Carrot and Honey Stone Soup
or this soup's for the BEES!
August 2012

During a lovely respite from the heat, I sat sipping iced honey tea (great recipe - e-mail if you want that too) and was inspired to pay homage to the Bees and one of my favorite ingredients ever: HONEY.

It's all about the "B"s this stone soup season and to start the season right we're giving you a chance to taste some BEE honey in a yummy soup that is great warm or chilled (which is how I taste tested it most recently - the break from the heat wasn't for very long).

Fun honey fact (that I'm constantly telling our tour members during residency, especially our poor allergy laden executive director): if you consume local honey daily (about a spoon full) your allergies will lesson within about a month.  The local honey creates an all natural antibody to the lovely local pollens, meaning you will have fewer sniffers and bigger appetites for all this wonderful soup!

Ingredients

• 1 magic stone
• 1 pound carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
  
• 3 shallots, chopped
  
• 2 cups reduced sodium chicken broth*
  
• 1 cup of milk (whole or 2%)
  
• 1/4 cup of local honey (not sure if yours is local-go to your closest farmer's market - I am sure there will be a local honey bear waiting for you to add to your honey collection)
  
• ground nutmeg
  
• minced chives
  

In a heavy soup kettle or large saucepan, set your carrots, shallots, stone and broth on medium heat, covered.  Let the mixture simmer until your carrots are soft (about 15 minutes).

Remove the soup from the heat and your stone from the soup.  Either transfer the mixture to a food processor and blend or use an immersion blender and puree until the soup is smooth.

Return the soup to low heat and add the milk and honey and toss the stone back in for the most flavorful results.  Let the soup simmer, stirring frequently, until heated through.

Flavor with nutmeg and either serve (sprinkling with chives) or let cool and then transfer to a container for chilling in the refrigerator.  Once cold (later that night or the next day) serve with your chives (and an optional additional dab of honey).

*yes you can substitute vegetable broth, but it is ideal to use something that is not strongly flavored with mushrooms - we love mushrooms, but this soup has a delicate flavor and mushrooms are very potent - so enjoy your veggieness with a broth derived using more root vegetables

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