Smoked Carrot Bisque
Ingredients:
2 lbs carrots, peeled and trimmed
1 tbsp vegetable or canola oil
1/2 large onion, chopped
1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 tbsp minced ginger root
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp curry powder
4 cups vegetable stock (homemade preferred)
3 cups smoked chicken stock (go all veggie stock if you want this to remain a vegetarian dish)
1 heaping tbsp butter
3/4 cup cream
Salt and pepper to taste
Drizzle maple syrup
Directions:
To get started, fire up your grill or smoker and set for some low n’ slow (225F) smoking
Use 4 Smokinlicious! apple infused woodcuts to provide a sweet and steady level of smoke
Place the whole, peeled carrots on your smoker and let smoke away for 2 hours
When they’re well smoked, remove them from your cooker and hold them aside
Heat the oil in a soup pot or dutch oven over medium heat and add in the onion, jalapeno pepper, and garlic
Let that cook until the onion has softened up (about 5 minutes)
Chop up the smoked carrots and add that, along with the celery, and continue to cook it all for about 5-10 more minutes
Toss in the turmeric, curry powder, and ginger and incorporate into the veggies
When evenly distributed, pour in the veggie stock (and smoked chicken stock, if using)
Bring this to a good boil and then reduce to simmer for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally
When the vegetables are tender, strain them out of the soup and puree in a blender until smooth
When the veggies are all nicely pureed, pour the pureed veggies back into the soup and continue on the simmer for another half-hour
Whisk the butter into the soup point and let it melt in
Stir in the cream and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper (use white pepper if you don’t want the black flecks to show)
You can strain the soup again to catch any larger bits not rendered down by that spin in the blender
Ladle into a serving bowl and run a short drizzle of pure maple syrup into each bowl
