This recipe was inspired by one I saw on the New York Times Cooking website for a roasted carrot and lentil ragout. (https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/9566-roasted-carrot-and-red-lentil-ragout) Their recipe was not vegetarian, so when I saw carrots were in the Hollygrove produce box this week I thought I’d give it a BugBites makeover and turn it into a spicy, vegetarian soup!

These carrots are full on Bug’s Bunny “What’s up Doc?” beauties.

I ended up supplementing with a few organic carrots from Whole Foods because I wanted this recipe to be 100% carrot-packed. It was an interesting observation between what carrots look like straight from the farm, and what we are used to carrots looking like at the store. I have no doubts that these dirty, gnarly, smaller-than-grocery-store carrots would be shoved to the bottom of the bin and neglected by whole foods customers. However, in my kitchen, we embrace the ugly produce! It is often the most delicious & nutritious.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

As the oven is heating, cut the stems off and peel the carrots. I cut the grocery-bought carrots in half because they were much larger than their farmer’s market counterparts. Toss with one tablespoon of olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Lay them on a roasting pan or cookie sheet, and pop those suckers in the oven. As you can see, I don’t take much care on how they are arranged. They’ll roast the same either way.

Roast for 20 minutes, then remove from the oven to cool. Once cool enough to handle, cut into a 1/4 inch dice.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot or saucepan over medium heat. Add one diced onion and allow to sweat until they are translucent, but not brown. Add diced carrots and stir. Sprinkle in chili powder, paprika, and red pepper flakes. The spice in this soup adds a little extra pep and is cooled by the sweetness of the roasted carrot.

Cook for 1 minute and add 1 cup of red lentils. I suppose you can use any color lentils you would like or have on hand, but I think the red looks rather nice with the carrots. I tend to embrace warm solar colors on dreary winter days.

Add 5 cups of vegetable stock. Check out my recipe for how to make it yourself: https://bugbites.blog/2017/02/09/homemade-vegetable-stock/

Season with lots of salt and pepper.

Simmer for 20 minutes or until the lentils are cooked. Add 1 more cup of vegetable stock in order to turn this chunky ragout into a soup.

Serve immediately and top with cracked black pepper and fresh cilantro.

Roasted Carrot and Red Lentil Soup

Level: Easy

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

8 carrots

3 T olive oil

1 white or yellow onion, diced

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon paprika

Red pepper flakes to taste

1 cup red lentils

6 cups vegetable stock

Salt and pepper to taste

Cilantro for garnish

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees

Trim and peel the carrots. Toss with 1 T of olive oil, and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Roast for 20 minutes. Allow to cool and dice.

Add 2 T of olive oil to a large pot. Add onion and sweat until translucent. Stir in diced carrots. Sprinkle with chili powder, paprika, and red pepper flakes. Cook for 1 minute.

Add lentils and 5 cups of vegetable stock. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer for 20 minutes, then add 1 cup of vegetable stock. Simmer for an additional minute.

Serve with cracked black pepper and cilantro. Bone app the tea everyone!