RECIPE: Roasted Root Vegetable Soup

This simple roasted root vegetable soup is works well with just about any combination of root vegetables such as turnips, celeraic, potatoes, carrots, rutabagas or parsnips. I'm not a huge fan of turnips or celeraic, so when we got both of these in our co-op share one week, I decided making soup would be the best way to use them up. Since turnips and celeraic have a strong flavor, potatoes would mellow the flavor and onions and garlic would sweeten it up a bit. I happened to have two lonely carrots left, and decided to use them in the soup too. Finally, I opted to roast the vegetables instead of boiling them so that the soup would have a more carmelized flavor.

I hope you give this recipe a try--it's really easy and very tasty!

Roasted Root Vegetable Soup

1 celearic [celery root]

2 turnips

4 potatoes [I used two red and two yellow]

2 carrots

1 onion

4 garlic cloves

salt and pepper

sprigs of fresh thyme [or 2 teaspoons of dried thyme]

1. Peel vegetables, cut into similar sized chunks and place in a large bowl. Toss with olive oil, kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper and dried thyme, if using, until vegetables are evenly coated.

2. Place vegetables on cookie sheets in a single layer and top each cookie sheet with a few sprigs of the fresh thyme. Don't over-crowd the vegetables. It's better to use additional cookie sheets.

3. Roast vegetables in a 375 F oven for 45 minutes to an hour or until vegetables pierce easily with a fork, tossing every 20 minutes or so. Remove from oven and let cool.

4. Working in batches, place roasted vegetables in food processor, scraping any olive oil and roasted bits of vegetables from the cookie sheets--there's a lot of flavor there! Add about 3 cups of water for every 4-5 cups of vegetables. Purée until smooth and pour into a large sauce pan.

5. When all of the vegetables are puréed, cook over medium-low heat until heated through, adding additional water if necessary until soup is desired consistency. Taste for salt and pepper, and add accordingly. Keep in mind that this soup is prepared with water and not broth, so don't be alarmed by how much salt you may need to add.

6. Serve warm, garnish with fresh thyme leaves, if desired. Chopped chives would work, too.

Enjoy!

This post is my contribution to Weekend Cooking, a weekly blog event hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food related post to share--a food related book review (fiction or nonfiction), cookbook review, movie review, a recipe, random thoughts, gadgets, food quotations, photographs, etc. Please visit Beth's blog for more information and join the fun!