Parsnips Puree & Cream of Potato Soup

[cougars_catnip]

Cream of Potato soup is a hearty winter meal with salad and fresh hot bread.  And the parsnips is a nice alternative to the more common mashed potatoes. They go very well with roast chicken.

Parsnips Puree

Ingredients

• 1 pound parsnips, peeled and sliced
• Salt
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 head garlic, cut in 1/2 horizontally
• 4 ounces unsalted butter or extra-virgin olive oil
• Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

These are the consistancy of mashed potatoes.  Now 2 cups of cream is way more than you need so what I would do is only use as much as you need to get the right texture and then store the left over cream in the fridge to use in a cream of potato soup.

 

Put parsnips in pot, season with salt and cover with water. Place over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Cook until tender - the tip of a paring knife should easily go through without resistance, approximately 15 minutes.

In a medium saucepan place the cream, thyme sprigs and garlic cloves over low heat and bring to a simmer.

Drain parsnips and reserve cooking liquid. Place parsnips in a food processor with butter, or extra-virgin olive oil and a couple of tablespoons of reserved cooking liquid. Begin to process and add strained heavy cream mixture. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, and puree until very smooth.

 

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Cream of Potato Soup

 

8 - 10 med. potatoes ( I like Yukon Gold for this, but any non-waxy potato will work. )
1 onion minced.

left over cream from above recipie

vegetable stock or water to cover.

salt and pepper, garlic and thyme

butter

 

Peel and chop potatoes and throw in a pot. Cover with vegetable stock or water. Add 1 tsp. of salt and a few grinds of pepper, a couple cloves of garlic and two sprigs of fresh thyme and the onion and bring to a boil. Cook until tender. 

Remove half of the potatos and place in a bowl. Add some of the cream and butter and make mashed potatos. Scrape mashed potatoes back into pot and stir to combine.
 
Add rest of cream and heat until hot.  I usually put it in my crockpot and keep it warm.
Adjust seasonings and serve with hot bread, and a salad.  


Tip: You might wonder about the added step of making mashed potatoes and then adding back into the soup. The reason you do this is to bind the butter into the potatoes so it doesn't float to the top of the soup and form an oil slick. It also serves to thicken the soup and add to the creaminess. You can puree the entire batch but my family likes to have some chunks of unmashed potatoe in it.

Add ins:  I bet you could add any left overs from the parsnips dish to this and it would be good too. :)

 You can top this soup with chopped spring onions, cheese, sour cream, chives, and or bacon bits.
This is also good with leeks.