Parsnip & Blue Cheese Soup
By Jean-Paul Knights
This is a great winter soup – its rich, tasty and roasting the parsnips gives added flavour
How to
Ingredients
- 6 medium parsnips
- 1 leek
- 1 medium onion
- 5 cloves garlic
- 2 sticks of celery
- 150g blue cheese – use off-cuts and ends if you have them
- ½ glass white wine (or whatever’s open)
- 1 litre light stock (chicken or vegetable)
- 2 bay leaves
- A sprig of thyme
- A sprig of rosemary – chuck in any other herbs you like, marjoram and parsley for instance
- A pinch of brown sugar
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper
Method
1
Preheat the oven to 180 C.
2
Clean, trim and roughly chop all vegetables
Put all the parsnip and half the onion in a roasting tray and rub with olive oil (a good glug in total) add a sprinkle of salt and pepper and a pinch of brown sugar
Place in oven and roast for about 20 minutes
3
Meanwhile –
Place a heavy bottomed saucepan on a medium heat
Add a glug of olive oil
Throw in remaining onion, leek, celery and garlic, bay leaves and other herbs
Saute until everything has softened and is starting to colour slightly
Pour over the wine and simmer until you can’t smell the alcohol
Add stock
Drop into pan the roasted vegetables and crumble in the cheese
Bring to the boil then reduce heat and simmer for about 20 mins
4
Remove bay leaves and any herb stems
Blend in pan or in a liquidizer – you can blitz till totally smooth or leave a few chunks of veg so that it’s a bit more rustic
Serve with brown bread and a glass of chilled white wine.
