Wild Carrot and Water Mint Soup is a traditional British recipe for a classic vegetarian wild-ingredient soup of wild carrots in a vegetable stock base that's flavoured with water mint and basil and thickened with cornflour. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic British version of: Wild Carrot and Water Mint Soup.
(click this button to prevent the screen from sleeping so Cook Mode is 'ON')
This is an unusual soup made with wild carrot and water mint in that it's wild carrot greens that give most of the body to the soup (wild carrots don't actually have much edible flesh, though they do have a pronounced carrot scent). Just like cultivated carrots, the greens of wild carrots are edible. However, they do contain a chemical that can react with the skin causing dermatitis, so handle them with gloves whilst chopped (they're fine when cooked). This also means that you can prepare this soup with cultivated carrots and garden mint.
Ingredients:
2 tbsp vegetable oil
100g wild carrots, peeled and with the outer edible layer pared off
300g wild carrots, peeled and halved, for the stock
generous bunch of wild carrots greens, chopped
1 onion, sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
1l vegetable stock
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch) blended with 2 tbsp water
3 tsp fresh water mint, finely chopped
1 tsp fresh basil, shredded
water mint sprigs, to garnish
croutons
Method
Heat the oil in a large pan then add the halved wild carrots, onion and garlic. Cook gently until the onion softens then add the stock and season to taste. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Add the chopped carrot greens, bring back to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes more. Allow to cool a little, then press through a fine-meshed sieve to purée (this will both purée the ingredients and will leave behind the hard cores of the wild carrots).
Return to a pan, add the wild carrot parings and heat gently. Whisk-in the cornflour mix and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until slightly thickened before adding the chopped water mint and basil. Serve in soup bowls, garnished with mint sprigs and sprinkled with croutons.
