Sunday Soup: Roasted Parsnip and Parmesan

This week I had a whole pack of parsnips left over (boy was Queen of the Fridge again), some parmesan and an onion.

I used this recipe here as it contained everything I had in the fridge. My finished product didn't look quite like theirs (okay, it looked NOTHING like theirs!) and I suspect I over-caramelised my parsnips.

Tasted good though.  If a little smokey...

Sunday Soup: Roasted vegetable, tomato and bean

Okay, so the Sunday Soup thing hasn’t turned into a every week kind of thing - more of an occasional series!

This week I had rather a lot of sad looking peppers left over and a random bunch of rosemary. A quick potter through the cupboards also turned up a tin of tomatoes and a tin of cannellini beans – rustic tomato/veg/bean it is then!

Recipe (I entirely made this one up, so add/omit things at will)

1 red pepper (and a spare bit)

1 green pepper

1 yellow pepper

1 ½ courgettes

1 red onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic

500ml vegetable stock

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

1 tablespoon of tomato puree

Small dash of balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon(ish) of fresh rosemary

1 teaspoon herbs de provence

1 tin cannelini beans

Chop peppers and courgettes into largish chunks and roast in the oven at 180 degrees (if you have a mental fan oven) or 200 degrees.

While they’re roasting, gently fry the onion and garlic in a large saucepan for 5 minutes or so. Add the tinned tomatoes, tomato puree and stock and let it bubble away gently whilst the vegetables are roasting. When the vegetables have softened and started to char, tip them into the saucepan and blitz the whole lot with a blender. Add a bit more water if you think it’s too thick.

Add the tinned cannelini beans, heat gently for another 5 minutes or so and you’re done!

I rather liked this one, it had a lovely rich flavour AND tasted super-healthy!

Sunday Soup - Cauliflower

There was no Sunday Soup post last week, as I went out to our local for a lovely roast dinner instead.

Normal service has been restored this week, and this was the leftover contents of my fridge today.


Actually, the boy was Queen of the Fridge this week and his random scattergun approach to shopping has also left me with a pack of chicken thighs and some aubergines. I've never seen a recipe for aubergine soup, and I'm assuming that there's a good reason for that, so I put them firmly back in the fridge.

I'm using a Delia recipe as a basis, but faffing with it a bit. The original can be found here

Recipe

1 cauliflower (recipe says about 570g but I didn't bother weighing it
50g cheese (Delia used roquefort but says you can use whatever you've got - I'm using a mix of parmesan and cheddar)
2 bay leaves
25g butter
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
2 sticks of celery, chopped
1 large leek, trimmed, washed and chopped
110g potato (this equates to one medium size spud if you can't be bothered to weigh them)
1 garlic clove
1 litre of light veg stock (Delia made her own with the cauliflower stalks and trimmings, I consider life too short for this sort of thing and used a stock cube/gel thingy)
60ml double cream

Melt the butter in large saucepan over a gentle heat, then add the onion, celery, leek, garlic and potato, cover and let the vegetables gently cook for 15 minutes.

Add stock, bay leaves and chuck in cauliflower florets. Simmer gently for 25 minutes.

Remove bay leaves, blitz with a blender, then stir in cream and cheese, and add some pepper if you feel like it. Don't let it boil.

And tada! Soup!


Turned out quite nice actually. Not as thick as my previous soupy experiements, so I think my ratio of stock to other stuff was a bit better this time.

Sunday Soup - Carrot and Parsnip

For the past couple of weeks, I've been taking anything left over in the fridge on Sundays and making experiemental soup from it. It's gone surprisingly well, so I thought I'd try and do it every week and blog the results.

This week, there was some carrots and a couple of sad looking parsnips left over. Easy!

Recipe: Carrot and Parsnip Soup

1tbsp butter, softened and a glug of olive oil
1 onion, peeled and chopped
around 500g carrots, peeled and chopped
2 large parsnips, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp freshly grated root ginger
1 clove of garlic
600ml vegetable stock
60ml (4fl oz) single cream
Salt and ground black pepper
Couple of handfuls of red lentils (optional, but they were in the cupboard staring at me!)

Melt butter, cook onion gently for 3 or 4 minutes. Add parsnips and carrots and soften for 10mins or so.

Add garlic and ginger, stir for a couple of minutes. Add stock, simmer for 10mins then add lentils. Simmer for another 20mins until vegetables are cooked.

Blitz with a stick blender, then stir in cream and season with salt and pepper. Done!

It did turn out a bit thick - I'd probably add more stock if I did this one again...