February 11, 2012

Roasted Carrot & Parsnip Soup with Lemon Ginger Cream

roasted carrot & parsnip soup with lemon ginger cream

Are you noticing a pattern yet?

I love soup.

And I saw a cloud in the sky yesterday for the first time in about a week, so I made some.

roasted carrot & parsnip soup with lemon ginger cream

This has to be my favorite soup genre. The “chop stuff up, roast it and blend it with some stock” kind. It works for every vegetable you can think of. Seriously. Broccoli? Check. Butternut squash? Oh yeah. Tomatoes? You bet. Bell peppers, garlic, sweet potato, fennel, asparagus… You get where I’m going with this.

Roasted potato leek soup is what started it all, really. It was one of the first things I cooked from Barefoot Contessa’s Back to Basics. And boy is it basic – in preparation, that is. The flavor is about as far from basic as you can get. Probably in my top 5 favorite soups. A couple of those other top slots are also filled from this very same book. This woman knows her soups.

parsnips

veggies, pre-roast

And so it began. I started roasted and blending everything I could get my hands on. Perhaps this is why my immersion blender seems to be dying… Sorry buddy, I know I’ve put you through a lot these past few years.

This time I used carrots and parsnips, two flavors that get along beautifully. Can’t you just see a carrot and parsnip holding hands, skipping off into the sunset?

Maybe that’s just me.

Anyway, they’re delicious together. Sweet carrot, peppery parsnip. BFFs.

lemon ginger cream prep

I got a little fancy with this soup and made a lemon ginger cream for drizzling. Isn’t everything better with an extra pop of flavor at the end? Well, it’s totally optional. But I do highly recommend it. It’s extremely bright and acidic, which is a nice finishing touch on something that’s been cooking for a while. It would also be delicious on many of the other chop-roast-blend type of veggie soups.

roasted carrot & parsnip soup with lemon ginger cream

As much as I hope you make this particular soup, I’m equally hopeful that you’ll go to your fridge right now, pull out whatever grabs you, chop it, roast it, and blend it up. You can thank me later.

Roasted Carrot & Parsnip Soup with Lemon Ginger Cream

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

Roasted Carrot & Parsnip Soup with Lemon Ginger Cream

  • 4 medium parsnips (about 1 1/4 pounds), roughly chopped
  • 5 medium carrots (about 3/4 pound), roughly chopped
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
  • 6-8 sprigs thyme
  • pinch red pepper flakes
  • kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  • 1 shallot, minced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 4+ cups vegetable broth or water

Lemon Ginger Cream

  • 1 cup greek yogurt
  • zest & juice of one lemon
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1 tsp freshly grated ginger
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon cumin
  • freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Method

Roasted Carrot & Parsnip Soup with Lemon Ginger Cream

  • Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Toss together parsnips, carrots, 2 tablespoons olive oil, red pepper flakes, thyme, salt and pepper on a baking sheet. Bake until lightly caramelized, about 30 minutes, depending on how large your vegetables were chopped. Remove the thyme stems.
  • Warm the remaining tablespoon of oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Add the shallot and cook for a few minutes, until translucent. Add the garlic and cook another minute. Add the roasted vegetables and stock. Puree with an immersion blender (or a regular blender, in batches if necessary), adding more stock as needed to get the consistency you want. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Garnish generously with the lemon ginger cream.

Lemon Ginger Cream

  • Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until well combined.
Print

Posted in: Dinner, Fall, Lunch, Soup/Stew, Vegetarian, Winter

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

10 Responses to “Roasted Carrot & Parsnip Soup with Lemon Ginger Cream”

  1. Wow, your photos are stunning! What a wonderful winter soup. I am really into soups these days too, and I’m with you on the roasting and blending. I love the flavored cream on top of this…POP! Great recipe!

  2. This looks like a perfect soup to brighten the winter! I recently made a miso carrot soup, but I LOVE the idea of roasting the veggies first, and the use of parsnips. Can’t wait to try it out!

    P.S. The Cuisinart immersion blender is on sale on Amazon right now. :)

    • brittany says:

      Whoa, hello huge discounts. I always forget about Amazon for kitchen appliances! I guess I like to be able to actually check out and hold a product in a store. So maybe I need to go to the store just to see what I like and then buy it cheaper on Amazon. Thanks for the tip!

  3. Jennifer says:

    Amazing recipe – the flavors are wonderfully complex and balanced. I made this for Easter dinner and it was a hit. My teenage daughter just requested that I make it again. Thanks for sharing!!!

  4. Kathleen says:

    Made this soup for our Canadian Thanksgiving dinner and it was delicious! The lemon cream swirl was pretty and gave the soup and unexpected kick. This recipe is a keeper. Thanks!

  5. shannon says:

    I taught this recipe (with attribution, of course) at a root vegetable cooking class. It was an enormous success! Thanks.

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Brittany Hey! Thanks for stopping by Kitchenette. I'm Brittany, a graphic designer who's hopelessly addicted to food, cooking, and talking your ear off about both of them.
I'd love to hear from you! brittany@kitchenetteblog.com

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