Hey All! I’ve just returned from a fantastic week in coastal Rhode Island with my family. We were blessed to spend a few years living in Boston before we had children and I will always love this time of year on the East Coast. Our time away was filled with lots of hours at the beach (yay for a warm early September and non-crowded beaches!) and plenty of good, fresh seafood. I may or may not have eaten my weight in lobster rolls! Now that I’m back to the Midwest and finally unpacked – let’s not mention the laundry – I’m also getting back into my kitchen. One of my favorite travel tricks is to order groceries to be delivered on the day we return from a trip and we supplemented that this time by also having Blue Apron deliver a few days after we returned! I love not having to stress out about getting to the grocery store for essentials and not having to think about meals (even for someone like me who generally finds cooking relaxin) was great. That being said, I’m really ready to get back into it and so for this week’s Good Food Reads, I’m sharing my list of what I’m hoping to make in the next week or so! I’m back in the proverbial saddle and so excited for a good ride. I hope you join us and share some of your recipe favorites from your kitchens or around the internet!…
Good Food Reads || 03.10.17
It has been one crazy winter here in Minneapolis. For the first time in nearly 50 years, Seattle had more snow than we did and it’s going to be 60 degrees (again!) in a few days. I’m definitely not complaining as I am a winter fan only from Thanksgiving to just after New Years. As the weather has warmed, I’ve found myself searching out the first flavors of spring: rhubarb, asparagus, and all the fresh veggies. Get ready people, because this week’s Good Food Reads is chock full of spring veggie goodness. Happy Reading!…
Fresh Summer Rolls with Peanut Dipping Sauce
Having spent my teens and most of my twenties as a vegetarian (gasp!), I came to appreciate the beauty of an easily customizable recipe. Now, with a three year old in the house, I still appreciate a recipe that I can easily adapt to any dietary restrictions or picky eaters at my table. These Fresh Summer Rolls with Peanut Dipping Sauce certainly fit the bill. Quick, customizable, fresh, and full of flavor, summer rolls are also perfect for those sticky dog days of summer when turning on the oven is the last thing you want to do!…
Carrot Ginger Soup with Coconut Shrimp
This Carrot Ginger Soup with Coconut Shrimp was course number 3 in our epic dinner party. (P.S.-don’t worry if you’re having a hard time following along with our dinner party menu reveal, I promise to post the entire menu in order, with links, in a few weeks. And if you just can’t wait, it was already posted on twitter so you can check it out there!). We knew we wanted a soup course to follow our Pomegranate, Squash and Apple salad. While we were initially dreaming up plans for our blog we had a lot of “business” lunches at Lakeshore Grill at Macy’s in Ridgedale (which has been totally redone, and if you haven’t checked it out you definitely should!). Their summer soup was a carrot scallion soup that was so good, I would order it for lunch and then order a cup to take with me to my evening shift at work. Looking around the internet for a soup that would be similar to this one, brought us to this Carrot Ginger Soup with Coconut Shrimp from Food and Wine. Holly made the soup first, and interestingly enough, this soup is not really similar to the carrot scallion we loved-but it is fabulous in its own right, so fabulous that we decided to add it to our dinner party menu. Sometimes you find exactly what you need, exactly when you need it!
I first made this soup for some friends while up at my cabin. My friends loved it and the soup was given rave reviews. This soup is creamy and bright, with a hint of heat that is well balanced by the coconut shrimp. It is ridiculously simple to make and yet tastes complex. We served our soup not only with the coconut shrimp, but also with a peanut-cilantro gremolata. So delicious, your guests will thank you!
And if anyone has a recipe for a good Carrot Scallion soup, please let us know, we are still looking!
Carrot Ginger Soup with Coconut Shrimp
This a simple yet elegant soup that tastes impressively complex. I personally think that the soup tastes better after sitting overnight, however it can be eaten right away if you just can't wait!
Author: Food and Wine (contributor: Corbin Evans)
Recipe type: Soup
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
- 1 medium onion, diced
- ¾ pound carrots, diced
- 1 Tablespoon ginger, grated
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 3 Tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 Tablespoons lime juice
- 2 Tablespoons light brown sugar
- 1 Tablespoon creamy peanut butter
- 1 teaspoon asian sesame oil
- 1 cup skim milk
- ¼ cup light coconut milk
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground pepper
- 3 Tablespoons cilantro, chopped
- 3 Tablespoons salted peanuts, chopped
- 16-30 large shrimp, peeled and deveined
- ½ cup shredded sweetened coconut
Instructions
- Heat 1 Tablespoon olive oil in a dutch oven until shimmering.
- Add onion and sauté for 4-5 minutes until onion is softened.
- Add carrots, ginger, and crushed red pepper, and sauté for 6 minutes.
- Add chicken broth and bring mixture to a boil.
- Turn heat down and simmer the mixture for approximately 20 minutes until the carrots are tender.
- Take dutch oven off of the heat and add in soy sauce, lime juice, brown sugar, peanut butter, and sesame oil.
- Using an immersion blender (or you can transfer the soup to a conventional blender), puree soup until smooth.
- Add skim milk and coconut milk.
- Season to taste taste with salt and pepper.
- You can eat the soup immediately, or refrigerate overnight and plan to eat the next day.
- When you are ready to eat the soup, reheat if not eating immediately.
- Preheat the oven to 425ºF.
- Thaw the shrimp if frozen.
- Combine the shrimp with 1 Tablespoon of olive oil until lightly coated.
- Roll shrimp in sweetened, shredded coconut.
- Spread the shrimp on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
- We sprinkled an additional Tablespoon of coconut onto shrimp on the baking sheet.
- Roast in the oven at 425ºF for 5-8 minutes keeping an eye on the shrimp to ensure it it is pink but the coconut is not burning.
- Combine the chopped cilantro and chopped peanuts to form the gremolata.
- Ladle the soup into bowls, top with gremolata and serve with shrimp.