Soup of the Week - Indian Spiced Root Vegetable

You may have noticed that my soup of the week blogs have taken something of a hiatus the last few weeks. Part of that is down to a combination of laziness and busyness. Returning home at eleven on a Sunday evening, I find it’s not the best time for cooking. And if the week is busy, it becomes harder to find a time to make soup. Also, eating the same thing week after week is the path to food apathy and ultimately madness.

But we’re back now! Yes, this last week I have been enjoying a soup with a subcontinental twist. Well, nominally. This is one of those rare recipes which makes use of celeriac —  a swede-like root vegetable which tastes kind of nutty and smells of something I can never quite recall.

Ingredients

• 250g celeriac, peeled and diced
• 1 parsnip, peeled and diced
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 celery stick, diced
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder
• 850ml vegetable stock

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to about 180 degrees (for a fan oven — does anyone not have a fan oven any more?). In a roasting tin, drizzle the celeriac and parsnip with olive oil, and sprinkle over the ground corriander, cumin seeds and chilli powder and season, tossing to coat. Roast for 40 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, sweat down the onion, garlic and celery in olive oil for 15-20 minutes.
3. Once roasted, add the celeriac and parsnip to the sweated onion mixture, and pour over the stock. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes, before blending until smooth

As root vegetable soups tend to be, this is quite thick, so you might find you need to add a few tablespoons of water to each bowl to reach the desired consistency.

I was, if I’m honest, a touch disappointed with this soup. It was nice enough, but with the spices I was hoping for something a bit more different from the previous root veg soups I’ve made. I think, were I to make it again, I would probably use more chilli powder. I’m not much of a chilli fiend, but the extra kick might have given it a bit more distinction.

However, having said that, this was still a delicious soup. Thick and filling, with a slight edge due to the celeriac, and the warm flavours of the cumin and chilli.

About these ads