Recipes

Creamy Parsnip Soup

Cook/Prep Time60
Servings6
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Creamy Parsnip Soup

Posted by hdelcore on Dec 16, 2009

Over Thanksgiving 2009, Andrea and I visited my sister in Portland and made a side trip to Seattle. We had lunch at a place called Etta's Seafood near the Pike Place Market. There, I had a parsnip and salsify soup. I didn't know what salsify was, so the waitress filled me in -- it's a root, similar to parsnip. Anyway, the soup blew me away so I wanted to try to make it myself. On 12/12/09, we had a little dinner party at our house and I took the opportunity to make the soup - except, no luck scoring some salsify, so I went with parsnips. I found the basis for this recipe on www.lookandtaste.com bu

t I modified it some. It came out great, in spite of losing power for 90 minutes right before our guests arrived.

Ingredients

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4 tbsp unsalted butter

about 1/2 lb. bacon

1 onion thinly sliced

1 fennel bulb thinly sliced

1 celery stalk thinly sliced

3 cloves garlic

salt and pepper

Bouquet Garni (note: I used dried parsley, thyme and bay leaf in a coffee filter tied at the top with thread)

about 2 lbs parsnips (roots only), chopped into one inch pieces

1 qrt chicken stock

a few cups water

1 potato

½ cup heavy cream

Instructions

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Melt the butter
in a Dutch oven or lar

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Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook, stirring occasionally. Remove the cooked bacon and set it aside. Add the onion, fennel, celery, and garlic and season with salt and pepper. Toss in the bouquet garni and cook, stirring occasionally, about 5 mins. Add the parsnip chunks to the pan. Cook about 10 minutes more. Pour in the stock and water, add the potatoes and 1-1/2 teaspoons salt, and bring the mixture to the low boil. Lower the heat so that the soup simmers and cooks, covered, for 30 to 35 minutes. In the mean time, dice the bacon. Discard the bouquet garni. Puree the soup until it is very smooth. If the soup is very watery, you may need to strain it through a mesh sieve; either way, you're going for a soupy but not watery consistency. Return the soup to the pot and add as much of the cream as you want (depends on how creamy you want it). Bring to a low boil and then lower the heat and keep the soup warm until ready to serve. To Serve: Ladle the soup into warm bowls. Drizzle a little cream over the top and top each serving with some of the diced bacon.

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