Root vegetable soup, mash or puree, Jerusalem artichokes, parsnips and potatoes - basic recipe for almost all winter vegetables
Ingredients
- 50 g (2 oz) butter
- 1 onion, medium
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 500 g (1 lbs) Jerusalem artichokes (or cauliflower)
- 250 g (½ lbs) parsnips (or parsley root or celeriac root. Or a mix of all.)
- 250 g (½ lbs) potato
- 1 dl (½ cup) cream
- 3/4 - 1 liter/quart of water
- 2 tbsp soy sauce (or tamari for gluten free)
- 2 tbsp Asian fish sauce
- 2 tsp Salt, to taste
Directions
Peel all the vegetables.
Cut them into approx. ½ cm (1/4 inch) thick slices. This will make them cook at the same rate.
Remove the skin from the garlic and chop them roughly.
Brown the butter. Then add the onion and garlic. Saute the onions until they become translucent.
Add the remaining ingredients.
Bring to a boil, and then turn down the heat to simmer for approx. ½ hours.
When you can "squish" the root vegetables against the edge of the pan, they are done.
Pass through a sieve, or use a hand blender or a blender. If you use a blender then split it into several small portions that you blend one at a time.
Serve with sour cream and a little smoked ham or bacon, in strips.
Notes
The weight of the vegetables are with skin.
You can use chicken or vegetable stock instead of water. Then you don't need to use soy sauce or fish sauce.
The basic idea behind the recipe is:
- 2 parts "neutral" root vegetable as the main ingredient (I use typically Jerusalem artichokes, but cauliflower can also be used. (Yeah I know ... it is not a root vegetable... but it works))
- 1 part root vegetable for depth of flavor (In increasing strength: parsnips, parsley root, celeriac root)
- 1 part potato. Without the starch in the potatoes it may very well be too watery. But if there is too much potato it can become "slimy" in its texture.
Soup or cream
To make a creamy soup, just follow the recipe as it is.
If you want to make a puree / mash instead of a soup, add more butter. It can easily absorb 250 g (9-10 oz) of butter:-D instead of the 50 gr (2 oz) as stated in the recipe.
Do NOT put water into the mash version.
Just add butter and cream at the beginning, and then simmer, with a lid on, with only that.
Finally, you can add more cream if the consistency is too thick when you are done pureeing it.
The cream version likes to be seasoned with tarragon. Which makes it resemble a Bearnaise sauce.
