Roasted Parsnip soup with Cavolo Nero Pesto
Roasted parsnips and cauliflower soup drizzled with cavolo nero pesto, or as I like to call it the coziest-bowl-of soup-ever. It's incredibly comforting and easy to throw together for a weekday dinner, yet so gorgeous and delicious that it can be served up as a starter for a nice dinner with friends.
Now I know that most of you visit this corner of the internet for dessert recipes, and rightly so because they are still what I enjoy making the most. I still am and will be, a pastry chef. But this soup was such a real winner that I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to share it with you.
In fact, I like it so much that I even ended up filming the step by step process on Instagram. If you would like to see me make this wonderful soup, check out my highlighted stories.
Parsnip and I have a love affair. They're my go-to vegetable for to salads, either in fancy ribbons or grated. I love to roast them, glaze them, purée them, and now I can say that I love them in soup as well.
In fact, FYI, I begged our caterer to make parsnip purée to sit alongside a lovely braised shank of lamb for our wedding menu. That's how much I like parsnips.
Ever since we met at that aisle in my local Waitrose, I have been utterly smitten by this lovely vegetable. They are like carrot's ultra-posh delicious cousin. I just wish we had met earlier, but growing up in tropical Colombia meant they weren't on the menu.
Over the past years, I have given parsnips a lot of attention, actually, I think I've abused them a bit too much. Now Frenchie is no longer feeling as enthusiastic about them as I am.
So I knew that I had to mute that sweet-aromatic-earthiness of parsnip with the sightly subtle flavor of roasted cauliflower to get away with serving Frenchie a parsnip soup.
I also had some Cavolo Nero sitting in the fridge that needed to get used up pronto. Half of the leaves had already turned yellow and it was now or never moment and thought of adding it to the soup.
Then I remembered a Cavolo Nero pesto recipe by the brilliant Jordan Bourke I had seen a few days ago. Pesto was the perfect way to use up that sad little veg sitting at the bottom of my fridge's vegetable drawer.
In all fairness, I actually was only inspired by the recipe. I misplaced the magazine with the recipe. So I ended up just making the kale pesto the way I thought it should be made. That meant using the nuts and ingredients I had on hand. I also admit I cheaped out and swapped the more traditional pine nuts for almonds and pumpkin seeds.
I was confident that adding kale pesto would help me disguise the parsnips in my parsnip soup from Frenchie even more.
Sometimes I feel like I'm feeding a child. I have to hide the stuff he doesn't eat into elaborate dishes so that he can get a more varied and balanced diet. Who am I kidding? Sometimes the same thing is true for me.
I'm a self-professed hater of kale I need to hide it into my food as well. I only buy the stuff because I know how healthy it is. Truth be told every time I eat it all my taste buds protest violently.
But what do you know? That cavolo nero pesto was DELICIOUS. This my new favorite way to eat kale. Let me rephrase that, it is the only way I enjoy eating kale.
Actually, this pesto is so good I will say one thing it is probably my favorite pesto recipe ever.
Even though parsnips are a somewhat forgotten vegetable these days, they have been enjoyed since prehistoric times. They were a favorite of the Roman dinner table and boasted having fans like Emperor Tiberius amongst their ranks.
Many parsnip recipes have been handed down to us by Roman writers. The white root was a staple of the Roman diet. Funnily enough, the name for carrot daucus and parsnip pastinaca was sometimes used interchangeably between the two vegetables which makes understanding recipes a bit confusing.
The fact that both vegetables were white in color back then only makes matters worse. Yet the truth of the matter is that parsnips were of European origin whereas carrots were Persian. Carrots were also hard to find before the early Middle Ages, they were considered by many Roman scholars to have undesirable effects on the bowels.
It is this historian's humble opinion that when Roman recipes mention pastinaca, it is more than likely they will be referring to parsnips and not their orange relative.
As a little side note carrot became yellow and orange during the mid 16th century. They were developed by supporters of William the Silent, founder of the Dutch royal dynasty of Orange-Nassau. The orange color was used as a way of protesting Spanish rule in the Low Countries.
If you think GMOs are a new thing, think again. Our species has been artificially selecting the best specimens to plant, grow and herd since the dawn of agriculture.
Carrots, parsnips and other root vegetables like rutabaga and turnips where used skillfully by the Dutch to desalinize the earth they had carved up from the sea. Funnily enough, that's exactly what they name pastinaca in Latin means. It derives from the verb Pastinare which translates to "prepare the ground for planting of the vine" and is closely related to the word pastus which means “food from the ground”.
Pliny the Elder, the most famous of all Roman historians gives us some insight into how important parsnips were to Ancient Rome. He not only recorded a series of parsnip recipes but most importantly the crucial role they had in the peace treaty signed between Rome and the conquered Germanic tribes.
You see Tiberius loved the vegetable so much that he even demanded parsnips to be paid as a tribute annually. The cold winters along the Rhine made parsnips particularly sweeter.
I bet you didn't know that up until the 16th-century parsnips were used as a sweetener for cakes, bread, and jams. They were also the starch of choice until the arrival of the humble South American potato.
They are also nutrient-dense, packed full of a variety of vitamins, minerals. Regular consumption of this vegetable enabled people to ward off diseases like scurvy. Just one parsnip has half the recommended daily dose of vitamins C, folic acid and manganese a body needs.
But before I go off again with my love of all things parsnip I will just let you try this recipe for yourself so you can see what the big deal is.
Roasted parsnip and cauliflower soup with Cavolo Nero pesto
ingredients:
- 4 medium parsnips, peeled
- 1 small cauliflower head
- 1 drizzle olive oil
- 1 onion diced
- 2 tbsp butter or olive oil
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1tbsp caraway seeds
- 2 l (8 cups) vegetable stock (chicken stock works well too)
- 1 cup milk of choice
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 bunch of cavolo nero, stalks removed
- 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1 handful of grated parmesan cheese
- 1 handful of raw almonds
- 2 tbsp pumpkin seeds.
instructions:
How to cook Roasted parsnip and cauliflower soup with Cavolo Nero pesto
- Preheat oven to 180° C (350°F)
- Peel and dice the parsnips into large chunks
- Break the cauliflower into smaller florets and cut the stem into large chunks.
- Place into parsnip and cauliflower in a baking sheet.
- Drizzle with olive oil.
- Sprinkle with salt, pepper and caraway seeds.
- Roast in the oven until slightly tender.
- Sautée onions with butter and garlic in a stockpot over medium-low heat.
- Add vegetables and stock and milk. Bring to a boil. Continue until vegetables are fully cooked and tender.
- Transfer vegetables to a blender and pulse until velvety smooth.
- Season to taste
- Top with cavolo nero pesto, sprinkle with extra pumpkin seeds and cream of your choice.
- Enjoy!
- Place all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until desired consistency. Drizzle with extra olive oil.
