Currabinny cooks: A recipe for perfect carrot and coriander soup and bread to go with it
Warming, comforting and delicious - carrot and coriander soup is hard to beat. Picture: Bríd O'Donovan
We recently discovered bog carrots at our local greengrocers here in Dublin. They come encrusted in thick black boggy earth, orange skin barely visible. There is very little I have managed to find out about the growing of carrots in bogs, other than that there are a handful of producers such as Downes Farm in Mullingar who supply a few select greengrocers around the country. I would usually have assumed, bogland as poor land for cultivation, but trust us when we say, bog carrots are the best you will ever taste.
The sticky earth that encases the carrots of course keep the carrots fresher for longer and seem to ensure carrots of the most vibrant orange colour. Scrubbing away the dirt and giving them a scant peel, the flavour is intensely carroty with subtle earthy notes of smoke and leather. The first thing we did with the bog carrots was to give them a simple glaze by slowly cooking them in butter, sugar and salt. Excited by our new discovery we endeavoured to eat these bog carrots for the whole week.
