Domestic Goddess my arse!

These are the recipes I'm good at... quick, simple, out of the store-cupboard and onto the plate fare. I never spend more than 30 minutes faffing in the kitchen. So there.

This will be my recipe & homemadey remedy diary.

If you have those 'OMG! It's lunchtime and all I've got is a parsnip and a packet of boil in the bag rice.' moments, then you're a kindred spirit and you know that bad planning is often the mother of great food. So welcome to fast slurpy soups and 'really?' salads made from what's left in the fridge.


Never, ever believe there isn't something wonderful to make from the last 3 ingredients in your kitchen. Unless those ingredients really are fairy liquid, eggshells and dead flies.

Monday 17 October 2011

Rootty Toot Toot - Parsnip Soup

Right then, hang onto your blenders my friends because I've been experimenting. I've got a huge bowl full of  windfall crabbies as big as a small boy's head, from my 'not-mother-in-law's' tree and too much hummus in the fridge - oh and parsnips.

So you're being asked to witness an unholy culinary marriage here, it's as well you know that up front.

Three more things you should know about me.
  • I'm fearless.
  • When I was 6 I wanted to be a chemist.
  • Measuring things - not my strong suit.

     
Get your parsnippy freak on...
  • 3/4 biggish parsnips (chopped small)
  • 1 small crab apple (an ordinary apple will work just as well,  but you go with what you got)
  • I onion red or white - sliced
  • half a tub of hummus (you could try more, I'm sticking with the half tub for now)
  • 2 rashers of bacon
  • oil for the pan
  • whatever stock you like to use (I use swiss bouillon, low salt)
To the soup pan!

Put some oil in the pan and sling in the onion, and make it sweat - you can also add garlic here if you like, I didn't want too much going on, what with the hummus and the apples and all.

Pile in the chopped parsnips, stick the lid over 3/4 of the pan and jiggle them about a bit so they get all sweaty and happy with the onions.

Add at least a pint of stock (water and stock cube works fine), time to add the chopped apple too. Let that all lightly bubble away until the parsnips and apples have gone soft.

In the meantime you can pop the rashers into a frying pan to cook - these will be chopped up and added to the soup just after you've whizzed it up smooth. Put them to one side and chop them up when you've got a mo.

If you like you can add a bit more of a baconny taste by swishing about a cup of just boiled water to the pan you've just cooked your piggy rashers in and pour the juices into the soup pot. Yummo.

When the neeps are cooked and you are happy with the reduction of the liquid (at least a quarter reduced and more if you like a really thick soup) then you can whizz it to a smooth, cuddleblanket soup.

Now stir in the hummus and whiz it once more. Taste as you go.

Finally add the chopped up bacon and stir into the soup. I left mine for 30 mins, before reheating and serving. It was lovely.

TIP: You could make this soup with the deconstructed ingredients of the hummus and it would come out just as delish. If you do have a go, let me know the ratios of tahini, chickpea and garlic.

TIP2: Don't tell a fussy eater it's parsnip and hummus you silly sausage. Call it 'Little Bacon Soup'.

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