Leeks & Carrots Make Great Soup

I love soup. You can have it with a sandwich, a salad, some good bread. And usually you can make a delicious soup without too much effort. At least that's the case with this soup. It's from one of our workhorse cookbooks, Soup: A Way of Life, by Barbara Kafka.

For those with a busy schedule, this soup can easily be made the night before you're planning on eating it, even while you do other things, or you can at least do what little prep is needed the night before -- basically cleaning and cutting up some carrots and leeks -- and do the active cooking in about 30 minutes the next day.

The recipe calls for a little heavy cream, but you can easily leave it out or substitute half-n-half and still get the creaminess, just with less calories.

Carrot and Leek Soup

• 3 tablespoons of butter
• 1/2 teaspoon of cardamom (careful with this, too much can really overpower the whole thing)
  
• 3 medium leeks, cleaned well (duh!) and sliced cross-wise (half-inch slices seem to work well)
• 5 good-sized carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
• 3-4 cups chicken stock (if hoping to get 2 meals out of it, go with 4 cups and one more carrot)
• Cream or half-n-half (or nothing)
• Salt and pepper

In a fairly large saucepan, melt the butter. Stir in the cardamom and cook for a minute or so. Stir in the leeks and cover for 5 minutes (stir once in a while). When the leeks are tender, add the carrots and stock, bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for about 15 minutes. You want the carrots to be pretty tender.

In batches in a blender, puree the carrot/leek mixture until it's smooth. Return to the pan, taste and add salt or pepper as you see fit. One quick pour of cream around, stir well, and serve.

I Was Right

Like I said, I thought this prosciutto-wrapped chicken would make a great Sunday dinner.

And it did.

Some tips in preparing it, though. First, you don't need heavy cream or as much butter for the broccoli puree. I used half and half and a little less butter than it called for and it was still quite rich. Further reductions in butter and the amount of cream could probably be made with little lost in terms of flavor.

Second, if you happen to get truly plump chicken breasts, you'll likelyneed to roast it for closer to 20-25 minutes in the oven.

Third, the carrots in this recipe are really just a poor man's version of the classic carrots in
Marsala. Which is what I ended up making. Per Gina DePalma, here is how they're made:

Carrots in Marsala

• One pound of carrots, cut on the angle into quarter-inch coins
• 2 tbs butter
• 1/2 cup of Marsala
• Water
• 1 tsp sugar
• Salt
• Flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Melt the butter in a large pan over medium heat, add the carrots and toss to coat.

Add the Marsala, let it come to a bubble, add enough water to mostly cover the carrots. Add the sugar and pinch of salt and give a quick stir.

Bring to an easy simmer and cover. Cook until the carrots are tender, 15-20 minutes. Remove the cover, turn up the heat a little, and let it cook until most of the liquid is gone and all that's left is a nice glaze on the carrots, 10 more minutes.

Remove from heat, toss with parsley and serve.