The Parsnip – perhaps the most autumnal of foods, the king of the root vegetable. With the recent meteorological chaos of Hurricane Ophelia, the cold is truly here and parsnip soup is the best way to warm the bones this year.
Having put your pan on a medium heat, begin to brown an onion, diced into small pieces, with olive oil. As this is cooking away, dice a bag of about 675g of parsnips (the more the better) into small cubes and brown with the oil and onions until cooked through.
As they cook, begin to select the spices you would like to use. I would suggest 1 tsp of ground turmeric and 1 tsp of paprika followed by a little salt, pepper and garlic, however add more or less according to taste. Increase the heat to medium/high and continue to stir without catching the vegetables on the bottom of the pan. At the same time, flick on a full kettle and, having made yourself a cup of tea, add a litre of boiling water and a crushed chicken (or vegetable) stock cube and stir before leaving to simmer away.
Once simmering, remove from the heat. Once cooled a little, pour into your food processor until the parsnips are broken up and mix with the stock to form a purée. After you are satisfied that the purée is of optimum smoothness, return it to the saucepan and place on a medium heat. Once simmering, pour in a pot of 150ml of double cream and stir in until it forms a nice golden colour (depending on the spices used). At this point, grab a spoon and taste, to test the heat and flavour and add more salt or spice, at will.
Serve up your tasty and wholesome soup with a few cumin seeds sprinkled on top and some slices of crusty bread.
image: valiunic via pixabay