The warming soft texture of a bowl of soup is always comforting in the cold. Parsnips, roasted almonds and sage are heavenly flavours that can also be combined with a little texture-tweak, resulting in lovely crunch to contrast the lusciousness.
Ingredients
(Serves 4 – 6)
1 cup almond kernels
1 onion, roughly chopped
120 g butter
500 g sml – medium-size parsnips, peeled & sliced
2 med Royal Blue potatoes, peeled & sliced
1 fresh bay leaf
1 ½ – 2 litres vegetable stock, hot
½ cup pouring cream
salt flakes & freshly cracked black pepper
½ cup sage leaves
Method
- Preheat oven to 180˚C.
- Place the almonds on a baking tray and roast in the oven for 15 – 20 minutes until a little darker in colour and they smell toasted. Roughly chop and reserve to the side.
- Gently fry the onion in 20 g of the butter until softened. Stir through the sliced parsnips, potatoes and bay leaf and pour over the hot stock. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook 20 minutes until soft.
- Remove the bay leaf, puree with a stick blender until smooth, stir through the cream and season to taste.
- Heat the remaining butter in a frying pan and heat until golden brown and frothy. Add the sage leaves and swirl through the butter to crisp.
- Serve the hot soup scatter with the chopped roasted almonds, crisp sage leaves, a drizzle of the brown butter and freshly cracked black pepper.
