Creamy Carrot Soup

Here is a recipe for carrot soup that has a few variations. This particular soup can be made a couple of ways, depending upon if you have the HMR chicken soup available or nonfat dry milk powder. I make this in tandem with the orange shake recipe, then put the finished soup in the fridge so I have it available to microwave for lunch. In the olden days, I used to make this with lots of butter and real half & half. The variation here is not quite as creamy, but using the immersion blender gives it a nice, smooth consistency, and I can live with that.

1 lb bag of baby carrots

1 small potato

1 onion, diced

6 to 10 basil leaves

2 tsp. "Better Than Bullion" vegetable stock

1 package HMR chilcken soup mix OR 2 tablespoons nonfat dry milk mix

1 small green pepper and parsley (both optional)

Peel and cut potato into 1 inch chunks. Add baby carrots and potatoes to 2 cups of water in a soup pan. Bring to a boil, then simmer until carrots are soft. Remove 6 -8 carrots, slice into rounds, and set aside. (At this point, I remove 6 additional carrots and 3/4 cup liquid for an orange shake if I want it.) Add onion and basil leaves. I have also added green pepper from the garden at this point, but that's optional. After all of the vegetables are very soft, remove a few pepper bits and larger onion pieces. Using the immersion blender, blend the remaining vegetables smooth. Add either the soup mix or nonfat dry milk to 1/2 cup of cool water, blending until smooth. Add this mixture and the vegetable stock to the soup, and heat, stirring well. You may wish to blend again after this step if you like your soup super smooth. Add reserved vegetables to the mix, and serve, or pack into a container for rewarming. Garnish with parsley.