Your Edible French Garden

"I had never heard of eating carrot tops until I met Tom McCombie. I was actually a little skeptical, so before I asked Tom for the recipe, I checked to make sure carrot tops were edible." – Creasy, from Edible French Garden










The little French garden is truly the centerpiece for French cooking. By quick comparison, we think about that fine salad that we order from any given number of fine restaurants here where we live, and it still seems to often be that little random mix of greens on hand – hopefully not iceberg, but one never really knows.

Creasy offers up a series of possibilities for using the harvest right outside the kitchen door – a roasted garlic spread, a green aioli, and the reference from above, Cream of Carrot Top Soup, which turned out, for Creasy's sampling, an absolute delight. For this recipe, it call initially for the creation of a stock mixed by sauteed onion, garlic, butter and thyme for seasoning. Add to this 2 medium potatoes peeled and chopped and let simmer for half an hour, then puree to desired consistency, adding cream if desired.

Finally comes the carrots themselves. She calls for us to "pick over the carrot tops, removing any stems or yellow leaves" then plunging them into a pot of boiling water. After only a touch of the boiling heat, the greens also then get pureed. One can just about imagine the smell of the two separate purees at this point – carrots have one of the more distinct, earthy, bright smells of all vegetables. Serve the soup by filling the bowls first with two thirds of the carrot, then ladling the green puree in the middle, creating layers that no doubt resemble the layers of carrots themselves.

As I write this, it seems like an almost overly simple description, but it seems to reflect a bit like the very process of making real soups from the potager garden – simplicity is the very essence of it all, and trying to highlight the distinct flavors of the fresh ingredients themselves. A little touch of thyme over the top; maybe the potatoes come from a little portion of the garden? Fresh as possible cream? It takes just little steps of extra time to do the nimble work of the kitchen garden.