I watched The French Cooking Academy’s video on French Style Carrot Soup that is actually called Potage Crecy A La Briarde. It looked very easy to prepare and I had all the ingredients ((except for one)). In the video he didn’t tell you most of measurements but it was pretty easy to guess. My idea of portion size might differ from your idea of portion size. This recipe makes around 6 medium sized bowls of soup…

Ingredients for around 6 servings

2 lbs carrots – trimmed, peeled, sliced extra thin on a mandolin

1/2 a large sweet onion – peeled, sliced thin on a mandolin

1 sprig fresh thyme

4 oz unsalted butter – (2oz to start soup, one ounce to finish soup and one ounce to fry bread cubes)

1/2 teaspoon course sea salt

1/4 teaspoon sugar

10 oz potato – peeled and cut into small cubes slightly bigger than peas

4 cups water

2 Tablespoons creme fraiche (I substituted a high quality cream cheese that was without preservatives, gum and stabilizers…but in a pinch sour cream or French or Australian style yogurt would work)

1/2 a quality roll – cut into small cubes

1/4 cup canola oil to fry bread

2 Tablespoons fresh chervil or cilantro leaves

Directions

In a pot on medium heat melt 2 ounces of butter and add the carrots, onion, thyme, salt and sugar. Cover with lid or foil and let it steam for five minutes.

Add the potatoes and water. This needs to SLOW SIMMER for 15 minutes. (this did take a while…I left my pot on the medium heat….I started timing once it started to simmer and then I turned it down a bit more.

During this time you might want to fry up the roll cubes. Get a fry pan on medium high with the oil and one ounce of butter. Stir every so often and they get golden and crisp. (this doesn’t take too long…maybe? 5 minutes) When done remove from pan and put on a paper towel lined pan.

When your pot of soup has slow simmered for 15 minutes remove the thyme sprig. Blend with a stick blender. Add the creme fraiche to taste. (In the video he first said one tablespoon….then he tasted it and said I need another……then he put a third Tablespoon in….I thought two tablespoons seemed right in the batch I made but you might prefer more) Also blend in the butter. It should be very smooth and creamy. If you want to be prefect strain the soup.

Serve soup topped with fresh chervil or fresh cilantro leaves and only few croutons. (I added a pinch of piment d’ espelette)

A special THANKS to The French Cooking Academy for making a video on how to prepare Potage Crecy A La Briarde – French Style Carrot Soup.