Carrot and cheddar soup

I love puréed soups. The texture is so satisfying, and they're foolproof -- you don't have to worry about how any of the components look after they're cooked, because they're just going to get ground to a pulp!

Basically, any puréed soup is made the same way. I always like to start with some onions (doesn't matter how you cut them, since they're going to get pulverized, so I just slice the onion into about 1-inch slices and then quarter the slices), which I brown in a stock pot with a little bit of olive oil (not too much, you don't want greasy soup). Once they're brown, I take any pre-made stock (usually chicken but anything works; I think I used beef stock on this one) and add 6 cups or so (depends how much soup you want). For this beautiful treasure, put in a whole bunch of chopped carrots (maybe 2 pounds), a couple of cut up potatoes, and set the whole thing to simmer until the carrots and potatoes are very tender.

The next step is easiest if you have an immersion blender, but you can also use a regular blender or food processor, you just have to purée the soup in batches rather than all at once. So yeah. Just blend the whole thing until it's smooth. Once the blending is done, add a couple of handfuls of grated sharp cheddar cheese, stir until it's well integrated, and taste your creation. Depending on what kind of stock you used, it may or may not be salty enough. These kinds of soups need a lot of salt to taste good, so don't be afraid to be generous. But be careful. You can always add more salt at the table -- you can't take it away.

Once the soup is blended and cheesed to taste, I like to finish it with a little bit of heavy cream (maybe 1 cup, but it depends on how much you have).

How easy was that?

Local, naturally grown carrots and potatoes are easy to find in Quebec year-round, as is stock (you can usually find it premade at any of the butchers at the public markets, or you can chicken carcasses for about $2 and make your own). Quebec makes excellent Cheddar, too, so this is a perfect dish to showcase what amazing things can be made from some of our simplest local ingredients.

Lentils with onions, carrots, and bacon

This recipe was taken straight from Mark Bittman's "How To Cook Everything," so I won't reproduce it exactly -- as usual, just paraphrasing. I wouldn't want to infringe on anyone's copyright!

Pork is a beautiful thing. It's full of flavour, unbelievably versatile, and, comparatively speaking, cheap. In Quebec, high quality pork is easy to find year round. I've already mentioned Porcmeilleur, a farm-direct pork vendor at the Jean-Talon market. Their pork is fabulous, and they have just about every imaginable cut, both fresh and frozen. While their bacon is more expensive than Claude & Henri at Atwater (about $12/kilo as opposed to $11 at C&H), it is really perfect, so I won't complain too noisily. One of these days I'll do a taste test to compare the two.

To make this fabulously tasty, cheap, and healthy side dish, you start by chopping about six strips of bacon into 1 cm squares. Fry them in a medium saucepan (not a frying pan) until they're brown and crispy, and then take them out of the pan, leaving all the grease behind. In the grease, cook a medium onion and a couple of carrots (that you have diced beforehand, of course) until the onion is translucent. Then, drop in two cups of lentils, some thyme, a bay leaf, salt and pepper, and 3-4 cups of stock (beef, chicken, vegetable, whatever). Bring to a boil, turn down the heat, and simmer until the lentils are tender, adding more stock as you go if necessary. You don't want it to be too soupy, so at the end if you need to cook off extra liquid you can turn the heat up and let it boil rapidly until it reaches the consistency you like. Then, put the bacon back in, and serve with a sprig of parsley. This could also be made in a crock pot -- just throw the ingredients (minus the bacon, you have to fry that yourself) in the pot in the morning, and your dinner will be waiting for you when you get home from work.

Protein-rich lentils, I learned, are a Canadian specialty. While the biggest producer in the world is India, by far, Canada is second and exports more lentils than any other country, since India's lentils are mostly consumed domestically. So, while we in Quebec have to live with the fact that our lentils have probably travelled by train across the country from Saskatchewan, we know we're still supporting the national economy, and they're not travelling around the world on a boat. As it happens, lentils were one of the first crops domesticated in the Near East, and have more protein (by weight) than any other plant except soybeans and hemp, making them a staple for vegetarians. Thanks, Wikipedia!

Local carrots and onions are always easy to find, making them great winter staples. They can both be used in so many dishes -- be on the lookout for an entry on carrot and cheddar soup tomorrow!