Carrot Soup with Cilantro and Chile

My sister has wanted this recipe for some time. It comes from Williams Sonoma's Best of Taste Magazine cookbook.

Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons of butter
2 Tablespoons of canola oil
1 large sweet onion chopped
2 Tablespoons of finely chopped ginger
3 lbs. of carrots, peeled and chopped
5 cups of chicken or vegetable stock
2 Tablespoons of peanut butter
juice of 1 lime
salt and fresh ground pepper

Cilantro-Chile Salsa (garnish):
1/2 cup of coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
2 Tablespoons roasted peanuts
2 teaspoons chopped jalapeño
fresh lime juice
salt

1. In a large pot, melt butter with oil over medium low head. Add onion and ginger and cook, stirring frequently, until golden brown. (Basically sweat your onions.) Add the carrots and stock. Bring to a simmer. Cook until carrots are tender, about 20 minutes. Stir in peanut butter.

2. In a blender, puree the soup in 2 batches. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve or chinois into a pot, using back of a spoon to push soup through. Discard remaining solids. Reheat soup over low heat. Add lime juice and season to taste with salt and pepper.

3. For SALSA: In a mortar, point cilantro, peanuts and jalapeño to a paste. Add lime juice and salt to taste.

4. To serve, top individual servings with salsa.

Here is the thing. I didn't strain the soup. We made this soup for the first time in November, so not straining it made it more of a winter soup. Also, I added some cooking sherry to the onions in the beginning. Also, I stirred the salsa into the soup, because I love cilantro.

I wouldn't have thought that the jalapeno was an essential part of this recipe, but it is. I don't have a high tolerance for heat, but this seriously was incredible against the layered smooth texture of the peanut butter and the carrot.


Have fun Sara! Yumm!