Soops of Carrots. is a traditional Stuart recipe (from Robert May's cookbook) for a classic vegetarian soup of carrots and fruit in a stock and white wine base. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Stuart version of: Soops of Carrots.
Being boild, cleanse, stamp, and season them in all points as before; thus also potatoes, skirrets, parsnips, turnips, Virginia artichocks, onions, or beets, or fry any of the foresaid roots being boil'd and cleansed, or peeled, and floured, and serve them with beaten butter and sugar.
Modern Redaction
Though I have stuck with the main carrots in this recipe, it is interesting to see Virginia artichokes mentioned as alternate root vegetables in the original recipe. These are Jerusalem artichokes and this strongly indicates that they were a common enough part of the English diet by the 1660s. Also be aware that the carrots referred to in this recipe are not the bright orange carrots of today (these were a later introduction). Stuart carrots would have been thinner, with woodier cores and much more variable in colour (ranging from pale cream through yellow, orange and red to purple).
Ingredients:
1kg (2 1/4 lbs) young carrots, scraped and chopped
4 tbsp dates, chopped
50g (2 oz) butter
150ml (3/5 cup) white wine
generous pinch of ground cinnamon
salt, to taste
1 tsp brown sugar
6 tbsp currants, boiled briefly then set aside to plump
1.2l (5 cups) vegetable stock or water
coarse brown sugar, to garnish
Method:
Wash the carrots thoroughly then bring a pan of water to a boil, add the spinach leaves and cook for about 30 minutes, or until tender. After this time, drain the carrots then chop as finely as you can before adding to a pan and mashing with the butter. Now add the dates, wine, cinnamon, salt, sugar, currants and stock.
Bring just to a boil then reduce to a simmer, cover the pan and cook for 20 minutes.
After this time, turn into a warmed tureen, sprinkle over some coarse brown sugar and serve.
