Recipe: Carrot Souffle

Mr. Bill Cook, founder of Cook Medical, and the reason I ended up in Bloomington, passed away on April 15th. I don't know if it was among his favorites, but I do know he immensely enjoyed this recipe. The way I've heard the story is this souffle was served at the Cook Employee Banquet one year and the attendees, including Mr. Cook, absolutely loved it. Next year it was gone and the attendees, including Mr. Cook, were not pleased. The following year it was back.

What Mr. Cook wanted, Mr. Cook got. But when you're an entirely unpretentious billionaire that doesn't care about money, I think people are generally alright with you getting your way.

Carrot Souffle

Adapted from the kitchens of the West Baden Resort

60 minutes, 45 minutes unattended

6 servings as a side

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. carrots
• ½ c. sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3 Tbsp. melted butter
• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 3 Tbsp. flour
• 3 eggs
• ¼ tsp. nutmeg
• 1 tsp. salt

Process:

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees.
2. Peel the carrots and boil them in a large pot of salted water until tender.
3. Drain the carrots and place them in a food processor with the sugar, vanilla, melted butter, olive oil, flour, eggs, nutmeg and salt. Process until smooth.
4. Pour into a greased 8x8 dish and bake for 45 minutes.

Leftover quality: Good

Tips and Tricks:

1. To speed up the boiling, cut the carrots down from their full length before adding them to the water. Test the doneness with a fork – if it goes through easily, they’re cooked enough.
2. You can bake the soufflés in individual ramekins if you’d like. Reduce the baking time to 30-35 minutes if you choose this method.
3. If you’re baking in the 8x8 dish, you can serve the soufflé sliced from the dish, or you use a fork to whip the soufflé and serve it like mashed potatoes.