Parsnip and Golden Beet Soup: Celebrate some of the tastiest vegetables of the fall
With the arrival of fall, my produce thoughts start moving from things that grow above the ground to things that grow under it. Yes, my fellow seasonal cooks, root vegetable season is heading our way.
I always feel a little like a homesteader when I cook with root vegetables. I think of 19th century families setting up homes out West, filling their root cellars with all kinds of tubers, readying themselves for the cold winter ahead. I summon up my best Laura Ingalls Wilder self as I contemplate the piles of knobby, bumpy, often dirty vegetables, knowing that this is what the vegetal landscape is mostly made of until spring.
OK, I'm clearly over-channeling here, but there is something about the humble sturdiness of a root vegetable that can be very pleasing, and even inspiring.
First stop — soup! This soup highlights the pale golden colors and slight sweetness of yellow beets and parsnips. You could also use red beets and make this into a pinkish-orange soup — which would be just gorgeous, too. And you could use carrots instead of the parsnips, which will make the soup a more orangy yellow. In short, the colors of the root vegetables you choose will dictate the tint of your soup.
You can definitely leave out the cream if you don't want it, and a little squirt of hot sauce is a brilliant addition at the end (but not too much — no point in overpowering the delicate sweetness of the vegetables).
Another great way to cook beets is in the oven, especially if your oven is already cranking for another reason. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Trim the tops and roots from the beets, give them a scrub, and then wrap them in foil. Place the foil-wrapped beets in a baking dish and bake for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on their size. When a knife slips into the beet easily, it's done.
And note that using vegetable broth gives you a vegetarian soup.
• Katie Workman has written two cookbooks focused on easy, family-friendly cooking, “Dinner Solved!” and “The Mom 100 Cookbook.” She blogs at http://www.themom100.com/about-katie-workman. She can be reached at Katie@themom100.com.