Season To Taste

- Two Good Friends & Their Love For Food.



Parsnip Soup
{{ Sandra }} December 20, 2008

I get very excited when I can make a recipe from all homegrown ingredients. This soup started with Wardi and I taking a stroll down to the allotment to dig up the parsnips and pick some swiss chard (the stalks make a great substitute for celery).

It was a fresh but rather chilly winter’s morning and the grounds over at the allotment were rather muddy too. I guess it made digging up the parsnip a whole lot easier. (Wardi says: “I could have helped with the digging, but I had important arty shots to take!!! Hee hee hee”)

{{click image to enlarge}} You can see that my parsnips have multiple roots where the growing tip has come across a stone and then split either side of it. Not supermarket pretty but looks aren’t everything.

Whilst there I couldn’t resist digging up some potatoes and then having a nose at what everyone else is doing on their plots. Once home I pulled out some onions from their storage box in the shed and after a break for some photos it was time to start on the soup.

   
Parsnip Soup: Makes 6-8 servings.

approx 1kg parsnips (I use 6-8 parsnips of varying shape and size)
1-2 onions
3-4 cloves of garlic
1-2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 sticks of celery (or several stalks from swiss chard or perpetual spinach, they make great substitute !!!)
vegetable stock (1-1.5 litres)
1 teaspoon cumin
1 red chilli (fresh or dried – mine are semi-dried at the moment although give it a few more weeks and it will be completely dried)
salt and pepper

  • Peel and roughly chop the onion, garlic, celery and parsnips.
  • Heat the oil in a large saucepan.
  • Gently fry the onion and garlic for 3 minutes.
  • Add the parsnips and celery. Stir well and allow to soften a little – approx 10 minutes.
  • Sprinkle in the cumin during this time and as it warms up the smell is very alluring.
  • Pour over hot vegetable stock (I used stock powder and then boiling water from the kettle) until the vegetables are covered and allow to simmer until completely soft – approx 20-30 minutes.
  • Pop the chilli in while the soup is simmering to allow just a little heat to infuse – if you want it hot then leave it in when you liquidise the soup, otherwise take it out just beforehand.
  • Ladle the soup into the liquidiser goblet and blend till smooth, the soup can be eaten immediately, or stored in the fridge or freezer for a rainy day.
  • Serve hot, garnished with chopped chives (or parsley, or nothing).
  • Season to taste.
If you like it more runny, add more stock!

A Moment Of Nostalgia

SB: Did I tell you the time when my sister made me eat a piece of soap?
WS: No…. Really? You didn’t? (Breaks into peels of laughter!!!)
SB: Yup! You know in the old days, you have that soap holder thingy? A magnetic soap holder? You know the one I mean?
WS: OH YES!!! I remember them….
SB: Anyway, when the soap thins down it looks exactly like the sliced end-piece of a parsnip. Deborah came up to me and said “Here, have a piece of parsnip. It’s REALLY nice!!!!”
WS: HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!

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filed under: soups, starters | 20.12.08 @ 7:32 pm 2 Comments

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2 Comments so far

Love it. I’d make wardi go out and dig the allotment when you don’t need photos!
he he

By flowermonkey on 12.21.08 9:12 am | Permalink

Trust wardi to link to c lip of wonder woman. Do you also play red car, yellow car? Ask ron to drive on the motorway and you have to name the colour of the cars on the opposite carrigeway, its good fun.

By flowermonkey on 12.21.08 9:21 am | Permalink

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