Welcome to my Blog

Hi, my name is Suanne and I am writing this blog to share some of the tips and recipes I have learned or created with our backyard garden. The garden itself is actually my husband John's but we have had a garden for over 25 years so I have picked up some garden knowledge along the way. We live in Austin, Texas so we are blessed with a year long growing season. We always have something to eat from the garden and this pretty much dictates what we eat. All of our meals are planned around what happens to be growing at the time. One of the biggest challenges is what I like to call crop maintenance. What to do with all of the vegetables? Beyond sharing with the neighbors and friends I am always trying creative approaches to preparing the bounty. So the blog seemed like a good way to both keep track of and share my recipes.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Carrots

Well it is March already and John just harvested about 17 pound of carrots. That is alot of carrots. So what to do???

Here is a recipe for Carrot Soup that I put together as one solution.

Carrot Leek Soup

1 large Leek - sliced
5-6 large carrots - peeled and sliced
2-3 tablespoons olive or cocunut oil
1 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp chopped garlic
1 tsp powered ginger
1 tsp garan masala
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1/2 cup cream (optional)

Heat the oil in a large pot using med high heat. Add the leeks and carrots and cooks for about 5 minutes, add the ginger and garlic and other spices and cook a few minutes more. Add the broth and simmer until vegetable are VERY tender about 30 -45 minutes. Using an imersion blender if you have one puree the soup. If you do not have one just use a blender and puree in batches. You can add 1/2 of cream if you want a creamier version or eat as is.


Carrot Daikon vegetables with Miso

4 cups grated carrots
2 cups grated daikon radish
2-3 tables red miso paste (look in you refrigerator section)
2-3 tablespoons black sesame sees
1-2 tablespoons coconut oil or olive oil.

Heat the oil in large saute pan. Add the rest of the ingredients and saute until tender about 10 minutes.