Root Vegetable Soup
Instructions:
- There’s a supermarket of root vegetables in this soup. The recipe makes a lot, but you can have individual frozen servings as a welcome lunch (omit the sour cream for freezing). If you can’t fi nd all these roots at your market, use any combination of 21â„2 pounds root vegetables with the carrots and potatoes. Makes 8 servings
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2 large carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
- 2 medium turnips, peeled and chopped
- 2 medium parsnips, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 large rutabaga, peeled and chopped
- 1 large Russet or baking potato, peeled and chopped
- 8 cups (2 quarts) chicken broth
- 1 bay leaf
- 11â„2 teaspoons salt, plus additional to taste
- 1â„2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1â„2 cup sour cream (regular, low-fat, or fat-free)
- 1â„2 cup chopped parsley leaves
- Melt the butter in a soup pot or Dutch oven over medium heat; add the onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 4 minutes.
- Add the carrots, turnips, parsnips, rutabaga, and potato; cook, stirring almost constantly, until they start to turn golden and even translucent, 5 to 7 minutes.
- Pour in the broth; add the bay leaf, salt, and pepper; and scrape up any browned bits on the pan’s bottom. Bring to a simmer; then cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer until the vegetables are quite soft when pricked with a fork, about 45 minutes.
- Remove and discard the bay leaf. Take the pot off the heat. Ladle about half the soup into a food processor or a large blender; process or blend until smooth. Stir this puree back into the pot. Check to see if the soup needs any salt; stir in the sour cream and parsley until smooth.
- Variations:
- Increase the butter to 3 tablespoons and add 4 ounces chopped pancetta with the onion; fry until frizzled and crisp, then continue with the recipe, omitting the salt.
- After the onion has softened, cook 2 minced garlic cloves in the butter for 20 seconds before adding the root vegetables.
- Add 1 tablespoon stemmed thyme; 1 tablespoon packed oregano leaves, chopped; or 2 teaspoons packed tarragon leaves, chopped, with the bay leaf.
- Add 1 teaspoon dry mustard with the root vegetables.
- Add up to 1â„4 teaspoon cayenne pepper with the root vegetables.
- For a less tangy soup, substitute 1 cup heavy cream for the sour cream; let the soup simmer slowly over the heat for 2 minutes to take the raw taste off the cream before serving.