deb's carrot miso soup

My obsession with our giant food processor continues.  With it, I made carrot soup with miso and sesame.  This was one of the easiest meals I have ever made, and had such a huge flavor payoff.  I can see it becoming an instant classic in my kitchen.



And I barely chopped anything.  I sometimes dread the prepwork associated with a recipe like this.  Chopping onions makes me me cry. A lot. I have to leave the room after just a few seconds. And our knife situation is not ideal (although it is infinitely better thanks to Peter, who came to visit and saw me cooking and prepping everything with a paring knife). None of that matters now that I have my food processor.  It chopped the onion, garlic, and carrots in like, two seconds.  And I didn't bother to peel the carrots, I just washed them well.



The one change I made to Deb's recipe was to add tahini, about a half cup, at the end when the miso is being mixed into the soup.  It was, after all the 'sesame' in the post's title that piqued my interest, and I was surprised to see it only as a garnish.  The toasted sesame oil was delicious on top, but if you're sesame obsessed like me and have a jar of tahini hanging out in your fridge, why not add some to the soup?



Mine isn't as pretty because I forgot about the scallions.  But it was tasty and warm and the perfect thing to eat while watching a new episode of Shameless.

Joy's pesto and Deb's sorbet (but boozier)

I've become obsessed with our food processor.  Phil's parents bought a new food processor for themselves, and gifted their older machine to us.  Let me say, it barely qualifies as a small kitchen appliance.  With its multiple blades, bowls, its own caboodle-type storage case, and enormous base with three big buttons, it is a beast.  But when I saw with what ease it made the best version of Joy's spinach and cashew pesto, I wondered where it had been all my life.
I ate it with a delicously garlicky hasselback potato, as Joy suggests, and Phil had his with pasta.  (And I had the leftovers for both lunch and dinner the next day.)

Since the beast was here to stay, I typed "food processor" into the search bar on smitten kitchen, and drooled over the possibilities.  We landed on an easy recipe for sorbet, and then bastardized it just a little bit (but in a way I hope Deb would approve of).

Boozy Strawberry Mango Sorbet
Adapted from smitten kitchen and the cuisinart recipe booklet that came with the food processor

1 generous cup frozen strawberries
1 generous cup frozen mango
1/3 cup limoncello
1/3 cup simple syrup (if you like it sweet; omit this if you like it tart)
Juice from half a lemon

Puree all of the ingredients in a food processor.  Taste, and add more lemon juice if you think it needs it.  Pour puree into a ziploc freezer bag and freeze until firm.  The alcohol prevents it from freezing too hard.  Enjoy like it's summer, even though it's 20º outside.  Makes two servings.