Carrot soup

Ingredients

• 1 onion cut into wedges
• 800 g carrots peeled and roughly chopped
• butter
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp runny honey
• 2 litres vegetable or chicken stock
• 200 ml crème fraîche
• chopped to make 4 tbsp (use any one or a mix of 2 or 3) mint, basil or chervil

Instructions

1. 1

   Heat the oven to 200c/fan 180c/gas 6 and put the onions and carrots in a roasting tin with a few knobs of butter. Roast for 30 minutes or until the veg are tinged brown. Tip into a pan, add the bay leaf, honey and stock and bring to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes or until the carrots are very tender, then remove the bay and whizz the lot in a blender until smooth. Sieve if you’d like it really smooth. Season and keep warm.

2. 2

   Mix the crème fraîche and herbs and season. Serve the soup with quenelles of herbed crème fraîche.