Greetings š The last couple of weeks we have been very busy kicking off our Wednesday afternoon cooking workshops at Youth Space in Palmerston North. What great fun, with around 10 – 12 teens cooking with us each Wednesday.
Today’s recipe is a thick and tasty roasted cauliflower and parsnip soup garnished with fresh thyme.
Roasted Cauliflower and Parsnip Soup
Ingredients
- 1 large head cauliflower, chopped into florets
- 2 parsnips, peeled and chopped into chunks
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 5-6 cloves garlic, unpeeled
- 1 tsp cumin seeds, freshly ground in a coffee grinder or mortar & pestle
- 1 medium onion, sliced
- 3 springs of fresh thyme, washed
- 5 cups vegetable stock*
- ¼ cup cashew topping or **1 cup unsweetened organic soy milk
- fresh thyme leaves to garnish
- extra vegetable stock to thin
- organic sea salt to taste
*To make up the vegetable stock use 18g (one rounded dessert spoon) of Rapunzel organic vegetable bouillon powder per litre of water.
**If using soy, nut or rice milk, reduce vegetable stock amount by 3/4 cup
Method
- Preheat oven to 200°C.
- Toss chopped cauliflower and parsnip each separately in 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil and a generous pinch of salt.
- Place each of theĀ vegetables in a lined oven tray, together with theĀ whole garlic cloves and roast until golden, around 25 – 30 mins. Remove cauliflower and garlic, give parsnips another 7-10 mins until tender. Slip the skins off the roast garlic.
- Heat 2 Tbsp of extra virgin olive oil in a large pot over a medium heat. Saute onion for around 5 mins until soft. Add the cumin and continue to stir over the heat another minute.
- Add the vegetable stock, thyme sprigs and roast vegetables, bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.
- Remove the thyme stalks, then using a hand blender, puree the soup until creamy and smooth. Add the cashew topping (or soy or nut milk) while blending.
- Taste and adjust seasonings, you will need to add some seasalt to bring out the flavours. You may also need a little extra vegetable stock to thin down the soup, especially if you re-heat it later on.
- Pour into a bowl and decorate with fresh thyme leaves.