Carrots are perfect for the Cream of Anything Soup mother dish technique. You can choose to roast the carrots first, or simply have them poach directly in the soup’s broth. Roasting takes a bit more effort and adds some nuance to the flavor of the final dish, but the soup is still delicious if you skip that step. Here I made it a root to leaf dish by garnishing with carrot top pesto. I also roasted some carrot “coins” until they were crispy to add a crunch to the garnish.
The presentation is similar to the Roasted Carrot Risotto with Carrot Top Pesto that I previously posted. I really enjoy making crispy carrot coins as a garnish. If you are going to roast carrots, it’s simple to also make up some crispy coins. The thin, round slices cook right next to the larger chunks of carrots. Since they are thin, the cook quicker than the larger chunks. By the time the larger chunks are cooked through with some caramelization on the edges, the coins have released all of their water and become brown, crispy morsels. Just use a little extra olive oil and salt on the coins to aid in the crisping and flavor.
If you’ve made other cream of vegetable soups, you can probably wing this dish yourself. If you haven’t and are interested, read through the Cream of Anything Soup mother dish post, along with the baseline recipe. If you want a photo walk through, the photos in the Cream of Winter Squash Soup article provide the gist. Similarly, if you’ve made other pestos, you can probably wing a carrot top pesto. If not, follow this link for Carrot Top Pesto.
