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.
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.
And so it began. I started roasting 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.
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.
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.
