The dreaded first day of the quarter has come and gone. I’m back in school, teaching, taking 6 units, and working on my research. My posts will likely become scarce again as all my creative energy gets sucked dry by all this work. I can’t help but think that there’s more to life than commuting, working, commuting, cooking dinner, then relaxing for an hour or so. There’s got to be more to life than just the two days we get for weekends. Thankfully graduate school is terminal and hopefully whatever job I get after graduation will be fulfilling by itself or at the very least won’t absorb all my energy.
One creative outlet I have is cooking. I enjoy cooking — the methodical prep work of cutting vegetable then scurrying around and assembling at the proper time is often therapeutic, mostly because I know I’m a good cook. School stresses me out because I don’t particularly feel like I’m a good student. I’m not a bad student but grad school really is not my forte. Well now I know for sure.
The other night I made carrot soup. Let me preface this by saying that I hate cooked carrots. Always have. But I typically like certain icky vegetables if they’re made into a creamy soup. The same is true for winter squash. Fortunately I like most summer vegetables. The carrot soup is super easy and very good.
First you make a roasted tomatillo relish to be dolloped on top of the soup. Roast a pound of husked and washed tomatillos in a 400F oven for about 25 minutes. Dump those in a blender or food processor with 2 bunches of chopped cilantro, 1 bunch of chopped parsely, 1 seeded and chopped jalapeno, and 2 TBSP of olive oil. Blend until blended but not completely pureed.
For the soup, saute a large onion in about 3 TBSP olive oil until soft. Add 10 peeled and sliced carrots and 2 peeled and sliced potatoes. Add 1 1/2 quarts of chicken broth and bring to a boil. Simmer until the vegetables are soft — 10-15 minutes. In batches, blend the soup until it is creamy. Add salt to taste. Serve and dollop with relish. This recipe serves six and is very tasty, even if you’re not a fan of cooked carrots. I found the recipe in Sunset Magazine recently.