Creamy Carrot Soup Topped with Caramelized Pumpkin Seeds & Herb Oil for Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammie) Sundays

So technically I should be making pumpkin soup or squash soup, most specifically the Butternut Squash and Saffron Soup with Caramelized Pistachios & Herb Oil from Falastin by Sami Tamimi today for our Great Pumpkin theme at I Heart Cooking Clubs. But to be honest, I have to be in the mood for squash soup and to cut up butternut squash and I just wasn't for either.

Since I had some carrots that needed to be used and I thought the toppings would work just as well with carrot soup as they would butternut squash, I chose to switch out the butternut for carrots and the pistachio nuts for pumpkin seeds and did a man up.

Creamy Carrot Soup Topped with Caramelized Pumpkin Seeds & Herb Oil 

Adapted from Falastin by Sami Tamimi

(Makes 4-6 Servings)

Soup:

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, roughly chopped

5 garlic cloves, crushed

About 2 lbs of carrots (3 large-ish carrots), peeled and chopped

1 medium potato, peeled and chopped

1 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp saffron threads 

3 cups vegetable stock

1 cup coconut milk

salt and black pepper

Caramelized Pumpkin Soups:

1 cup pumpkin seeds

1 tsp Aleppo pepper or 1/2 tsp other chile flakes

1 tso orange flower water (optional)

2 tsp light corn syrup

2 tsp maple syrup

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/4 tsp flaky sea salt

Herb Oil:

3/4 cup parsley leaves, finely chopped

1/2 cup oregano leaves, finely chopped

1 shallot, finely chopped (I used 2 Tbsp Shallot's Web Dried Shallots from The Book Club Cookbook)

1/2 tsp Aleppo chile flakes

1/2 cup olive oil

1 Tbsp cider vinegar

salt and black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Put the oil into a large saucepan with a lid, and place over medium heat. Add the onions and cook for about 12 minutes, stirring often, until soft and golden brown. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds,, until fragrant, then add the carrots, potato, paprika, saffron stock, 2 tsp of salt, and a good grind of black pepper. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then decrease the heat to medium-low and simmer for about 25 minutes, covered, or until the vegetables are completely soft and cooked through. Blitz soup in a blender (or with am immersion blender) as much as you like. Add the coconut milk and Keep warm until ready to serve. 

To make the caramelized pumpkins seeds, while the soup is cooking, put all oof the ingredients into a bowl and mix well to combine. Tip out onto the prepared baking sheet and bake for about 15 minutes, stirring halfway through, until the nuts are golden and bubbling. Remove from the oven, set aside until completely cool, then roughly chop--if desired. Set aside (or keep in an airtight container if making in advance) until needed. 

To make the herb oil, put all of the ingredients into a bowl with 1/4 tsp of salt and a grind of black pepper. Stir to mix, then set aside until ready to serve.

Ladle out the soup and top with a generous spoonful of the pistachios. Drizzle with the herb oil and serve at once. 

Notes/Results: Creamy soup with good flavor already but even better when the toppings are added. The oil adds herbal notes and the pumpkin seeds add a little bit of sweet and spicy notes. I have a bottle of orange blossom water in my pantry and I am glad I do because it add complexity to the flavor. These pumpkin seeds are just as addicting as the ones I made last week--in fact I might even like them better.

I'm linking this soup & toppings up to IHCC where it's The Great Pumpkin week. Dishes including or featuring pumpkin and squash from Sami Tamimi and/or our 20 other featured chefs. 

Let's see who is here in the Souper Sundays kitchen this week!

Deborah of Eliot's Eats shared BPT (Bacon, Pickle & Tomato) Sandwiches inspired by a book, saying "I remember a craving Liz had for a bacon sandwich with pickles. I was in. I also wanted to comment on the fact that she loved pickles growing up but since Thomas did not care for them he did not allow them in his house. Liz, here’s a sandwich I wish you would have served Thomas, with extra spicy pickles. You go girl, and eat all the pickles you want in this new life! As stated, the pickles used were homemade zucchini pickles which remind me a great deal of Bread & Butter Pickles. The tomatoes were from the garden. I was in a rush, so no homemade sourdough but I picked a good brand. The results? Deliciousness!!!!!"

Judee of Gluten Free A-Z Blog brought Instant Pot Red Lentil and Quinoa Soup saying, "It's officially fall, and I'm in the mood for comforting soup! I really don't need an excuse to eat soup, I love it all year round! Lentils cook quickly and kind of melt into the pot. Quinoa cooks quickly as well and adds a little textured heartiness to the spicy brew. With potatoes and carrots, this soup was a very satisfying comforting everyday meal!"

 

 

Here at Kahakai Kitchen I made a Shredded Tofu Egg-less Salad for a recent book review. I got the shredding tofu technique from Heidi Swanson and loved how it lightened up the salad and with the added mustard, celery salt and dried shallots, it gave the mock egg salad a lot of great flavor. It made a good sandwich as well as a topping for crisp lavosh crackers.

Thank you to Judee and Deborah for joining me this week! 

(If you aren't familiar with Souper Sundays, you can read about of the origins of it here.
If you would like to join in Souper (Soup, Salad, and Sammie) Sundays, I would love to have you! Here's how...

To join in this week's Souper Sunday's linkup with your soup, salad or sandwich:

• Link up your soup (stew, chili, soupy curries, etc. are fine), salad, or sandwich dish, (preferably one from the current week or month--but we'll take older posts too) on the picture link below and leave a comment on this post so I am sure not to miss you. Also please see below for what to do on your blog post that you link up to Souper Sundays in order to be included in the weekly round-up.

and 

On your entry post (on your blog):

• Mention Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays at Kahakai Kitchen and add a link back to this post. (Not to be a pain but it's polite and only fair to link back to events you link up at--so if you link a post up here without linking back to this post or my blog on your post, it will be removed.)
• You are welcome to add the Souper Sundays logo to your post and/or blog (completely optional).

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Have a happy, healthy week!