Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Parsnip and Pear Soup with Arugula


This is a fabulous soup that we made the other night to use up these monster sized parsnips and delicious ripe pears that came in our veggie box. It was great on a winter evening, but would also be a fantastic main dish served chilled in the summer! You can easily omit the half and half to make this a vegan dish.

Ingredients:
1/2 white or red onion, chopped
1 medium turnip, peeled and chopped
1 extra large (or 2 medium sized) parsnips, peeled and chopped
1 medium golden beet, peeled and chopped
1 tbs of olive oil
4-6 cups vegetable broth (plus 1-2 cups more)
1/2 cup of dry white wine
6 cloves of sprouted garlic, chopped (tops and roots included- if you don't have sprouted garlic use 2 cloves of regular garlic + 2 tbs of chives)
dash of Braggs seasoning
salt and course ground black pepper to taste
2 ripe pears, peeled and cubed
1/2 cup half and half (or substitute 1 percent milk to make a lighter version)
1-2 handfuls of fresh arugula

In a heavy soup pot, heat the olive oil and cook the onions for 1-2 minutes on medium high heat until they begin to brown. Then add the garlic and turn the heat down, cooking mixture 2-3 minutes longer until the onions become translucent.

Add the chopped root vegetables (parsnips, beet and turnip) and stir until fully coated with onions and oil mixture. Turn heat up again and cook another 5 mins, stirring occasionally so that vegetables begin to brown but do not burn.

Add the white wine and turn down the heat to simmer. Cook the vegetables on medium low heat, adding broth as needed to keep from them sticking on the bottom, until they are fully soft and pierce easily with a fork. This should take about 30 mins. Add the remaining broth (3-4 cups) to mixture and remove it from the heat. Let the soup cool slightly.

Using a food processor or immersion blender, begin to puree the soup so that all the chunks of vegetables are gone. Add pears and half & half and process the soup further until it is fully pureed. If needed, add extra vegetable broth as needed to achieve a thinner soup-like consistency (if it looks like like baby food it is too thick). Add salt, pepper and Braggs to taste.

Serve the soup in bowls with a handful of fresh arugula and lots of cracked pepper on top. A hot loaf of crusty bread makes it a meal!

This recipe should serve about 4 people as a main dish.