Produce Spotlight: Garlic
As with most root veggies, carrots are in season at the moment solely because they store well. Nobody is plucking them from the frozen ground this time of year (not around here anyways)! Carrots are a fantastic source of beta carotene, which is a convertable form of vitamin A, as well as vitamin K, biotin & fiber. Many studies have linked the high antioxidant levels in carrots to decreased rates of several kinds of cancer, sometimes linking as little as one carrot a day to slashing your chances in half.
Fun Facts:
- If you eat too many, you will in fact begin to turn orange! Cartenoidermia is a yellowing of the skin due to eating more carotenes than the body can process (just like a sunburn is excess vitamin D being excreted through the skin!).
- If the carrots you consume aren’t organic you should definitely peel them, as the pesticide residues are quite high in the skins.
- Though the heat sensitive vitamins will be killed by cooking the carrots, the bioavailability of the beta carotene will be enhanced by breaking down the fiber.
- Carrots do have a high level of sugar compared to other vegetables, so anyone who may be watching their blood sugar levels should be aware of this. Cooked carrots have a glycemic index of 85 though when the veggie is raw, its GI is much lower.
- There are more than a hundred different varieties of carrots in many different sizes & colors. In fact, orange carrots didn’t appear until in the 17th century in The Netherlands. Prior to that, yellow, red, white & purple had been documented.
- Juiced, steamed, pureed as a soup, grated into salads, muffins & cake… there’s many ways to incorporate carrots into your diet to reap their many health benefits!
Curried Carrot Soup recipe from The Gluten Free Goddess:
- Olive oil
- 1 clove garlic, chopped
- 1 to 2 teaspoons mild gluten-free curry powder, or to taste
- 1 leek
- 4 large organic carrots
- 1 sweet potato
- Half a banana squash {or butternut squash}
- Fresh water, as needed
- Sea salt, to taste
Directions
Plug in your (medium size) slow cooker and turn it on to high. Pour a drizzle of olive oil into the bottom. Add in the chopped garlic and curry powder. Stir and cover. Let the curry infuse the oil as you chop the vegetables.
You have music on, right?
Wash the leek, trim and slice the white section.
Peel, trim and chop the carrots.
Peel the sweet potato. Chop chop.
Peel the squash. Chop some more.
Toss all the chopped veggies into the warm crock and stir. Add just enough fresh water to cover them. Season with sea salt to taste.
Cover.
Now go to work. Or not. Maybe go do something fun. Take photographs. Paint. Read a gardening book. Walk the dog. Color with your kids.
About temps- High vs Low:
If you keep the soup on high it will cook faster- say, four hours or so, depending upon your make and model (some crocks are bigger than others, I’m happy to tell you). If you need to stretch out the cooking time, turn the slow cooker on to low. It will be ready in perhaps, six hours. If you need to stretch it a bit longer I don’t think it would hurt- as long as you’ve put enough water in the crock.
The soup is ready when the carrots are tender and split easily using a fork.
Now the fun part. Power tools.
Puree the soup with an immersion blender until the soup is silky smooth. Taste test. If it cooked down too much and is a tad thick, add some liquid {for extra creaminess use a dash of coconut milk- although- I didn’t add any extra “milk” and we loved the fresh, clean taste} and gently heat through for another ten minutes.
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