Moroccan Carrots nicely plated and ready to serve in local Fire and Light recycled glass bowls. This picture is from Pesach. These carrots are a perfect addition to any meal, holiday or just regular, but they add a definite flair to your fare!
A large bunch of really excellent carrots, not pre-peeled “bunny love” in a bag. Good, large or fresh carrots, only!
five to ten cloves of peeled garlic with the centers taken out as per my previous instructions about proper garlic preparation.Properly Prepared Garlic
juice of one to two fresh lemons
1/4 or more of olive oil, depending on how many carrots you are making
fresh chopped parsley
1-3 teaspoons fresh cumin seeds ground in a mortar and pestle, do not use this much if you are using already ground cumin, perhaps 1/2 the fresh amount, but I warn you, it will not be as tasty with the already ground cumin
1-2 teaspoons good salt, See previous posting about salt:
1-3 teaspoons red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon or more of hot cayenne powder
(These carrots will be yummy without the spice for folks with a milder palette, but the spiciness is truly part of their charm. You can try substituting a milder cayenne or paprika.)
You need to clean your carrots well, if you aren’t peeling them. Have a large saucepan/soup pot of boiling water on the stove and put in some salt. You need to chop the carrots into long slivers for this dish, so it take a little bit of time to do so. More carrots is better. You will love this dish two days out and it’s unlikely it will make it that long as most folks just can’t stop eating these. Once you’ve got the carrots ready add them to the boiling water and blanch them for five to 8 minutes, depending on the thickness of the carrot slabs you cut. You need to have a bowl or large pan with ice water or cold water handy and you will remove the hot carrots immediately into the cold water with tongs or a strainer or whatever implement you have handy. Keep the boiling water handy and once it’s cooled you can use it for making rice or soup stock. It’s full of yummy carrot goodness.
Put the carrots aside and start working on the fresh cumin grinding. Once you’ve ground the cumin well, not to a powder, but you’ve broken down the seeds a fair amount, add your salt, and the garlic cloves directly into the Suribachi (bowl of your mortar and pestle) and mush, mash, pound that garlic into the salt and cumin seeds, it will start to break down fairly quickly because of the salt.
Suribachi with smashed garlic, red peppers, salt and ground fresh cumin seeds,
Once you’ve got it pretty mushed so folks aren’t eating giant cloves of garlic, add the cayenne, red pepper flakes, lemon and olive oil and mix it all up and then pour onto your carrots. Stir all of that up and add the chopped parsley.
Carrots with all the ingredients getting ready to be tossed together, your’e almost done!
These carrots are best served at room temperature, but you can refrigerate them for days. Just take them out an hour or so before your meal.
Enjoy and Lots of Love to you in your food making and food sharing!
one to two onions (yellow) chopped medium to small
1/4 or so of really good olive oil. I buy Henry’s Olive Oil in five gallon buckets and selectively share it with others, but I go through five gallons pretty regularly. Whatever good olive oil you have locally, use that. Heavy, dark and green, not light and clear!
three to four good carrots, not wimpy, limpy ones, cut into small halves or quarters (the smaller you chop something the more flavor you get, due to surface area being exposed. See The Ten Commandments of Nicole’s Kitchen
two to four thin small zucchinis, I never use big fat ones for this recipe
more garlic than you think you need (at least one whole bulb) and prepare it correctly, by removing the centers. See instructions at the end.
several stalks of celery
two to four quarts or more of canned tomatoes with their juice (yours preferably) or if you have to use canned tomatoes, use Muir Glen’s Fire-Roasted whole or diced tomatoes and a jar or so of tomato sauce
freshly chopped herbs: oregano, thyme, and parsley. If you have to use dried herbs, use fresher ones, this means not the ones sitting in your cabinets for three years! Buy in the bulk section when you can for dried herbs, the turn over is much greater there, so they are fresher.
coarse ground black or white pepper (some folks cannot abide black pepper, but most folks can handle the white pepper)
cayenne to taste (optional for folks who cannot handle spice)
red wine 1/4 to 1/2 cup (the better the wine, the better the soup, you can drink the rest of the wine with your dinner). If you live in Humboldt County, where I do, you can always check out Bob’s Picks in the wine section at the Northcoast Co-op. He has excellent taste and the wines he picks are often not too pricey and they taste great.
balsamic vinegar 1/4 cup or less (not flavored or thick syrup balsamic, just basic balsamic vinegar)
two to three cups cooked beans, garbanzo, cannelloni, white, fava, whatever beans you want. I always do garbanzo beans and usually a white or Lima or cannelloni bean as well. I use Westbrae Natural canned beans if I am not cooking the beans from scratch.
Parmesan or Asiago cheese or some other nice strong cheese to add as a garnish if you aren’t making this for vegans. If you are doing a vegan version, don’t add the cheese.
a bag of cooked noodles (gluten full or gluten free). This is optional. I don’t eat a lot of gluten and don’t like the gluten free stuff too much, so I just enjoy the soup minus noodles. Kids love noodles and if you throw the noodles in to their bowls, not into the soup base, and cover them with all the veggies and soup, this is one way to get them to eat some veggies!
Okay, with all those ingredients, surely something magnificent should be the result, and it is. This is actually a very easy soup to make. Just sauté up the onions first for ten minutes with the white pepper or black pepper in the good olive oil, then add chopped carrots and celery, sauté those up for another five to ten minutes. Medium heat for the duration of soup cooking, until the end.
Throw in the fresh herbs and the zucchini and the garlic and the first teaspoon or so of good salt. After a few minutes add the wine, and then add the tomato sauce and tomatoes. You can cook this for an hour or more, then add the beans and cook another hour or so. Add the balsamic vinegar when you add the beans, also the cayenne and more salt. You can cook this soup for hours if you want, the veggies get pretty soft though and the beans can break down if you cook it for too long. On the other hand, the flavors blend really well the longer you cook it. This is something you have to discover on your own. I generally plan on this soup taking at least two hours to prepare and cook/simmer. I have let it simmer on low for another hour or two. Do not cook it on medium for more than an hour or two. Once the ingredients have all had a chance to hang out together, put it on simmer and do something else. I don’t cover this soup, either, I love the smell it makes and so does everyone who walks in the door!
Right before you are ready to eat, if you are making noodles to add to the soup, make sure you have a pot of boiling salted water ready to put the noodles in. Noodles generally only take five to ten minutes, if they are fresher, to cook. Once they are strained and done, toss them lightly with olive oil so they don’t stick. Keep them in a covered bowl or in the original pot you cooked them in, so they stay warm. Another trick with noodles, when you are NOT making macaroni and cheese, is to rinse them with VERY hot water once you strain them. This removes the starch that makes them sticky. I only do this with regular noodles, not with rice or other kinds of pasta, which is more delicate.
The only other thing you need with this meal is a green salad and some bread, if you are doing the gluten route. Otherwise, it is a meal in itself. Oh, yeah, don’t forget the glass of good red wine or for those who don’t consume alcohol, just enjoy the soup!
Garlic Center Removing Instructions: All centers of garlic bulbs should be removed. They are bitter, older and not healthy to eat. If you take the time to remove the centers from your garlic bulbs, everyone eating your food will be happier. The only time I do not remove the centers of garlic is if I am roasting whole garlic or using very fresh, young garlic that has no visible discoloration or center part. Folks who cannot eat garlic, can and do eat food I cook with garlic and they do not have the same problems they normally do when eating garlic not prepared this way. The centers are the problem!
Open Heart Open Hands 