Spicy soup

The theme for Lisa and Holler’s No Croutons Required event this month is ‘spicy soups’. I’d pondered what I could make for a while, but was feeling uninspired, and had pretty much decided to give it a miss this month. I made quite a nice Vietnamese hot and sour soup a little while ago, but it required speciality ingredients, and I’ve been too busy during the day to get to the Asian supermarket. Then on Tuesday I was making soup during my lunchbreak for us to have for supper, and as I reached for the cumin, cayenne and coriander, a small lightbulb went on it my head. ‘You seem to be making a spicy soup’, it said. And so I was. So here, after all, is my contribution to No Croutons Required – a spicy parsnip and carrot soup. I upped all the spice quantities to make it good and tasty, and it achieved a nice warming on the tongue as the flavour developed. I was pleased about that as I don’t like very hot things, and occasionally undermine my own dinner by trying to please both of our palates!

I returned to my desk as it was simmering, and was amused to find that Holler had meanwhile posted her own entry, which was also curried parsnip, but luckily paired with sweet potatoes, so I don’t look like a complete copy cat. She added mango chutney to hers which I thought sounded very fine, but The Scientist wasn’t so keen on that so I just served it as a condiment. We ate ours with dark rye bread and cheese, and jolly good and warming it was too. Although I’m very pleased that spring is slowly arriving, I’ll be sorry to say goodbye to wintry soups and squashes. Still, fresh berries and beans will make up for it – as will lovely long light evenings (I’m trying to make sure that Kiwi Family remember why they’re planning to return home eventually!)

The soup recipe was based on one from Moosewood Low Fat Favourites but I simplified it by doing it all in one pot. My version is roughly as follows:

Spicy carrot and parsnip soup

Makes about 3 servings

1 onion, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 medium parsnips, peeled and chopped
4 medium carrots ditto
750 ml hot stock
About 1 tsp each of coriander, cumin and cinnamon (I ended up using probably almost double this)
About ½ tsp each cayenne pepper and turmeric

Fry onion and garlic in some oil until soft. Add all spices and fry for another minute or so. Add chopped vegetables and stock, and leave to simmer for about half an hour. Blend (off the heat) and check seasonings. Place random leaves found in fridge on the top to make it look nicer in photograph (in this case, celery). Eat, in a farewell to wintry days.