Turks love soup or çorba, an easy one to pronounce for a change: chorba.
All small local lokantas especially in the more traditional areas such as Kadıköy or Üsküdar will offer günün çorbası/ soup of the day. To find out what it is, just ask the waiter:
Bugün günün çorbası ne?
My friend Gaye who ran a successful restaurant in Beyoğlu for thirty years told me that the two most popular soups in the restaurant were tomato and mercimek, or lentil. I wasn’t at all surprised! Mercimek is everywhere, it must be the nation’s no 1 – I probably make it once a fortnight myself in winter. And nobody can argue that tomato is a universal favourite.
When we are having friends over, I almost always tend to choose a soup as a starter but not those traditional Turkish ones like lentil or Ezo Gelin as they are robust, filling soups more suitable for lunch. I look at what I have in the fridge and take it from there.
And there I see my carrots! I buy them regularly from the market: I love the colour, I love the taste, and I love the crunch when raw.
I like this carrot soup: it’s one of the nicest homemade soups there is but it’s smooth enough to grace any special dinner party. In fact it has a fancy name when it’s going posh: Potage Crécy. Served with a swirl of cream or yogurt and a grind of black pepper, it looks a million dollars but costs only a few lira to make.
Ingredients for Delicious Carrot Soup or Potage Crécy
Serves 4-6
Butter for frying
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
1 lb/ ½ kilo carrots, peeled and chopped
1 large potato, peeled and diced
1 ½ pints/ 900 ml chicken stock ( a stock cube is fine)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp/ 1 x 15ml spoon chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp/ 1 x 5ml spoon sugar
To finish:
4 tbsp/ 4 x 15 ml spoons fresh single cream
Fried croûtons (optional)
Method
· Melt a knob of butter in a pan. Add the vegetables, cover and cook gently for 5 mins. Gradually stir in the chicken stock. Bring to the boil, add the seasoning, parsley and sugar, lower the heat and half cover. Simmer gently for 20 – 30 mins or until the carrots are tender.
sorry, I can’t format these pictures as picnik isn’t responding |
· Purée the soup in an electric blender or use your hand-held stick blender. Make sure all the vegetables are puréed as consistency is important. Reheat gently and adjust the seasoning. Pour into warmed bowls or a soup tureen for serving. TIP: to warm a tureen, have your electric kettle filled beforehand. While the soup is gently reheating, boil the water and then fill your tureen with it and cover with the lid. Throw out the water when you’re ready to serve and replace with the hot soup. It really makes a difference!
· Swirl a spoonful of cream in each bowl and add a little ground black pepper. Top with fried croûtons if you like or serve with a good brown bread.
carrot soup with a swirl of cream, black pepper and a few red pepper flakes |
Afiyet olsun!
wonderful recipe! i can't wait to try it!!!
This looks so good for a nice cold day, which we have plenty here already.
You are right Turks do love their corba…..my husband is a Turk and every night he has to have corba before anything else…….yesterday I made a big pot of Yayla Çorbası)……this will keep him for 3 days.
Love your pics and thanks for sharing, I'll be sure and make this soup. I usually have all the ingredients.
Looks delicious. I love it because it's seems simple to make and that's as important to me as the taste. So, thanks for sharing.
oh good – yes this is simple but tasty. You will love it and so will your husband Erica!
Another perfect recipe for the cold days here in N.Wales. Thank you Claudia xx
This is a beautiful soup, Claudia! Such a simple use of carrots, but so smooth and satisfying!
On another front, I have been thinking of you a lot since the news broke of the earthquake in Turkey … I hope you and yours are safe.
Carrot soup is one of my favorites and there are many variations. Your recipe looks delicious.
I have an aversion to cooked carrots but this looks lovely, I might give it a go.
I have to confess it isn't all that cold here yet – we have the heating on only intermittently. But still, soup is always a good idea! Try this one and see what you think.
Ah..very opportune. A man in the village gave Mr A a huge bag of carrots yesterday, so I'll make a big pot of this today. Makes a change from mercimek..which I make at least once a week.
Does it freeze well?
Hi Ayak. I don't usually freeze soups but I am sure this one wld be fine :).
it looks really good! the soup is perfect for a rainy day
I love Carrot Soup.It looks very delicious
Cali
I made a carrot soup like this (got pretty much the same recipe somewhere else) with courgette and walnut muffins for some friends last week and everybody loved it! I think this is going to become my go to easy dinner 😉