My daughter must be learning about the seasons at school at the moment as she keeps mentioning how tomorrow is the first day of winter. Personally I think having to run to the shower so as not to lose too much body heat between it and the bed was probably clue enough but it is nice to be reminded….I think…. I do struggle with winter, actually that’s only partially true – what I struggle with is grey Melbourne days and in winter we tend to get a few. Today though was sunny. A lovely day for gardening and a lovely day for eating the products of that gardening, in this case some nice root veg.
I love soup, pretty much all kinds; spicy ones, thin ones, thick ones, creamy ones – the list goes on but the ones I like best are the ones that are pretty much no trouble at all to make and this is certainly one of those.
Sweet Potato & Parsnip Soup
- 1kg root veg (I usually make it with sweet potato, parsnip and carrot but you could use any combination of root vegetables)
- 2 onions
- 2 tblspns olive oil
- 1 tspn cumin seeds
- 1 tspn mustard seeds
- 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
- 1/2 tsp chilli flakes (or sambal added later as I did)
- 1.25 litres stock (veg or chicken work well)
- Salt & Pepper
Cut the root vegetables and onion into large dice. Place into a bowl with the oil and spices. Mix together. Place the contents of the bowl onto a baking tray. Roast at 180 degrees for about half hour or until the vegetables are soft. Remove from oven and place into a saucepan. Add stock and bring to the boil. Season with Salt & Pepper. Puree. Serve topped with some Greek yoghurt and chilli.
I’m sharing this recipe on The Gardener of Eden’s Thursday Kitchen Cupboard , and Greenish Thumb’s Garden to Table.
That looks so good. Though it isn’t really soup weather here.
This soup will be perfect when our winter arrives. Thanks for sharing!
Sounds like a great soup for the weather we have been having.
I love soups too, though Miss Three stubbornly refusing to come around to my way of thinking on that one so it causes just that little bit of extra drama at dinner when I serve up soup – not that there wasn’t already enough angst at meal times around here! I love parsnips and have a few growing at the moment, but they haven’t been as successful as I was hoping for.
By the way, I read the other day that May is typically the greyest/cloudiest month in Melbourne, so it’s all up from here on the front hopefully. Yesterday was gorgeous though, pity I was at work really.
Is it really – well in that case i’m really glad its over. My kids like soup more in theory than practice I find. Both really like noodle soup and Miss 5 enjoys chicken and veg soup but after that it is always a struggle here too. I like them though so i tend to make them for my lunches.
I love soups too …………………..especially different types that i wouldn’t normally make trying new flavors makes the meals so much more interesting.
Your sweet potato & parsnip soup sounds delish and another one to try, thanks.
We had a beautiful sunny first day of Winter, i spent the afternoon making tree guards in the sunshine. Hope your weekends a good one.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I do. So far the winter weather has been really nice – long may it continue…
Oh, yeah! Parsnips AND chilli! Both of which I have plenty. This is my first attempt at growing parsnip – I feel a glut coming on – but I don’t really know when they are ‘ready’. I read somewhere that they are usually in the ground for about 9 months (from seed). Do you know if that’s right? I put them in early February. I might pull a few on the weekend and see how they are going. The carrots are doing great. Your soup is on the agenda, I reckon!
9 months seems a bit long to me, I reckon they are usually ready quite a bit quicker than that. I’d pull one and see – you can eat them at any point – much like carrots.
I pulled a few and they are still fairly small. I was pleased that they had a nice straight shape, apart from one that looked like an octopus with roots going every which-way. Not enough for a soup so I roasted them with a splash of maple syrup. Nice!
I’ll check with my dad how long his take – his always seem to be ridiculously large.
That looks delicious! Soups are a great relatively fast meal make and always so good for you. Snagging this recipe to use later this year when we move into the colder days of fall.
I’m trying to make a pot each week for one nights dinner and also weekday lunches – its going well so far.
I know that our weather at present is not the classic “soup weather”, but today I just fancied making soup. I made Butternut Squash and Tomato soup, with home-made chicken stock. It was lovely (apart from the fact that I had a teensy problemette with the liquidiser…). Seeing your post reminds me that I should perhaps have added a bit of chilli.
Oh yum. Very remiss of you re the chilli.
Guess it’ll be a while before my first sweet potatoes are harvested (assuming I successfully grow my first sweet potatoes!), but I’ll have to try this.
I really like the combination. I found sweet potatoes remarkably easy – hope your experience is similar.
I have been away from the blogworld due to ill health and an operation. I have been missing it and your blog is one of those few that I missed most. I used to lie down and think about it. And, what a treat to come back – I constantly think what to cook, how to cook with parsnip and all since those are the vegetables that I am not familiar with – but now I know. Thanks for the recipe.
Hope you are fully recovered. Lovely to have you back.
Looks like a great combination of ingredients…
Oh I love soup! I really like reading your blog–when I was in winter, I enjoyed reading about your harvests and looking forward to starting my own spring garden. And now that I’m entering summer, your blog is giving me ideas for what to make this winter. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
I do enjoy reading about the other side of the world too, especially as soon you will begin harvesting the same things as I will be sowing.
Yum – I love that little garnish of chili. You know, I love the season – so much that my daughter’s name is Winter. 🙂 However, just today, I came in the house and almost tripping over all the flip flops that have come out of the closet, was thinking how great summer can be too!
Looks great….great use of those spices to give the soup a bit of a zing….and no doubt good for you too.
I think so – there’s nothing there that isn’t pretty healthy.
Hi everybody this is the first time I have seen this blog, I love soup recipes will be making this one for hubby & I tonight we pulled up 28 parsnips yesterday from a tiny patch. We put in the seeds at least 6 mths ago. Hope somebody can give me some ideas for the rest of the crop. Thanks.
Lovely of you to visit. I’m attempting to grow parsnips over winter here to save space in my summer garden – we shall see if its successful. I have to say I use most of my parsnips either in soup or roasted with roast and gravy. 28 is lot – maybe freeze lots of soup? Or do you have a food swap locally? I’m wondering if parsnip bread would work (or indeed be nice to eat….).