There are moments when you are brought right down to earth. Or in the case of this soup- almost drawn into the earth. This is one of my favorite soup recipes. It has been a while since I have made it- almost a year ago- but the memory of it is vivid in my head. I was sitting at our dinning room table, we had a nice meal ahead of us, a chicken dinner of sorts with some good wine, but first we had this soup. I remember how with the first taste I was transformed to a new place. It was a mixture of nostalgia for the wild rural lands of Nova Scotia combined with a sense of being grounded and connected to the earth. It was a powerful feeling. I guess root vegetables do that to you.
Parsnips being a root vegetable are pretty rooted in the ground. They are an interesting vegetable- shaped like a crazy carrot, a relative to parsley and often confused with turnip. I love the look of parsnips, they are truly wild. I also love that parsnips need frost to mature into the sweet vegetable that they are, making them a perfect vegetable for right now, considering we have several feet of snow outside. I also learned today from Rebecca Wood’s Whole Foods Encyclopedia that ounce for ounce parsnips have the same amount of calcium as milk. Interesting!
Parsnips are a vegetable of love or hate. Though some find these root veggies way too pungent for their tastes, I love them. They have a sweet, earthy nutty taste and I often can put several of them in my mouth after taking them out of the oven. The make great additions to soups, stir-fries or on their own, baked or steamed.
The first time I encountered this soup I was at the Wooden Monkey, a popular restaurant in Halifax. I ordered it from the menu, gobbled it up and then recreated it immediately when I returned home. It is a soup that can easily be played with: change up the type of apples or change them up for pears. I think it would taste good as a curried soup, or spiced with some nutmeg. Below is the version that I have created. Be aware- this recipe makes a big pot! Enjoy!
Parsnip Apple Sage Soup
Ingredients:
- 2 lbs parsnips
- 3 granny-smith apples (or another tart apple)
- 2-3 medium sized onions
- 4 sticks of celery
- 6-10 cups of chicken or vegetable broth
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 tablespoon dried sage
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1-2 tablespoon butter
- salt to taste
Start by roasting the parsnips. Trim the ends and give them a good wash. Cut them up into chunks about the size of your thumb. Put the parsnips into a baking pan, drizzle them with olive oil and cover with foil. Bake at 350 F for 40 minutes. Remove the foil, add the cloves of garlic and roast for another 15- 20 minutes. Roasting the garlic adds a nice deepness of flavor. While the parsnips are roasting chop the onions and celery. Sauté in a large soup pan with the butter until clear and translucent. Add the parsnips to the onion and celery. Add in 6 cups of broth and bring to a simmer, allowing to simmer for around 20- 25 minutes. Meanwhile peel and grate the granny smith apples. Add the apples as well as the thyme and sage and simmer and additional 5 minutes. Turn the heat off and allow to cool.
When the soup is cool blend until smooth. I use an immersion blender for this, but a food processor or blender work fine. Add additional stock to bring the soup to the consistency that you want. Because of the starchiness of the turnips, the soup can get pretty porridge like. I find it is better to thin it out a little. Reheat and enjoy.
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