It’s cold. Well, cold for Texas. I love winter, but these days where the clouds dim the sun and frigid gusts cut through clothes, its requires more to be outside. So, I bundle up head to toe with layers. And, with the neck gaiter I’m sporting, the band around my eyes is the only skin visible.
A sane person would wait it out inside, but I find these dreary days good for tackling projects that have been on my to-do list—woodworking and building fences, cutting out invasive plants along the fencerows, raking leaves, and earthworking. Planting is out of the question until the weather moderates as I don’t want to to have the desiccating winds dry my new installs out.
I find myself craving soup after being outside in this weather as it warms the soul. And, one of my favorites is tomato and carrot soup. I love the blending of summer and winter in this flavorful dish.
We entomb the taste of those hot days long gone by freezing tomatoes we pick in June. We process those delicious orbs into crushed pulp and juice and save both for cooking later in the year. The former makes delicious spaghetti and chicken cacciatore sauce, and the latter stores well in large glass jars for later soups.
And, then there’s the carrots from the dark side of the calendar. My carrot tops are blemished from the sudden cold snap we had earlier this month. But, as they emerge from the ground, I find they are beautiful. And, sweet! As Eliot Coleman described in his book The Winter Harvest Handbook, he sells these overwintered carrots as “candy carrots,” and kids go wild over them.
When carrots are exposed the cold temperatures, the roots accumulate sugars to help act as an antifreeze. So, I like to harvest carrots in January once we’ve had some chillier weather. They taste sweeter than those harvested in warmer spells. The roots come out of the ground all shapes and sizes, but they taste and cook the same. Often, I will harvest a whole batch, steam them, and freeze them at this peak of taste. Once they’ve been vernalized (chilling exposure that induces flowering), it won’t be long until they start bolting, which for us can start as early as February. ‘Rainbow’ is a favorite cultivar of mine for its incredible sweetness, and I like ‘Napoli’, ‘Mokum’, and ‘Bolero’, too.
Sweet multi-colored ‘Rainbow’ carrots picked and ready to go into soup.
I had not thought of adding carrots to tomato soup until we travelled through Washington, Connecticut a few years ago. I still remember our visit as clear as ever. Karen had wanted to see the town that inspired Gilmore Girls, and after walking around for a few hours on a cold, sunny day, we were hungry. We made our way up the hill to G.W. Tavern, a quaint restaurant in an 1850’s colonial home. On a whim, I ordered their tomato soup, and it was THE most delicious tomato soup I’ve ever eaten in my life. There was a texture and especially a sweetness to it that I had never tasted, and it wasn’t too runny. They even had these little harvest crackers to go along with it that were made with sunflower seeds and other grains.
The revolutionary styled G.W. Tavern where I first had this delicious soup
I immediately got online and found a copycat recipe from whenwegettoit.com. We made it after returning home, and it was very close to the original we had on our trip.
But, I realized over the holidays that the website was no longer active, and that recipe was gone! Fortunately, I had saved it, and I want to welcome this delicious dish back to the internet with a few changes of my own.
Let me know what you think. We serve ours with gooey grilled cheese.
Ingredients
Two tablespoons olive oil
Two medium-sized onions
Two large carrots (or several small-to-medium-sized carrots if you like more texture)
Two cloves of garlic
One 32 ounce jar of tomato juice frozen from the summer (or tomato juice from the store)
Additional fresh or canned tomatoes as needed (depends on how tomatoey you want it)
One 32 ounce container of stock (chicken or vegetable)
Fresh or dried basil
1/4 to 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
Sugar, salt, & pepper to taste
DIRECTIONS
Peel and chop up carrots, onions, and garlic.
Heat olive oil in a big soup pot. Add the vegetables and cook for 10 minutes. Cook until onions are golden and carrots are just getting soft. A little water can help prevent the vegetables from browning.
Add stock, tomato juice, and additional tomatoes. (For the additional tomatoes, I’ve used diced, stewed, paste, crushed, or fresh. It just depends on how much tomato flavor you want or what you have available in the pantry). Bring to a boil, then simmer for another 10 minutes. If the tomato juice is too runny, you can simmer for longer periods of time to boil off more water.
Turn off the heat and add dry or fresh basil leaves to the soup.
Blend the soup with a hand blender until smooth or in batches in a normal blender. Mix in cream as needed until soup reaches the desired consistency, usually 1/4 to 1/2 cup for me. Add sugar (I like to add at least 1 tablespoon to help play off the sweet carrots), salt (I add 1 tsp as a general rule), and pepper to taste. Place back on heat to warm if needed.
Enjoy after a long day of winter gardening.