You are here
Creamy Celery-Parsnip Soup
Peggy L.
I like cream soups--true comfort food for me. But usually they are made with cream or milk and flour to thicken them. If you are wanting not to eat so much of these that's a problem. I stumbled upon this solution recently - PARSNIPS! They are delicious and give the soup a creamy texture when blended. Here's the recipe for Creamy Celery-Parsnip Soup:
1 lg. bunch of celery, cut into 1/2" pieces
1-2 parsnips, peeled and cut into small cubes
1 small onion (or use several shallots), sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
44 ml3 Tbsp. olive oil
30 ml2 Tbsp butter (or substitute oil)
1 quart vegie stock*
5 ml1 tsp dried Herbes de Provence or your choice of herbs
salt & pepper to taste
Heat oil & butter in a soup pot, add onion (or shallots), garlic, and parsnip cubes. Gently saute for 3-5 minutes. Add celery pieces and herbs and saute gently for another 10 minutes or until the vegies begin to soften. A little browning is fine. Add broth and simmer until the vegetables are soft. Using a hand blender, blend the soup until you have consistency you like. (A hand blender is so much safer and less messy than using a regular blender for this part.) Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.
* Vegetable stock is so useful and it's easy and inexpensive to make. I realized this when I was making a vegetable soup a while back and became aware that I was putting the makings of some good stock into the compost. So I pulled the good stuff out, washed it off, and threw it into a pot with water. Before long, it was a delicious-smelling broth to use or freeze for later use. Some things you can put into the vegie stock pot are: onion ends, leek tops (really good), potato peels, carrot end and peels (if you peel them), parsnip ends and peels, celery ends, etc. Of course you can also throw in perfectly good vegies, too. At Deer Park, I've also seen apple floating around in their stock pot. Yum! If you're not making a large amount of vegie leavings at once, you can make deposits into a plastic bag and keep it in the freezer until you have enough for a pot of stock. Enjoy.