Spicy Parsnip Soup

Time for another guest post on A Different Kitchen! Over to my wife, Lesley to show us how to make this tasty, hearty and warming soup.

I belong to a community allotment and we plan to have lovely fresh things to eat. Recently we have had a glut of winter parsnips. Everyone should eat more parsnips!  

I took home 6 of them all large and gnarly, grown organically and fattened up over our winter. With vegetables that have imperfections like this, soup is a great option as it doesn’t matter what bits you might have to cut out.

I love the scent of the crushed spices that are used in this recipe. I used a pestle and mortar but you can crush them on a cutting board with a bottle or rolling pin.

You Will Need

• 6 parsnips, peeled and roughly chunked
• 1 onion, chopped
• a knob of butter
• 1 litre of stock (after roasting a chicken we always boil up the carcass with some water for half an hour, then put the stock in tubs in the freezer until needed).  
• A spice mix, here’s what I used, but any spices you like will do:
• 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
• 1 teaspoon of coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon of ground ginger
• a few cardamon pods

Method

1. Melt butter in a pan and add the crushed spices.
2. Add the parsnip  and onion, and heat until all the chunks are warm and coated – this will take about 10 mins. 
3. Pour in the stock, and bring to the boil, then simmer for 30 minutes.
4. Blitz to a smooth consistency, then serve.

Customise It!

This soup is great served with crusty bread, as shown in the main photo above. However, you could also make croutons by cutting bread into cubes and baking them on a tray in the oven. Keep your eye on them as they brown very quickly. Chuck the crispy croutons on to the top of your bowl of soup.

You could also swirl in a few table spoonfuls of double cream for an ultra-posh version.

The contributor of a guest post gets to choose the next track for the ADK Spotify Playlist. Lesley has chosen Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John, who we have just seen on his farewell tour in London. More on this in my weekend post!