But we're going to make this soup at home, serve it in a normal bowl, and we're going to do it for around three bucks for the entire pot. Which means this soup runs about 45-50c a serving, making it a front-runner for one of our most laughably cheap recipes here at Casual Kitchen.
People who say healthy food has to cost a lot simply have no clue.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did!
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Carrot and Tarragon Soup
Heavily adapted and simplified from Laurel's Kitchen
Ingredients:
6-7 carrots, peeled, cut into large 2-3” chunks
2-3 potatoes, peeled, cut into large 2-3” chunks
Water to cover
2-3 Tablespoons butter (or olive oil or canola oil)
2 onions, coarsely chopped
1 generous teaspoon dried tarragon
2 cups milk
2-3 cups water
1/2 cup white table wine
1/4 teaspoon black pepper and optional salt to taste
Directions:
1) Peel carrots and potatoes, chop into 2-3” chunks, and cover with water in a 4 quart pot. Bring to a boil and simmer until carrots are tender/al dente, about 20 minutes.
2) While carrots and potatoes are simmering, chop onions and add to a large soup pot with butter and dried tarragon. Saute onions for 10 minutes or so on medium heat until soft. Let stand.
3) When carrots and potatoes are cooked, drain and transfer to a food processor or blender in (roughly) three batches. With each batch, add about a third of both the 2-3 cups each of the milk and water. Puree until smooth, then transfer puree to soup pot and combine with the onions/tarragon. Add any of the remaining water and milk to the soup pot, bring to a boil, and simmer for 5-7 minutes or so. Add black pepper and optional salt if desired.
Serves 6-7 as a main dish.
Two recipe notes:
1) Let's itemize the cost of this laughably cheap recipe:
Butter/oil 15c
Onions 40c
Carrots 60c
Potatoes 40c
Milk 65c
Cheap box white wine 75c
Spices 10c
Total Cost: about $3.05 or about 45-50c per serving
2) Second, thinking about a snotty Manhattan restaurant serving $9 soups in one-inch deep bowls reminds me of Aesop's fable of the fox and the stork.
3) Finally, a few related links for new readers:
a) The 25 Best Laughably Cheap Recipes at Casual Kitchen
b) MORE! Top 25 Laughably Cheap Recipes at Casual Kitchen
c) Ten Healthy Recipes for Under $1 a Serving
d) Glossary of Casual Kitchen Memes
via the links on this site! You can also link to me or subscribe to my 
a cookbook we often feature here at CK because of its amazing collection of scalable, delicious and unusual soups and stews. The original source was Moroccan Lentil and Kale Stew on page 84. We simplified Jay's recipe by removing a couple of steps, and then we scaled it up and tweaked the ingredients a little. Finally, for the millionth time, buy this cookbook. It's incredibly useful for any cook seeking interesting, healthy and low-cost recipes. 
I've featured it a few times here at CK, most recently in the unusual 
and 
we've essentially stopped worrying entirely about cutting fat from our diet. We've found that not draining the meat 
It’s delicious, inexpensive, and you can get it on the table in around 30 minutes. 
(an exceptional cookbook, by the way--I recommend it). After testing it here at Casual Kitchen, I've simplified the recipe to make it even easier for readers. 
It's a standard sponge cake recipe, but I've added quite a few details to the instructions to make the steps more clear to readers (Better Homes is an excellent cookbook, but occasionally its instructions lack context and detail).
but you can find one for under $20 at any discount store. No need to overspend here: I bought a really crappy and inexpensive one more than 10 years ago and it's still going strong.
