Homemade Soup is Fast Food!

The other night I came home wanting to cook something quick and use up my carrots and potatoes I still had.

When speed is of the essence, I pull out my pressure cooker. Mine's not a fancy one, but it cooks veggies great and soup is done quick as a snap.

I peeled some carrots and potatoes and tossed them in covering them with water - maybe double or triple the amount of veggies.

While that was coming up to pressure I cut up an onion - not too finely because of my later trick - and a couple of garlic cloves with some fresh basil.

Seven minutes of pressure cooking later, I ran the pot under running water to release the pressure quickly. I opened the top, tossed in the onion, garlic and basil and cooked it down for about 10 minutes while adding some Creole Seasoning. I didn't measure anything. I just seasoned to taste.

I also had maybe an ounce of coconut milk left in a can in the fridge so I tossed that in for a touch of creaminess.

When it was all done I grabbed the immersion blender and let it rip at slow speed to just mix it a bit. I left some small pieces of carrot and potato just for fun. It was good with a salad and some pita bread I had.

Homemade Carrot Potato Soup done in less than 30 minutes.

The carrots were left over from another great recipe I tested for Julie Hasson's upcoming "Vegan Diner" cookbook. I've been cooking lots of new recipes from it.

This is really going to be an awesome cookbook. Here are some shots (from my lousy camera, sorry) I took of some test recipes (note: some of these recipes are still in development, but they're all great.)

Carrot Pineapple Loaf Cake - also great with a schmear of Tofutti Cream Cheese.

Grace's favorite - a rack of Banana Biscuits, which are almost like scones.

Smoky Potato Scramble, which stars an amazing ingredient I had never tried before.

My FAVORITE - Orange Cornbread Waffles. I can't tell you how many of these I've eaten. Incredible!