Thursday, February 20, 2014

Root Vegetable Soup


This recipe is from the Soup Bible (Penguin  Books, 2007).   The modifications I made were to use coconut oil rather than a combination of butter and olive oil, and to puree all of it, and to omit the cream. The original recipe, Chunky Root Vegetable Soup, pureed half of it and left half of it chunky and then stirred it together with cream.  When I made it for our son, Dan,  and Tom, I left all of it chunky and didn't bother to put in any cream and they both loved it. So the recipe is highly adaptable.  And I'm glad that my guys like soup as much as I do!

Parsnips, carrots, leeks, onions, potato, and sweet potato


Ingredients:
    2 1/2 Tablespoons coconut oil 
    6 medium carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
    2 large onions, roughly chopped
    2 large leeks, thinly sliced (white and light green part)
    2 turnips, peeled and cut into small chunks
    2 parsnips, peeled and cut into small chunks
    1 small sweet potato, peeled and cut into small chunks
    1 large potato, peeled and cut into small chunks
    6 cups chicken stock
    freshly ground black pepper
    chopped fresh chives for garnish


Cut vegetables

Preparation:
In a large soup pot, heat oil. Add carrots, onions, leeks, turnips and parsnips and cook, stirring occasionally, over gentle heat until lightly browned. Add sweet potato, potato and stock. Slowly bring to a boil and then reduce heat, and simmer, covered, for about 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Remove from heat and cool a bit. Puree to desired consistency. I used my VitaMix to puree it and this worked well.  
Garnish with chives.


Cooking the vegetables

Nutrition per serving:                     
Servings per recipe: 10
Serving Size: 1 cup
Calories: 143
Total Fat: 4 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 422 mg
Total Carbs: 25 g
Dietary Fiber: 5 g
Protein: 4 g