Creamy Carrot Fennel Soup
2 tablespoons olive oil or vegan margarine
1 clove garlic
1 medium onion
1 bulb fennel
6 large carrots, peeled
8 cups vegetable broth
1/4 - 1/2 cup quick cooking oats
salt and pepper to taste
You will need a blender (handheld preferred) to create this wonderful, creamy soup!
Chop the garlic, onion, carrot, and fennel bulb. If the fennel has leaves, chop them finely and reserve for later use.
Heat the olive oil or margarine in a soup pot over medium heat. Add all of the chopped vegetables at once and stir. Cook the vegetables, stirring occasionally, for 10-15 minutes until they are tender. Leave the heat low enough so that the onions do not brown too much.
Add the veggie broth and the oats. The oats will give the soup a wonderful creamy texture once it is blended and will not affect the taste. Allow to simmer for 15-20 minutes until all of the vegetables are extremely tender and both the carrots and the fennel can easily be pierced with a fork.
Ideally, use a hand blender to blend the soup until it is smooth and creamy. Alternately, pour the soup in batches into a normal blender to blend and transfer the blended portion into a separate bowl.
At this point, add the finely chopped fennel leaves for extra flavor and a little color and add salt and pepper to taste.
Voila! You are finished. Now serve this soup hot or chilled with a crusty bread and enjoy!
SO HOW'D IT GO?
I cooked it as is, and it was perfect. I think lentils would obscure the taste of the fennel (which is a delicate flavour, but comes out well wen oats are used). Thanks for the recipe — it's going into my recipe box!
i've been trying a lot of new soup recipes this week... and this one is my most favorite by far - i think it's good enough to add to my permanent recipe box - this one will get printed out and used again and again. 8)
i sprinkled chopped green onions on top and that complimented the taste very well.
as expected the fennel taste wasnt overbearing so i added the contents of a fennel teabag during cooking, awesome results, delish, perfect for a cold winters night (and very comforting for my poor boyfriend who has just had a filling and is feeling sorry for himself). packed full of vitamins too, yummy! :D
or you could add few fennel seeds, i have mine simmering on the stove top as we speak, i'll let you know how it comes out ! ::)
Fennel has kind of a licorice-y taste-- so I would add a little anise seed to enhance the flavor. Not much though, it's fairly strong.
This was a nice recipe. I used red lentils instead of oats, and I think they probaby produced a similar effect. The texture was nice and creamy. It didn't taste of fennel as much as I expected, and I'm wondering if there's some additional herb I could use to enhance the taste of the fennel? It's possible I obscured the taste slightly by using 2 stock cubes. I plan to try again.