another trip to the farmer’s market this weekend filled my house with this rainbow of fresh local goodness, and new ideas to play with!
i’d made vegetable broth a few days before and we still had a couple jars in the fridge…
sunday evening we were going for vegetable soup, and wanted to make enough to have some at lunch the next day.
i didn’t have a plan, just a lot of beautiful vegetables…
so ~ let the improv begin!
one of the joys of making a blended soup is that your chopping can be course. i always find this so freeing and satisfying.
i decided to roast a bunch of veggies then blend with broth for a simple springtime soup.
here’s the recap:
chop up 1 good-sized sweet potato, 1/2 a large onion, 2 turnips, and 3 small golden beets,
plus the tender portion of a large green garlic shoot (this ended up being ~ 9 inches)
toss these all in a cast-iron with a big dollop of ghee (~ 3 Tbsp)
along with:
~ 1 tsp each of cumin and coriander powder
~ 2 tsp dried parsley
a pinch of red chile powder
~ 1 tsp dried rosemary, crushed
and a generous amount of salt and fresh group pepper
roast at 400 for about 30 minutes/ till tender, tossing occasionally
towards the end, throw in 2 big handfuls of greens: 1 used turnip & beet greens, plus several springs of parsley
(in full-out experimentation mode, i used some fava beans from the market, which i’d never worked with before. this involved blanching, plunging into ice water, then slipping the skins off. cooking with fava beans was brand-new to me, so i only used a handful, just to play with it a little. the beans, skinned, joined the roasting veggies with the greens when i tossed them in. there were probably only ~ 1/4 cup of beans. i could definitely have used more. fresh green beans or snap peas would go great here as well. or skip the beans altogether. as you wish!)
this yielded about 5 cups of roasted vegetables (including the greens, which wilted down considerably)
blend well*, with vegetable broth, in batches, till smooth and creamy.
warm in a medium to large soup pot, and serve.
i ended up blending in 2 big batches, each batch containing about 2 c. roasted veggies and ~ 3 c. broth.
this was DELICIOUS! the ghee and sweet potato added a richness to an otherwise light soup. together with the combination of herbs, spices and seasonal vegetables, it was amazing.
as always, this is adaptable. a template for creating a simple, satisfying meal from fresh ingredients that you have on hand. feel free to use less broth for a thicker soup, or more to thin it out.
*a note about blended soups. our blender has a glass carafe. if your food is hot, wait for it to cool before blending (or using a food processor) if the carafe is plastic. when heat meets plastic, it’s not good for anything, or anyone. especially anything food-related.
we enjoyed this with fresh sourdough from a favorite bakery.
