Carrot and Parsnip Soup (A Soup Maker Recipe) (2024)

FAQs

Should you cook carrots before putting them in soup? ›

While certain vegetables can work just fine added directly to simmering soups and stews (say, carrots and celery), other vegetables (onions, garlic, and the like) will almost always need at least a brief sweat in a fat-based liquid before adding the remaining ingredients.

Chop your ingredients into small pieces, especially tough veggies such as potatoes, carrots, squash and turnip. This allows the vegetables to fully cook in the short soup maker cycle. Ensure the lid is placed fully on and secure. Make sure all meat that goes into the soup maker is pre-cooked.

How to prepare parsnips. Young, small parsnips don't really need peeling – just scrub clean and serve whole. Older parsnips should be peeled very thinly with a peeler or sharp knife, then chopped into evenly sized chunks. If the central core is very fibrous, this should be cut away.

For clear, brothy soups, stock is your most important ingredient. If you want to make a good soup, you need to use an excellently flavored stock — otherwise, the entire pot could be tasteless.

She notes that the peels have a different texture from the rest of the root, which isn't always desirable in a final dish but is also often a matter of personal preference. "For soups and stews I still peel them (don't ask), but you don't have to. The only time I do not peel carrots is when juicing," she says.

Do not heat milk in your soup maker or use it to reheat any food. Most of our recipes use a small amount of potato which helps to thicken soup. Pasta and potatoes if used in excessive quantities can cause the soup maker to overheat. Stick to the quantities in our recipes as a guide.

Avoid bitter greens and members of the brassica family (kale, cabbage, Bok Choy). Other greens can be used in small quantities. Good in small quantities (no more than 1/5 of the stock ingredients). Foods in the Brassica family, such as kohlrabi, are too strong for stock/broth and can impart a bitter taste.

However, if parsnips have been allowed to grow too big or remain too long in storage, they tend to get woodier and bitter. Thus, it is recommended that larger parsnips be peeled and that the “woody” core in the middle be cut out before preparing.

Add flour or cornflour

Put a tablespoon of either into a small bowl and stir in 2-3 tbsp of the soup until you have a smooth mixture. Stir this back into the soup and bring it to a simmer. Cook for a few minutes to allow the starch granules to burst to thicken, and to cook out any flour flavour.

What do parsnips taste like in soup? ›

Parsnips have a sweeter, licorice-like taste with a hint of spice to them, as opposed to the carrot's sweetness that is more reminiscent of other types of winter squash. Turnips are another root vegetable that is often compared to parsnips, but the two are from completely different families.

The flavor of parsnips pairs well with other root vegetables, like beets, sweet potatoes, and carrots. They're also delicious with cauliflower, potatoes, and Brussels sprouts. Don't be afraid to roast these parsnips with other veggies of choice for a fiber-rich, delicious side dish.

Dried herbs and seasonings: homemade seasoned salt, black pepper, Italian seasoning, and dried bay leaves lend flavor to the soup.

Boiling or steaming are the best cooking methods to achieve soft carrots. By cooking them in liquid, such as water or vegetable broth, you can infuse more flavor into the carrots and allow them to soften evenly. Avoid dry cooking methods like roasting or sautéing, as they may result in a firmer texture.

Medium answer: if you boil your carrots into oblivion then all the nutrients are going into the water (also you can't tell the carrots from the water. Protip: you just made soup). But if you cook them reasonably they will retain most nutrients.

Then put them into a colander, place the colander inside a larger bowl, and spread salt over the veggies. You can use anywhere between half to one teaspoon for every pound of vegetables you have — it simply depends how much moisture you want to take out, and how seasoned you prefer your vegetables.

You can, of course, make this veggie soup without roasting the vegetables – just boiling them up with the spices in the stock for 20 minutes will give you a lovely soup. But roasting them? It just adds a wonderful sweet and slightly smoky flavour. You can even enhance that smoky flavour by using smoked paprika.