Name: Roasted Parsnip Soup with a Sauté of Wild Mushrooms
Ingredients: 2 large onions (peeled and diced); 2 pounds parsnips (peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces); 4 shallots (peeled and roughly diced); ¼ cup olive oil; 1 tablespoon cumin; Salt and Pepper; 8 cups vegetable stock; 1 tablespoon chives (finely chopped); 1 tablespoon butter; 8 ounces chanterelles (or other wild mushrooms (shitakes work well), cleaned and thinly sliced)

Two bowls of Roasted Parsnip Soup with a Sauté of Wild Mushrooms on top. — Roasted parsnip soup. Photo: Leela Cyd

Roasted parsnip soup with wild mushrooms is a hearty, flavorful dish made with cumin-spiced roasted vegetables, chives, and sautéed chanterelles.

Ingredients

2 large onions, peeled and diced
2 pounds parsnips, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
4 shallots, peeled and roughly diced
¼ cup olive oil
1 tablespoon cumin
Salt and Pepper
8 cups vegetable stock
1 tablespoon chives, finely chopped
1 tablespoon butter
8 ounces chanterelles, or other wild mushrooms (shitakes work well), cleaned and thinly sliced

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400°. Place all the onions, parsnips and shallots into a large roasting pan. Combine the olive oil and cumin in a small bowl and then pour over the vegetables and toss to coat well in the pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place in the oven and roast for 25 minutes.
Pour all of the vegetable stock (or chicken stock) into the roasting pan and continue cooking the parsnips (covered with a piece of foil) for another 35 minutes.
Once the parsnips are fully cooked, carefully remove the pan from the oven. Purée the soup with either an immersion blender or in batches in a food processor until you have a very smooth soup. If you are using the later, be careful not to overfill the bowl of the processor. If the soup is very thick, add a little extra vegetable broth when you purée it.
Keep the soup warm in the pan until you are ready to serve it. Just before serving, stir the chives into the soup so that they are well dispersed. Melt the butter in a medium-sized skillet placed over medium-high heat. Sauté the chanterelles until they are golden brown; set aside.
Ladle the soup into small soup bowls (this soup is very hearty so a small bowl is the perfect size) and spoon some of the mushrooms, and the juices from the pan they cooked in, on top of the soup in each bowl.