Soup: THE winter wonderfood yes? All your daily vegetable requirement in one bowl not to mention the 1001 different flavours you can play around with there too!
At Christmas it’s always a good idea to have a pot of soup on a backburner somewhere. You never know who might pop round and want feeding and it always tastes super delicious after coming in from a brisk family walk in the freezing cold. (This is of course a work of fiction, if your family is anything like mine it will take so long for everybody to assemble in the hall with a full quota of socks, hats, shoes and gloves and then to get everyone out of the door without somebody needing to check their email one more time or a phone ringing, it has started to go dark and everybody will give up and sit down again.)
This spicy parsnip soup is also good as a starter for the main Christmas meal. This recipe serves 4 as a lunch and maybe 6 as a starter.
You will need:-
1 onion
3 large parsnips
2 carrots
vegetable oil
pinch of salt
pinch of black pepper
1 – 2 teaspoons of curry powder (depending on taste)
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon cumin
1.5 pints of vegetable stock – this can be either from a stock cube or homemade – click here for homemade stock recipe.
Dice your onion and sautee in some vegetable oil over a medium heat for about 5 minutes until it starts to soften.
Add peeled and chopped carrots and parsnips and then pour the stock over the top and bring to the boil.
Once boiling add salt, pepper, cumin, coriander and curry powder.
Turn the heat down to low, cover and allow to simmer for about 50 minutes – the vegetables should be very soft by then.
Now you will need to blend your soup. Some people put the whole thing through a fancy food processor and this does make it really smooth, but I’m not much of a kitchen gadget person. I have sharp knives, a variety of baking trays and saucepans, several wooden spoons and this….
This little baby also has a whisk and blender attachment but this one’s my favourite. It makes smoothies and soups, my favourite comfort foods. It also blends the soup to a point that isn’t quite smooth which I think gives it a homemade and chunky feel. Before the advent of kitchen gadgets I believe a potato masher worked just as well. To each their own. Blend it in your own way to your own taste.
The best thing about this soup is it freezes well so you can make a batch of it and defrost when you need it. If it gets a bit thick on defrosting just add a little more water.
I’ve never made parsnip soup…this looks so yummy, I think I’m going to try it this weekend! With the home made stock I made from your recipe a few weeks back, but have yet to try
I made something similar the other night – it was SO yummy! Curried parsnip soup is my new favourite! Have you tried adding a can of coconut milk as well? Lifts it to a silky, sumptuous new realm!!
O love curried parsnip soup!!