Instant Pot Harissa-Spiced Carrot Soup

Based on a recipe from Food & Wine then adopted for the Instant Pot

When I came across this recipe a few weeks ago I was both excited and intrigued. Excited by the simplicity of the recipe and intrigued by the incorporation of Harissa, not to mention the rosemary and almond garnish. Cooking anything from Food & Wine is usually a challenge but to my delight this recipe was relatively simple.

What is Harissa?

Harissa is not something I use everyday and I wanted to learn more about the ingredient. Mystery solved, a hot pepper paste, primarily used as a condiment in North Africa. Tunisia is the most famous producer of harissa, and while recipes may vary according to region, the base is normally some form of roasted red peppers, baklouti pepper, serrano peppers, hot chili peppers, garlic paste, coriander seed, saffron, rose or caraway and oil (Harissa – Wikipedia).

Converting to the Instant Pot

Adopting this for the Instant Pot was relatively simple and necessary as I do not own a high speed blender. Cooking the carrots with the Instant Pot was an easy workaround. The carrots are now soft enough to be blended easily. As an aside cooking carrots in the Instant Pot helps them retain more beta-carotene, check out this article 7 Health Benefits of Pressure Cooking for more healthy facts.

Whats the Review?

There are few reasons why I love it, first the sweetness of the carrots and the spice of the harissa played perfectly off each other giving it excellent balance and just the right amount of heat. Second the addition of the butter added a deep richness and creaminess that let it eat like a more hearty soup.

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Finally, the garnish added a delightful layer of texture that rounded out the entire experience. Originally skeptical about using rosemary in the garnish, but frying it reduced the sharp and pungent flavor. Then pairing the rosemary and almonds added a nice crunch.