Roasted Carrot Soup

Preheat your oven to 375ºF.

Start by peeling and cutting carrots in half, then in fourths so your carrots look like sticks. The important thing is to cut all of them the same size so they cook evenly (do your best).

You will need to use 2 cookie sheets to roast them.

Cut the bottom of a head of garlic so the cloves are all exposed.

On each pan, drizzle some olive oil and place the carrots over top, moving them around so they all get a thin coat of oil on them (about 4 tablespoons of oil on each pan). Make sure they are not overlapping.

Place the head of garlic on one of the two pans, open side down and make sure you have olive oil where you place it.

Season your carrots with a bit of salt and pepper and place them in the oven. Now, depending on the thickness of your carrots, the roasting time might be longer or quicker. Start by roasting them for about 15 minutes and test them with a fork. You want them to be completely cooked and ‘”mushy.” Your fork will go through them without any pressure. It took my carrots about 35 to 40 minutes to roast but I had some huge carrots.

While the carrots are cooking, put butter in a medium pan and heat it up on medium high heat. When the butter is bubbling, add the shallots and cook on the same heat for about 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Reduce your heat to medium low and cook the shallots for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently, until the are soft and sweet (taste them).

Once your carrots are cooked, take them out of the oven and transfer them into a medium saucepan, along with 5 of the roasted garlic cloves and the cooked shallots. (To take the cloves out of the head of garlic, simply press on it and they will come out, no problem. You can use the rest of the cloves to serve with a creamy cheese like goat cheese, brie, etc.)

Add chicken broth to the saucepan and bring to a boil, covered. Boil for about 4 to 5 minutes and turn the heat off. Let the mixture cool a bit (about 10 minutes) before transferring it to the food processor or the blender.

Transfer the whole thing into a food processor of a good blender and add your cilantro. Process until it has reached a soup consistency. You might have to add a bit of chicken broth to make it thinner (to your liking).

Enjoy!