Leftovers Week: Carrot Soup with Dill

So my camera battery is dead, and I can't find my charger. If I could, you'd be drooling over a photo of the Carrot Soup I made tonight. Instead, you get to look at a ginormous bunch of raw carrots. Ah, technology.

Anyway, on to the soup. I'm really poor right now, so this is a leftovers/scrounging week to the extreme, and I happened to have an oddly high amount of fresh herbs and carrots sitting in the fridge. I had planned to sautée the carrots and a huge bunch of dill with some onion, but have actually managed to run out of olive oil and only had a bit to put in the pan as the veggies started to cook. Time to rethink the sautée.

Soup is generally my go-to dish during leftovers week, since pretty much anything can be turned into a delicious soup. I added a bit of homemade chicken stock to the sautéeing carrots, blended it all together once the mixture was cooked, and voilà! Carrot soup with dill, made for free!

Carrot Soup with Dill
(Total time: 25 minutes; Yields 2 servings)

• 5-6 medium carrots, chopped into 1/4 inch circles (if you use organic carrots, you can keep the skin on and get all those nutrients!)
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 3-ish cups of vegetable or chicken stock (preferably homemade)
• 1/2 cup of milk (I used 2%)
  
• 1/2 cup of chopped dill
• 1 tbsp. of olive oil
  
• Salt and pepper to taste
  

1. In a large pot, sautée onions and garlic in olive oil over medium-high heat until the onions start to turn translucent.

2. Add carrots, dill, and salt and pepper, stir. Allow a few minutes for the carrot and onion flavors to marry.

3. Add your stock, reduce heat to medium, and allow to simmer for about 10 minutes or until carrots are tender.

4. Once the carrots are cooked, ladle your mixture into a blender or food processor, add your milk, and blend until the soup reaches your desired consistency.

This soup works perfectly as a starter or as a main dish (if you're me). Since carrots are so rich with flavor, I found it completely satisfying as my whole dinner tonight. To fatten it up, feel free to add some croutons, a pad of butter, or some sour cream. To make it skinnier (even though it's pretty healthy to begin with), substitute the milk for more stock.

Enjoy!