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| Carrot soup with courgette (zucchini) and salmon |
It finally hit my brain when I was walking around the farmers´market that the summer is gone. All signs were there: quince had appeared on some counters, the choice of tomatoes had more than halved, winter cabbages like cavalo negro and kale were on sale, at one stand I heard the saleswoman explain to a puzzled customer that "the season for basil is over"....How did it happen that the basil season totally passed this year before I had stocked up with fresh pesto? Oh well, the supermarket sells basil all year round and that will get me through winter ...probably at the cost of a higher carbon footprint.
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| Quince, an autumn and winter fruit |
The shoppers were trying to fit under the roofs of the stands with their umbrellas and apologising to the other dripping customers. It was pouring for hours and the amount of daylight stayed below 5 on a scale of 10 the whole day. I was looking forward to a lazy afternoon in front of the telly and the 5-DVD set of a Danish thriller I borrowed from my friend last weekend.
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| Kale, only available in autumn and winter at the market |
At that dismal, sort of Wagnerian Melancholia market I was thinking Soup! Something bright and orange. I had bought 2 kilos of bio carrots at a good deal earlier in the week. Perfect starting point for my new favourite soup of this autumn. A bowl of carrot soup with courgette and salmon is a low fat but belly filling option for lunch or supper for the days when you just wish for a soup that you can bite into. I am a great fan of smooth cream soups, but equally on other days the soup just needs to be a bit more solid.
And a little fat must be. I am glad that fat helps me to get the vitamin A out of the carrots into my body but more importantly the small golden shiny bubbles that glisten on the surface act like a promise of a great meal and produce zillion of happy hormones before I have even taken a bite. The soup is ready in about half an hour. I can manage that after a long working day and still have a freshly made great tasing meal.
Carrot Soup with courgette (zucchini) and salmon
Ingredients for 2
500g carrots, cut into cubes
0.5l stock (or water + 1 cube bouillon)
1 whole yellow peperoncini or a chilli pod
0.5 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1 medium courgette, cut into cubes
250g fresh salmon, cut in 2 cm cubes
2-3 tbsp fresh cream
Bring the water to boil, add the bouillon, carrots, peperoncini and grated ginger. Cook on medium heat until the carrots are soft. Take a few table spoons of carrots out and put aside for later. Remove the peperoncini. Purée the carrots. Taste for salt and spice. Add the courgette cubes and cook for a couple of minutes. Then add the salmon and cream. Continue cooking on low -medium heat for a few minutes. Be careful not to cook too long as the salmon will become chewy and courgette too soft.
If you don´t have fresh fish, try frozen white fish filet. Cut into cubes and add to the carrot purée before the courgette but still be caucious not to over cook the fish. Adding the frozen fish would cool down the soup, so bringing it to boil and then adding the courgette for a few minutes more on the heat would be about right.
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| Carrot-courgette & fresh salmon soup |
Related posts:
Caldo Verde, an autumn soup
Buying carrots