I am endlessly amused by the English language and its variety of fixed phrases. “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” Lemons are lovely! Why take them to mean anything harsh and difficult, when you could take... a parsnip instead?
Just teasing, naturally... Parsnips are really lovely, too, particularly if you pick them after a frost (they become even sweeter then). Well, we’ve sown some very early ones in February and they have proven to be more than ready now. Just look at the size of them! But we haven’t had any frosts yet, and it is not a particularly sweet variety, so this is where parsnips get problematic.
Since we don’t know much about this variety, we don’t want to leave them all to store in the ground, in case they aren’t that great in this kind of storage (though we will leave some, to learn). But when life gives you parsnips, you can certainly make a parsnip soup! And the season is perfect for it, too!
Normally for a soup like this, you would roast the parsnips to dull down the bitter and bring out the sweet notes. But since we’re on the hunt for energy saving one-pot (and one-hob) meals, I’ve tried to obtain the same effect by frying, instead of roasting. I highly recommend peeling the parsnips for this recipe if you are really after the sweetness. Adding a bit of honey works wonders too, just do it at the very end, after the heat is turned off :)
Prep time: about 40 minutes
Serves: 2 adults and 2 children
Ingredients:
3 medium or 2 large parsnips
3 medium potatoes
2-3 slices of aging/left-over bread
1 medium white or golden onion
1 leaf of green (spring) onion
2 cloves of garlic
a small bunch of parsley
a few young leaves of celery
4-5 tablespoons of olive oil for frying
1 litre of water
salt and black pepper to season
Steps:
1. Wash, peel and dice the parsnips and the potatoes. Cut some leftover bread into cubes (while sourdough is ideal, any bread will do fine; I had some wholemeal toast that needed using up here). Mash the garlic. Chop the leaf of green onion.
2. Put a large deep pan or skillet on a high heat. Peel and chop the white onion rather finely. Fry the white onion until golden. Remove and set aside in a bowl.
2. In a separate bowl mix the bread cubes with garlic, green onion, some salt and a dash of olive oil. Add to the hot pan and fry until golden and crisp. Remove and set aside.
3. Toss together the chopped parsnips and potatoes with a dash of oil and fry in the pan until the parsnips are slightly browned. This took me roughly 7 minutes (potatoes brown first so it’s a good idea to put them in the pan a minute or two after the parsnips).
4. Now add half of the chopped white onion back into the pan. Cover everything with 1 litre of water. Bring to boil and simmer for about 20 minutes.
5. After that time, blitz the soup with a stick blender. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
6. Chop some fresh parsley and/or celery leaves. Pour the soup into bowls. Sprinkle with the rest of the fried onion, the croutons and the chopped herbs. Enjoy!
We certainly liked the heartiness of this dish in one chilly and rainy evening last week.
I hope you get to try this recipe as the days get colder. Do you think this soup can compete with its traditional, roasted version? As always, let us know your thoughts in the comments below. Till next time!
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