Carrot Soup

As much as I love Costco, I end up with endless leftovers and usually find myself throwing out perfectly good food. Statistically we waste over 27% of our food. Recently I bought a 4 pound bag of baby carrots at Costo (don't ask why) for a vegetable soup I was planning to make. I knew this was way more than I needed, but I wanted them for the soup, was too lazy to make another stop at a regular market, so I bought them. I made the vegetable soup, but now what should I do with the rest of the carrots? I decided to make carrot soup. The results are below. I served this to Ron recently, and he loved it. We ate it the night I made it, then I froze the rest in 2 batches and will eat it in a few weeks. I hope you like it.

Carrot Soup

1-2 T. olive oil
2 lbs baby carrots, or any carrots, peeled and sliced
4 cups vegetable broth (or water)
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1 onion, diced
1 T. whole cloves, wrapped in cheesecloth and tied (I didn't have whole cloves, so I just used a tsp of ground cloves)
1 T. lemon juice
1/4 c. whipping cream
salt and pepper to taste

Put oil in pan, add all the carrots, onion, garlic and cloves. Cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onions are translucent. Add liquid and simmer for 30 minutes or until carrots are tender.

Remove from heat, and purree in a blend in 2 batches. Return to pan, add lemon juice, whipping cream and salt and pepper to taste. If you're really watching your weight, use milk instead of the cream, or omit the dairy all together. If you feel the soup is too thick, simply thin to desired consistency with more vegetable stock or water. Enjoy.