Day 6 – Roots in a Spin

Used a little over half of the vegetables that I cooked last night.  The first round of puree activity in the food processor took for ever … because I over-filled it.  Oh … and I didn’t include enough liquid.  Next batch, fewer pieces of the roots, more of the stock. Better. 

Thought I had thyme in the spice rack and found it was tarragon … so, a change of pseudo plan — I picked the spices to use based on how each smelled after having a bite of parsnip.  I grabbed jalapeno peppers, apple cider vinegar, toasted sesame oil, olive oil, plain yogurt, cumin, sage, white pepper, lemon juice, and molasses. (not all in the mix – just on the counter to see what made sense as I went along)

Process, process, process while adding the broth a ladle at a time.  I added a jalapeño chopped very fine to the roots in the processor.  Sometimes during the processing, I also added a little dash of one or both of the oils and a squeeze of lemon. WOW I had no idea how sweet parsnips, carrots, and sweet potatoes would be – the turnips were not enough to cut that down.  I’ll need to work on this. So, armed with a very sweet base – I was looking for savory.  Didn’t want to use too much salt so I started with the apple cider vinegar and a little salt.  I then added a little cumin, nutmeg and sage.  A large dollop of molasses and a fewdollops of yogurt.  Into a large pot and onto the stove top to bring up to temperature.  Not looking for a boil here – just hot.

Plated the soup with fresh cut parsley and chopped walnuts in the center and sprinkle of cayenne pepper lightly across the top.  While waiting for the soup to heat, I toasted a pita lightly. Once the soup was in the bowl, I spread the pita with goat cheese and then sliced it into small strips and ate those with the soup.

Results are mixed.  My initial impression beyond the fact that the soup was a bit too sweet – it lacked fat.  Channeling the great chefs and their use of butter. So maybe next time just carrots and parsnips or just sweet potatoes.  I’ll search for savory – maybe if I could have garlic that would round out the flavor but that is out.  Maybe if the soup is served as a side with a grilled meat … ??? Stay tuned.