool in refridgeorator for at least a few hours.

The potato salad is delicious. I am planning on taking some of it with me for my packed lunch tomorrow, but I'm having a difficult time leaving it alone. I subscribe to weekly veggie recipes from peta. I am not vegan and therefore adapt some of the recipes to my lacto-ovo veggie prefrences.

2 1/4 lbs. red potatoes
1/2 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
2 Tbsp. mayo
1 tsp. garlic powder
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/3 cup chopped red onion

Scrub and quarter the potatoes. Cook in salted water until just tender. Drain and rinse with cold water.
Whisk together the olive oil, mustard, vinegar, vegan mayonnaise, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
In a large bowl, gently fold the chopped vegetables into the potatoes. Add the dressing, tossing to coat. Season to taste.

I will post the quiche recipe at another time.