Roasted Carrot and Apple Soup

Ingredients

• 1 lb carrots, scrubbed (about 4-5 large)
• 1 medium-large onion, chopped
• 2 medium-large apples (we used pink lady), washed, chopped, unpeeled
• olive oil
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 black pepper
• 2 tbsp butter, divided
• 2 tbsp garlic
• 1 tbsp fresh ginger
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 1/2 tsp smoked Spanish paprika
• crema mexicana, for garnish (you can also use creme fraiche)

Preheat oven to 400 and line a baking sheet with foil.

In a large bowl, combine the carrots, onion, apples, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread them in an even layer on the baking sheet. 

Roast for 30 minutes, turning once halfway. 

Heat 1 tbsp of the butter in a soup pot and put all the spices in it (garlic, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, nutmeg, black pepper). Cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. 

Add the roasted vegetables and the stock. Stir to combine, then turn the heat off. 

Use an immersion blender on everything until it's smooth. Return to heat and cook until it simmers.

While this is happening, make the paprika brown butter, viz. heat butter over medium/low heat until it starts to simmer and smell interesting. THIS DOES NOT TAKE LONG. DON'T BURN THE BUTTER unless you want to make a beurre noir. But don't. 

Remove from heat and add paprika. Stir while it's still hot. 

Serve soup garnished with the brown butter sauce and crema mexicana. We also served it with goat cheese crostini, which was boss.

Thoughts: Well, this was a fine soup. Flavor was pretty legit, but it was a little thick. I might try to thin the soup out a little if I were to make this in the future. Not sure I will though, because it's not a 1, and why re-make anything that isn't a 1? Dan really liked it -- he thinks it's better than the other carrot soups we've done. I guess I believe him. He also says he wouldn't thin it out, so.....? 

Disaster Index: 1/10 (Dan), 2/10 (Claire)

Peach Salsa

Ingredients

• 3 ripe peaches (1 lb)
• 1 tomato, diced
• 1/4 cup red onion, diced
• 1/4 cup bell pepper, diced, seeded
• 1 jalapeno pepper
• 1 tbsp mint, chopped
• 1 tbsp basil, chopped
• juice of 1/2 lime
• salt and pepper

Peel the peaches by cutting an x into the bottom of them and dropping them in boiling water for 1 minute. Remove them and put them in an ice bath. Peel them when they're cool enough. If they're ripe, the skins should come off super easily. Dice them.

Combine the peaches with everything else. If you'd like, you can pulse them in a food processor for a sec or two. Chill for an hour to let the flavors come together. Eat it.

Thoughts: Super easy, super delicious. What else is there? OM NA NOM NOM NOM.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Tomatillo Salsa

Ingredients

• 1 pound fresh tomatillos
• 1 large onion, cut into chunks
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 cup chopped cilantro
• 1/2 hot pepper, any kind you'd like
• 1/2 lime, juiced
• salt, to taste

Peel the tomatillos and scrub them until they're less sticky. They probably won't be COMPLETELY unsticky, but just do your best. Cut them into quarters and put them in a food processor. Put everything else in the food processor and pulse it until it's the consistency you want. I don't like my salsas super smooth, but whatever. Do anything you feel like doing. 

Put it all in a small saucepan and cook until the salsa is less watery. This might take a while. 

Chill it, then eat it.

Thoughts: Pretty legit, though we had to cook the salsa FOREVER for it to get less watery. Maybe next time I would chop the onion and then drain that sucker. Onions are watery, yo. But the flavor was pretty good. I wonder whether we would even cook it in the future. But maybe you have to cook tomatillos? Maybe we would blanch the tomatillos and leave everything else raw? Anyway, we used this as a substitute for enchilada sauce, and it was serviceable. 

Disaster Index: 3/10