John had gone to California before me, so I had plenty of time to putter around making myself exactly what I wanted to eat. Apparently "exactly what I wanted to eat" consisted of 1. lots of vegetables and 2. hot hot biscuits.

So these biscuits had been around lately on everybody likes sandwiches and before on bread and honey. They're essentially just baking powder biscuits with a handful of extra business added to make them extra tangy and herby. I decided to make mine with yogurt and cottage cheese instead of the milk and cheddar, and fresh basil instead of the dried herbs.

This was an excellent idea, especially considering the rest of my lunch really consisted of a series of vegetable purees. At some point I’m going to have to get off the puree as just soup and start trying some juices. But then I have to wash the blender! It is truly a tragedy for our times. I guess I can figure out a way to use the stick blender too, considering it came with a little cup and blade attachment.

ANYWAY.

I had these with spring tonic: carrot soup with handfuls of fresh dill. I think Deborah Madison has some other soup she calls spring tonic, too. What was it? Maybe I will check once I get back across the country to the land where my cookbooks live.

Carrot dill spring tonic

red onion/shallot
olive oil/butter
carrots
veg broth/water and carrot/onion trimmings
fresh herbs: dill, parsley, anything else you think sounds good
salt, pepper, maybe a little hot pepper if you want to make it a tiny bit spicy

Warm some olive oil or butter in a reasonable soup pot. I used both, because I like that kind of thing. Peel and chop about half an onion or a whole shallot; soften it in the oil.

Peel a carrot or two. Throw the peels, plus your onion trimmings and any other vegetable you may have lying around for stock, into a saucepan with a couple cups of water. Cover the pot, bring it to a boil, and simmer for a few minutes to make yourself some vegetable broth. After about ten minutes, you can scoop out the vegetables, and you’ll be left with lovely pale orange broth. Or you can use whatever other veg broth you have lying around. I like doing it this way, though, since you get a thoroughly carrot-flavored soup out of the deal.

Chop the carrot into smallish chunks, then throw them into the softened onion. Stir it all up and cook for a few minutes. When the carrots soften (or a few minutes afterward, depending on how fast your broth pot boils), add maybe two cups of broth. Bring the business to a low boil, cover, turn down the heat, and simmer until the carrots are completely cooked. This won’t take very long: five or ten minutes should do it.

While the soup is simmering, break out your fresh herbs. You can probably use anything that seems sufficiently fresh and springy to you; I like using lots of dill and a couple stalks of parsley. Destem them and chop them all up. You should be left with a pile of clearly delicious, chlorophyll-ridden herby bits.

Take your soup off the heat, let it cool for a minute or two, and puree it with a stick blender (or real blender, if you feel like washing that behemoth). Throw in all the herbs, stir it up, and you're done.

Eat it! I had my soup and biscuits with some fake bloody mary, i.e. veg juice with a bunch of seventynine cent hot sauce shaken in. Yes! Liquid vegetable action!