Recipes from the Road: Garlicky Carrot Soup With a Lemon-Yogurt Drizzle

From Helen Rosner

Serves 4-6

Good morning! We’re starting off the roundup of recipes from the road with this simple-yet-bracing recipe for carrot soup, courtesy of Saveur web editor Helen Rosner, who’s been a Soup & Bread stalwart from, if not day one, pretty darn early on. Helen’s recipe for tangy chicken tortilla soup, which she brought to our 2010 event at the Bell House, can be found on page 42 of the Soup & Bread Cookbook. She prepared a big crock of this recipe for our November 16 Soup & Bread at Littlefield, in Brooklyn. Note that the spice measurements are merely suggestions. “I highly, highly recommend a heavy hand with the spices,” she says. “The carrots are so sweet and mild that it’s the heat that really makes this; plus the lemon yogurt is so cooling that you can go higher on the dial with the spiciness than you might think.”

Thank you, Helen!

Ingredients

For the soup:
1 thick slice of good white bread (like sourdough or ciabatta)
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon butter
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
5 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped, plus 5 whole cloves
1 pound carrots, scrubbed but not peeled, chopped into even pieces
1 1/2 cups white wine
1/2 cup dry vermouth
1/2 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (not garlic salt)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon hot paprika

For the lemon-yogurt drizzle:
1 cup full-fat Greek yogurt
juice of 1 lemon

Preparation
Tear the bread into small pieces and combine it with the milk in a small bowl. Set aside.

Melt the butter over medium heat in a heavy-bottomed pot. Add the onions and chopped garlic and cook gently until the onions are just barely becoming translucent, and the garlic is barely browned. Add the carrots and cook until carrots are beginning to soften, about 5 minutes. Pour in wine, vermouth, and 3 cups of water, scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pot, and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until the carrots are soft but not mushy, about 10 minutes.

Remove soup from heat and add the bread and milk, and the 5 whole cloves garlic. Working in batches, puree the soup in a blender or food processor. (It’s more efficient, but dirties more pots, to strain the solids out from the soup and just puree those, and then reincorporate the broth to the ensuing warm carrot smoothie.) Stir in the spices, tasting to adjust the flavor.

In a small bowl, whisk together the yogurt and lemon juice. Serve soup drizzled with the yogurt mixture.