Seasonal Recipes & Ideas - Parsnips

It's that time of the year again, parsnips and other root vegetables are coming in thick and fast, so it is useful to have a few recipes at hand to keep things interesting. We came up with a great Thai style soup recipe. The sweet & spicy kick works wonders with the strong distinctive flavour of the mighty parsnip, the texture is smooth and velvety, just the sort of comfort food one needs at this time of the year. So here it goes ... (this will serve 4 to 6 for a main course)

Ingredients

1 kg parsnips, peeled and diced into inch sized cubes

1 Tblsp. coconut oil

1/2 Tblsp. yellow curry paste

1/2 Tblsp. fresh ginger, chilli & garlic puree (in equal parts), this is called wet masala and is used in all kinds of curries, so you can always make more than you need and freeze the excess

1-3 Tblsp. Nam Pla (fishsauce), to taste

1/2 Teasp. turmeric powder

1 can coconut milk

1 Tblsp. coconut cream

1 Tblsp. sugar

juice of one lime (around 1 Tblsp.)

Method

Cover parsnip chunks with lightly salted water, bring to the boil and cook until tender. Take care not to oversalt as you can use the cooking liquid as the stock for the soup.

In a separate saucepan heat the coconut oil, add the curry paste and wet masala and fry for a few seconds stirring constantly. Take care not to burn the pastes as they will impart a bitter flavour.

Immediately add the parsnips and the cooking liquid along with the fishsauce, turmeric, coconut milk and cream and sugar. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Add lime juice and blend with stick blender. If required adjust seasoning to taste.

The soup can be eaten simply as it is, but you can make it a bit more substantial by adding marinated crispy tofu on top along with some edamame beans (we get ours from a Sussex grower!). Just cut tofu into 1/2 inch squares and place into marinade for 5 minutes (equal parts of fishsauce, sesame oil & brown rice vinegar). Heat enough coconut oil in a wok to deep-fry the tofu, toss tofu in cornflour and then fry in batches until crispy.