Sunday, October 7, 2012

Roasted Vegetable Soup

Roasted Vegetable Soup


I’m baaaaaaccckkkk (said by a creepy little girl sitting in front of a TV).  Can you tell I’m enjoying October and all this beauteous month brings with it?  We have amped up the horror movie viewing (hence the previous reference...), donned our football jerseys, had more pumpkin spice lattes than any one person should have by the beginning of October, worked them off by crunching on the now falling leaves and broken out the flavors of this, my favorite, season.  Welcome back fall!

For my first post in more months than I care to admit, I want to feature an insanely simple and delicious soup we made recently.  For this soup (adapted from Ina Garten), we began by roasting vegetables.  If you have never roasted veggies, you need to give it a try.  Something magical happens to a vegetable in the oven.  Squash, brussel sprouts, asparagus, cauliflower…all veggies that simply need a little olive oil, salt, pepper and a hot oven for fabulous things to happen.  Enjoy this particular soup for dinner with some crusty bread, or for lunch at work on a chilly day (yep, it is nutritious and light enough for a guilt free lunch).


Ingredients
1 Pound Carrots
1 Pound Parsnips
1 Large sweet potato
2 Pounds Butternut squash
1 Spanish onion
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1 ½ Teaspoons salt
½ Teaspoon pepper
1 Teaspoon dried thyme
8 Cups chicken stock (I prefer unsalted)
Salt and pepper

Step 1
As always, I begin by prepping my veggies.  Go ahead and preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  Then peel the carrots, parsnips, sweet potato, squash and onion.  Cut each of the veggies into about 1 ¼ inch pieces. 


Place them in a large bowl and add the olive oil, 1 ½ teaspoons salt, ½ teaspoon pepper and thyme.  Toss the veggies to evenly coat them.  Then place them in a single layer on two sheet pans.  Place the pans in the oven and roast the vegetables for 45 minutes to 1 hour, turning them every 15 minutes, so they are evenly cooked.  You want the veggies to have some nice browning on them…brown = flavor!


Step 2

When the vegetables are finished, heat the chicken stock in a large pot.  Add the vegetables to the stock.  Using an immersion blender, standing blender or food processor, puree the soup.  You want it to be thick, but not mashed potatoes thick.  I ended up adding a little water just to thin it out. 


When it is a nice consistency, stir in salt and pepper to taste.


It's that easy!  Enjoy on a cool autumn day!