A, this one is for you

since you have that all new fabulous kitchen! another one of my soups... vegetarian and very healthy, if you so wish. made this today and started with these, from left: sweet potato, celeriac, parsnip, longest white one is root parsley, cabbage, carrots, potatoes and leek





didn't use all of the cabbage, there's approx 1/4 of the whole, finely shredded, celeriac and root parsley chopped to ½cm cubes, 10cm of the green part of leek (trim the dry ends off), carrots and parsnips chopped to 1cm cubes, sweet potato on 1½cm cubes, potatos get diced at the last minute to avoid them getting brown (keep them in cold water), the spoon contains chopped lovage (5 leaves, if you don't find any, forget it, or use some other herb) and buillion (didn't have any of my own in the freezer). celeariac and root parsley are chopped smallest because they take longest to cook






this here is celeriac, it takes a little effort to clean before chopping, it tends to have sand and soil in it. this is the only root veggie that i don't use a peeling knife but a paring knife to peel







this is how it should look after peeling, no more sandy pockets






first take a big kettle (i use my almost biggest because i simply cannot make soup for just 2 persons, but then again, it's very economical to make a big batch and either freeze or take as lunch to work). put the kettle on hight heat, add 2 tbsp of rapeseed oil (the best for you, but olive oil works as well) and once the oil is hot, add cabbage, celeriac, root parsley, leek and lovage (if you're using some other herb, add it only at the end) and sautee them for a minute or 2 mixing the whole time, then add 1 liter / 4 cups of boiling water and some buillion (if using, you could use stock cubes or stock as well, i had veal buillion, but use any you like) and cook on medium heat for 10 mins

(OR, just dump the above mentioned veggies to kettle, add cold water+buillion / stock and boil on medium heat for 15 to 20 mins. i find that sauteeing the veggies first gives a more robust flavor)

after the first 10 mins, add carrots, parsnips, sweet potato and potato and continue cooking on medium heat for another 15 mins. for a very quick version, grate coarsly all the veggies, put to kettle, cover with cold water and cook for mins 20 mins and use an immersion blender to puree to liked consistency (with this version i usually add some cream cheese (light) to it)

the soup should look something like this. the red color comes from carrots and a dash of chili powder i added with the potatoes, however, chili is totally optional. i find that just a dash of chili doesn't give heat but a nice background taste. and notice, so far there has been no added salt. there is some in the buillion (if you make your own stock you can omit salt althogether, or use low sodium stocks)

now, everything before this was vegetarian (if you used vegetable stock) but i added these, frankfurters (light version i might add) to make soup more substancial. browned them quickly on a hot pan for some more flavor, but they are perfectly fine to add as is, cut to 1 cm slices. salt in this dish comes only from buillion / stock, frankfurters (if you used some) and the cheese, all of these you can omit. i find that the veggies taste better / sweeter when there is minimum amount of salt in it. using herbs (use your imagination) helps reduce using salt







had some parseley in the freezer so used that as garnish

bought some very nice aged appezeller cheese (not very heart healthy) to go with the soup and crisp bread, oh, and a glass of very cold non-fat milk







plated, so very tasty, if i say myself. fortunately, certain someone likes soups...






so, A, when you try this, let me know how it turns out!