Like a Box of Chocolates....

..you never know what you're gonna get around here.

Yesterday I was fooling around in the kitchen.

And this happened:

It tasted so good, I thought you might like to try it. Unfortunately, I did not measure anything, because that is largely the way I cook. But here is the way I remember it:

Carrot-Parsnip-Ginger Soup

(this makes a big pot of soup, enough for large servings for about six people, I'd guess. You can make it smaller if you like by cutting the ingredients in half. But I love making big pots of soup and eating it in the ensuing days.)

2 Tablespoons butter plus 2 Tablespoons olive oil

Approx. 1 1/2 pounds carrots, peeled and sliced into rounds or chunks

3-4 parsnips (they were pretty good-sized parsnips), peeled and sliced

3 medium-sized onions, peeled and coarsely chopped

2 cloves crushed garlic

a piece of fresh ginger, approximately 2 1/2-3 inches long, peeled and chopped coarsely (you may like less ginger. I like robust flavor)

Approx. 1 1/2 quarts water, vegetable stock or chicken stock

1/4 cup Grand Marnier

In a large soup pot, slowly heat the butter and olive oil until the butter is melted. Add the garlic, and gently cook it over low heat for a few minutes, stirring, until you smell the garlic aroma. Then throw in all the chopped vegetables and give it a good stir. 

Let it gently cook for several minutes, stirring occasionally. (these ingredients benefit from being cooked slowly, rather than hot and fast. It's called "sweating" them.)

When the vegetables are beginning to get tender and everything smells heady and marvelous, add 1 quart water.  (If I had had any vegetable or chicken stock, I probably would have used that, but I didn't.)

Turn up heat to high and bring to a boil. Lower heat, cover, and let simmer until everything is nicely tender. (I have no idea how long mine simmered -- probably about 40 minutes or so)

Take the soup off the heat and, in sections so as not to overwhelm the processor and have it leak all over and make you go crazy (ask me how I know), puree it in the food processor (or a blender). 

Pour the pureed bits into another pot, and then when the whole thing is pureed, put it back in the original pot (this last part sounds silly, but it's what I did - the reason being that the pot I was pouring into was smaller, and I wanted the bigger size of the original pot back.)

In our house we like to leave a few remaining chunks of carrot and onion, etc., in our soup, so I don't overdo the puree, but I guess for a fancy dinner party, you'd want to really puree it. 

Put the pot with the soup back on low heat.  Mine seemed like it needed some more water, so I added a cup and a half of water. I tasted it to see what it needed. It needed some salt, so I added sea salt to my taste.

Then I felt like it needed something else - something a little bit tangy and fragrant. So I added 1/4 cup Grand Marnier. (you could add orange juice if you don't have or don't like or don't imbibe in Grand Marnier).  Gently reheat the soup, so it's hot but not quite to the boiling point.

For the photo, I garnished it with a dollop of plain yogurt.

We enjoyed it. A lot. I've decided to add this to our Thanksgiving dinner.

--------------

And then on the knitting thing, I started the Romantic Man Socks.

Why romantic? See the bits of leftover yarn from my socks in there? Yeah. I know. Romantic. (or Cheap Frugal Yankee. Or both.)

Thank you for all the suggestions for great cast-ons for my mittens. I look forward to trying them all and choosing my favorite.

Comments

[Rachel H]

Mmmm... This is now feeling like a good day to make soup.

[Wendy]

Ah . . . another entry brought to us by the color orange!

[Liz]

Yum. Now THAT is my kind of soup!

[Lee Ann]

Nice sock, ayuh. :-)

[valentina]

Aww. But that is romantic and they look good, to boot!

[k]

I believe I have all those ingredients. Soup for dinner!
The socks are lovely. Are you going to coordinate, so you can go out in public and show off your socks?

[Cassie]

Socks pretty. Soup pretty. Norma's unstoppable.

[margene]

I missed the mitten cast on question. Did someone tell you to try the double start? It's a very cool way to go, too.
That soup looks fabulous! I doubt I could get Smith to eat it:-(

[Carole]

The soup sounds delicious. You left out one important thing, though. When you add the Grand Marnier, you forgot to say to pour a nice glass for the cook, too!

[--Deb]

It looks beautiful and sounds delicious. One of these days, I really need to get a food processor....

[cari]

That sounds SO good. I think I need to have soup tonight.

[Stalker Angie]

Wow....there's no meat in that thar soup. I guess I could serve steaks with it. I'm Texan ya know. We gotta have us some beef at least once a day. Hehe

It's a wonderful sounding recipe. I definitely need to try it once it finally gets cool enough for cooking soup. We're still grilling around here to keep the heat out of the house. The highs are still in the 80's here. Ugh.

I love the color combo in the socks, Norma Dear. You....Well, you rock. :)

[shobhana]

that soup sounds yummy. i'll have to try that. just as soon as i buy a food processor. it's on the list...

[jackie]

MMmmmmm. I'm gonna make that.

[Martha]

Parsnips! I love parsnips! I buy a bag for a stew, and then I'm left with four parsnips and nothing to do with them. So thank you for giving my parsnips a future.

[regina]

I'm so glad I just bought carrots at the farmer's market! that seems like a good soup for this weekend (it's getting quite chilly in nyc), so thank you kindly for the inspiration.

The sock looks lovely! and there's nothing cheap about using what you've got. frugality is a quality which should be prized and admired, not scorned. There's so much waste in this country (as you well know), it borders on the obscene. Besides, some of my very favorite things (clothing, food, household objects) came from "leftovers." Good for you!

[mamacate]

Thanks. I think I've just added that to MY Thanksgiving dinner too. My mom is Vegan and I can use earth balance instead of butter for the onions and we'll be good to go. Normal, I mean, meat-eating people can use sour cream or yogurt. Yum. Thanks. And IMO there's nothing more romantic that creating something beautiful from something otherwise overlooked. Isn't that what love is? :)

[mamacate]

PS: go buy some CVM roving, see my blog for a link. Seriously.

[Ryan]

So, would that be Romantic-Man Socks, or Romantic Man-Socks?

[Carrie]

Stalker Angie, I thought y'all had to have beef at least once a MEAL. And a few snacks thrown in. At least, that's how they do it in Montana... DH always said, "When I was a bachelor, it wasn't, 'should I have steak for dinner', it was 'what cut of steak should I have?'"
Norma, that soup looks gorgeous. I wonder if it would count as a meat if I used chicken stock?
Love the socks. I asked DH if he would wear socks if I knitted them, and he didn't even hesitate. He said, "No way." Remind me again why we need boys?

[Kathy]

Beautiful soup! May have to give that one a try for my annual Thanksgiving dinner, being root vegetable-y goodness and all.

[julia fc]

I love me some ginger carrot soup but . . . Parsnips! I adore parsnips. I'm going to print this out and give it a go, m'dear. Thanks!

[June]

Do you have a stick blender? I have found that invariably useful for pureed veggie soups. No messes, and everything stays in the original pot! (Just make sure the soup level is a few inches beneath the pot lip.)

[June]

Do you have a stick blender? I have found that to be invariably useful for pureed veggie soups. No messes, and everything stays in the original pot! (Just make sure the soup level is a few inches beneath the pot lip.)

[Jean E.]

That soup sounds great! My son had his wisdom teeth out yesterday, maybe this will be something he can enjoy. YUM.

[Kathy]

Yum! The Grand Marnier -- I would not have thought of that -- sounds great though.

[PJ]

Wow- so much to comment on I just love all your posts! I went to the 'Russia' blog and really found out how we take for granted those self mutating plastic bags we have overflowning here in America! The yarn she sent you was simply lovely and almost matched your soup in color ;) That sounds so good and to add it to your Thanksgiving that really means something! I will be trying it out!
Too much to comment on luv all your pics!

[freecia]

It all looked innocent enough until "1/4 cup Grand Marnier" and then I laughed. Not only does Norma come up with interest recipes on the fly, she spikes them for extra goodness :)

[Kay]

I'm adding that soup to our Thanksgiving. It sounds heavenly -- and so dang nutritious. The kids might even eat it if we tell them there's booze in it. xoxo Kay

[Alex]

"overwhelm the processor and have it leak all over and make you go crazy"... I did exactly that last winter with my first attempt at potato-leek soup. Oh, it was a mess. The blender is much less deceptive than that sneaky Cuisinart about how much volume it can handle! Thanks for the soup recipe - it looks yummy. :)

[Alison]

Norma, thanks for this recipe! I had a soup-making day today, and made a batch of this. It's utterly, utterly delicious. I've got no Grand Marnier to hand, but I'll be freezing the soup in individual portions and adding various things to each as the mood takes me.

PS - thanks for your comment on my Natalya gauntlets the other day! I'm especially pleased that you liked them, as you enabled/inspired them, indirectly, by sending Cari the Calmer she used for hers. The smallworld-blogiverse extends across to England, huh?

[ann]

mmm, mmmmm good!

[Bookish Wendy]

Um, yah....can you come fool around in my kitchen. I need me some of that!

;)

[Rossana]

Oh my goodness! My toes are curling in happy anticipation of trying out your Carrot-Parsnip-Ginger Soup recipe! Yum! Thanks for sharing it with us!

[Wanda]

Thanks very much for sharing the recipe with us. I am definitely going to try this. I think the bf would be pleased too as he's a veggie.

The Romantic-Man socks look great. There's nothing wrong with using what you have. Besides, aren't you on a non-yarn buying kick for a bit? Way to use up those scraps from stash.

[Mary]

I blogged about soup the other day, too! (http://marysvirginwool.blogspot.com/2005/11/comfort-food.html) Mine came out fantastic - I did it in the crock pot and kept stealing tastes all day long. It ended up becoming our Thanksgiving lunch. Yum!