This comforting soup combines parsnip and pumpkin in a healthy and beautiful bowl of fall goodness.
Did you miss me? I’m finally back from the longest posting hiatus of my three-and-a-half-year blogging career. I really missed sharing recipes, but have been spending a ton of time behind the scenes getting ready for the transition to WordPress. Between that, my full-time day job, trying to unpack from our move, and my efforts to get a little shut-eye, there just hasn’t been any time left. I’ll be around more now that some of the chaos has died down, though (and if you’re ever looking for me when it’s quiet over here, I’m probably still posting all of my breakfasts on Instagram).
So, what do you think of the new site? I still have a lot of work to do fixing little formatting issues in older posts and adding back in some of my sidebar content, but I’m really happy with the change so far. If you happen to notice broken links, have any other issues, or just want to give me some feedback, feel free to send me an email. One thing I’m really excited about is the recipe formatting plugin I’m using in this post, which allows you to get a printer-friendly version of the recipe with a single click. As soon as I find time I’ll be updating older posts so that they’re easy to print, too.
In other news, my cookbook comes out in just over two weeks on November 3rd! It’s been upgraded to release day delivery on Amazon, so if you pre-order, you can get it right on release day without any extra delay for shipping!
To celebrate all of that (and fall’s true arrival in the South), here’s my first pumpkin recipe of the year. It’s a two-for-one deal where pumpkin is swirled into a base made from parsnips, carrots’ lesser-known and paler cousins.
I hope I don’t have to sell you on the pumpkin, but thought you might need a bit of encouragement to get really pumped about parsnips. In case you do, here are three things to love about them:
1. Parsnips are much bigger than carrots, so you don’t have to do as much peeling to get them ready.
2. They’ll be around all winter and will just get better and better: parsnips left in the ground during winter frosts become even sweeter.
3. Parsnip is more fun to say than carrot, and pretty fun to say in general. (Source: an experiment conducted by me, in which I said both words out loud to myself over and over. Try it and I bet you’ll agree!)
Amidst the uncertainty of an actual move and a website migration, this soup made me feel more grounded and happy (as well as much less hungry). I hope you give it a try!
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter or ghee
- 2 shallots, peeled and chopped
- 2 pounds parsnips (about 4 large), peeled and chopped
- ½ cup white wine (I used Riesling)
- 2½ cups low-sodium or homemade chicken or vegetable stock
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 sprig rosemary
- 1 sprig thyme
- ¾ cup heavy cream or full-fat coconut milk
- (1 cup of the parsnip soup from above)
- 1½ cups pumpkin puree*
- ½ cup low-sodium or homemade chicken or vegetable stock
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric
- 1 tablespoon honey (optional)
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- Melt the butter over medium heat in a very large skillet or Dutch oven that has a lid. Add the shallots and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant and softened, about 3 minutes. Raise the heat to medium-high and add the parsnips. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the shallots are well browned and the parsnips are browned in spots, 8-10 minutes. Add the wine and let it bubble away for 2-3 minutes, until most of the liquid is gone.
- Add the chicken stock, rosemary, thyme, and a little sea salt and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat so the mixture simmers, and cook for 20-25 minutes, until the parsnips are very tender when pierced with a fork.
- Carefully transfer the soup to a blender or food processor and process until smooth.
- Put one cup of the parsnip soup base into a saucepan with all the remaining ingredients listed for pumpkin soup. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until hot, about 10 minutes.
- Put the rest of the parsnip soup base back into the skillet and add the heavy cream or coconut milk. Warm over low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes.
- To serve, divide the parsnip soup between four or six bowls. Add a generous dollop of pumpkin soup to one side of each bowl, and then use a butter knife to swirl the soups gently together in a circular motion. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, if desired, and serve hot.
This recipe makes 4 generous servings or 6 smaller appetizer servings.
If you don't want to swirl your soups, they're also delicious mixed together--after processing the parsnip soup base, just return it to the pot, add all the remaining ingredients, and cook over medium-low until hot. This may not be as pretty, but it will mean you only need to wash one pot!
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Hi. Looks great. Do you have any reviews?
Thanks, Leah! Looks like no one has come back to leave a comment about how it went, so you could be the first! 🙂
Hi Becky, I’m so happy to connect with you through FBP. I am attracted to this recipe because of the parsnip. Can you believe I just tasted parsnip for the first time a few weeks ago? Being from Southeast Asia means I have much to learn and discover about the wonderful produce in the US, where I now call home. I’d love to discover more new vegetables and learn to cook with them. I’m really excited to try this soup!
Hi Christine! Thanks so much for your comment. I can believe it–I don’t think I’d ever had a parsnip until last year. I am obsessed with trying new vegetables, though, and lucky for me, new-to-me ones keep coming out of the woodwork. Are there any vegetables you enjoyed in Southeast Asia that are hard to find here? In Boston we lived just a block from a Vietnamese market that I loved, which was great for finding veggies that weren’t sold in other markets.
Hope you like the soup! 🙂
I actually don’t recognise all the Asian vegetables I see here, but people at the farmers market are always accommodating when I ask questions. I have not seen choy sum, gai lan, kangkung, lotus root and old cucumber, which are really common in Malaysia, where I grew up. They probably have different names here. While I miss those vegetables, I’m happy to now have access to my new favorite vegetables such as fennel, beetroot, parsnip and radish, and I keep discovering more I like!
YUM! This is one of my favorite fall combos 🙂
Me too, Austin! 🙂
Having only recently realized my undying love of parsnips, I have a lot of time and missed parsnip opportunities to make up for. This soup is going on the winter menu in my house!
Yay! Fellow parsnip lovers, unite! 🙂
I puffy heart love parsnips, and it is always amusing to me to buy them at the grocery store and watch the confused look on the cashier’s face as they try to find the code for parsnips. I am fairly certain I am the only person who has ever purchased parsnips from the grocery nearest my house. I’ve never thought to combine them with pumpkin in a soup, but this looks like a good start.. 😉
Yes!! So glad I’m not the only parsnip lover in our city.
It’s great to stump cashiers. I even got some unique-looking onions for free once at the grocery store because they weren’t labeled and they couldn’t figure out what they were 😉
Love the new site, and love that I got the notification of new post, so on my side of things all is fine!
welcome to WordPress!
hope it’s all smooth sailing from now…
Yay! Thank you so much, Sally!
Daaaaang girl, sounds like you’ve been busy!! I can’t wait to see the new site AND that cookbook of yours!! This soup looks phenom! I love all things pumpkin, and the parsnip portion of this equation sounds marvelous as well! Good luck with all the new life happenings!
Thank you so much, Julia!! 🙂