Recipe Spicy Roasted Parsnip Soup

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I rather like this recipe from the BBC Food site for Spicy Roasted Parsnip Soup, but as with most of their recipes, I often find that they don't have anywhere near enough spiciness to them, so I have adjusted the quantities to suit my tastes. Also after reading through some of the comments, I have made a slight change to the recipe, grinding up the spices before adding to the veg. I shall let you know how it is later in the month.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Pinch of asafoetida (optional)
• 2 tsps coriander seeds
• 2 tsps cumin seed, plus extra to garnish
• ½ tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp black (or yellow) mustard seeds
• ½-1 tsp chilli flakes or 1 dried red chilli (optional)
  
• 1 large onion cut into 8 chunks
• 4-8 garlic cloves
• 675g parsnips, diced
• 2 plum tomato, quartered (or ½ can tomatoes)
• 1l vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Method

1. Heat oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7.
2. Take all the spices and grind them in a spice grinder or coffee grinder before mixing them with the oil in a large bowl along with the garlic cloves (whole).
3. Add the vegetables and mix well. Spread over a heavy baking sheet, then roast for 30 mins until tender. The parsnips should be staying to go brown at the thinner edges.
4. Spoon the cooked vegetables and spices into a food processor or liquidiser with half the stock and process until smooth. Pour into a pan with the remaining stock, season, then heat until barely simmering. Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon juice. Garnish with cumin seeds.
   

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

We made this yesterday and despite the parsnips taking longer to cook than expected (this is an oven issue at our end) and is being too add an extra 1L of stock to the recipe to thin it down, it was quite nice. It had a warm rich brown colour to it and the spices came through nicely. If I was to make it again though I would cut the parsnips into large chunks and parboil then first which I think would work a lot better. I would also not add the garlic to the roasting dish until the last 10 minutes of coming to prevent them from overcooking which one or two of my cloves did. I removed those cloves before adding everything to the liquiziser.

Otherwise it worked out as a nice low calorie soup where I could taste both the parsnips and the tomatoes through the spices.

 

[valedevento]

This sounds really nice, I love parsnips and I also use a lot of spices, so must try this recipe. Roasting the parsnips will add a wonderful flavor to the soup, but I would also add the garlic later, just to get it cooked but not overcooked.
Looking forward to making this soup