Beverly's Parsnip Soup

     This is fabulous! Many thanks and kudos to my friend, Beverly, who made this recipe.  Her soup is genius!

     Beverly and I go waay back: we met in high school!  She now lives in a different country but Facebook keeps us in touch.  And that's how I learned about her recipe; she linked to it on FB from SparkPeople.Com (a great website).  The recipe looked intriguing and besides, it was by Beverly!  I bookmarked it and then remembered it when I downloaded a very pretty produce calendar.  Beverly's recipe and the produce calendar inspired me to try parsnips. 

     Honestly, parsnips are ugly and not inspiring on their own.   They look like weird albino carrots.  Compare them in the photos:

 

     Fortunately, they tasted better than they look.  In fact, they tasted completely different than what I expected.  They had a delicate, almost... flowery scent.  Out of curiosity, I sniffed the carrots in comparison but that didn't help...I know what to expect from a carrot.  My carrots smelled like carrots : ).

     I didn't taste the raw parsnips.  I was afraid I wouldn't like them and since this was a friend's recipe, I didn't want to bias myself against the final dish.  I am so happy to report that the cooked parsnips tasted wonderful!  They retained their delicate flavor--I couldn't quite put my finger what they tasted like (probably just like parsnips) but it was damn good. 

     Beverly's soup was a perfect combination of flavors.  Each spoonful had an even balance of parsnip, carrot, and celery.  No single flavor overpowered the others.  I bet that mushrooms would be a great addition!

     I ate this soup over brown rice but it's also great on its own.  I hope that you enjoy it too!

Beverly's Parsnip Soup

Inspired by Parsnip Soup With Black Pepper

Makes 6 servings, about 1 1/2 cups each.

Ingredients:

Wyler's Sodium Free, Fat Free Instant Boullion, 4 tsp

4 cups of water

Parsnips, 6 medium, chopped

Carrots, 3 medium, chopped

Kidney Beans, white or red, cooked, 3/4 cup (if using canned, rinse and drain the beans)*

Onion, 1 large, chopped

Shallot, 1 medium/large, chopped

Garlic, 4 cloves, minced

Celery, 4 stalks, sliced

Salt and black pepper to taste

Directions:

1) Heat a pot over high heat.  Add the water and bring to a simmer.  Add the Wyler's Sodium Free, Fat Free Instant Boullion.  Stir to dissolve the instant boullion.  Bring the broth to a boil.  Add the parsnips, carrots, kidney beans, onion, shallot, garlic, and celery.  Bring the water back to a boil and cook for 10-15 minutes; keep it on the shorter side if you prefer your vegetables a bit more firm, longer if you like your vegetable tender.  

2) Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serving suggestions:

1) Ladle over a cup of brown rice.

2) Use an immersion blender to puree the soup until smooth.  Alternatively, transfer the soup in batches to a blender and puree in batches until smooth.  You can also just puree a portion of the soup. 

Nutrition Information Per Serving**:

Calories: 214.6, Total fat: 3g, Cholesterol: 0mg, Sodium: 481.3mg, Total Carbohydrates: 43.3g, Fiber: 10.4g, Protein: 5.5g

*I used homecooked dried kidney beans.  I did not add any salt when I cooked them.  The nutrition information above reflects homecooked kidney beans with no salt added.  If using canned kidney beans, rinsing and draining them reduces the sodium content by quite a bit but the canned version will still have more salt than homecooked kidney beans. 

**The original recipe used 1 tbsp olive oil and the nutrition information above includes the olive oil.  I didn't use the olive oil in my version. 

Parsnip