At the Roots

So my best friend and I share a deep affection for soup. All kinds of soup and at any time of year. A number of years ago, she and her (now) husband spent a weekend at our house and we took a day to make soup. 4 types of soup. We called it “Soup Our Bowl” (aren’t we clever). Each person chose a recipe and we made them all – French Onion, Beef Stew, Tomato Basil, and Root Vegetable. Root Vegetable was a first for me, in fact, it may have been my first pureed soup (other than tomato from a can…) and it was delicious.

And here we are today, in the midst of a new first for me, a CSA! So far, so good! But I don’t typically buy root vegetables, which makes me ill prepared for the turnips in the box (I even had to search online to find out if they were turnips or some type of white radish). Once I found out what they were, I was still not overly inspired until I remembered the Soup Our Bowl.

Some recipe searching and analysis later, something smells awesome in my kitchen! It seems to me that root vegetable soup is a way to use up root vegetables – not the kind of recipe that you run to the store for. So I didn’t, my soup consists of the only roots I have at the moment, turnips, carrots and potato.

As I am taste testing this soup, my 17-month old is grabbing for the spoon… he loves it! It does look a little like baby food once it is pureed… I’m convinced this just needs a loaf of crusty bread in place of a spoon.

Root Vegetable Soup

1 Tbsp. olive oil

2 stalks celery, chopped

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

6 small turnips, quartered

6 large carrots, cut in half inch chunks

1 potato, peeled and cubed

Salt and pepper, to taste

4 cups water

1 beef bouillon cube

½ tsp dried rosemary

In large pot or Dutch oven, heat oil over medium high heat.

Sweat onion and celery, about 10 minutes.

Add garlic and cook 1 minute more.

Add vegetables and salt to taste.

Pour in water and add bouillon cube, rosemary and pepper.

Bring to a simmer and cook about 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Cool slightly then blend (use immersion blender or transfer to standard blender in batches)