Rutabaga & Apple Soup

There isn't too much to say about this; it's a winter vegetable purée soup, with some sweet and slightly zingy flavours and a lovely colour. (And brrr, it seems to be a winter week.)

At two servings, it will be a big bowl of soup to go with salad or bread and cheese; four servings would be fairly small portions as a starter to a meal.

Anise seed is an under-used spice, I think. I keep meaning to use it more often. This is a start.

This was quite a thick soup; you might want to add a bit more broth to make it soupier.

2 to 4 servings
1 hour - 30 minutes prep time

2 cups diced peeled rutabaga
4 cups unsalted chicken OR vegetable broth
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 medium carrot
2 large apples
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon anise seed, ground
1 teaspoon ground ginger
the juice of 1/2 small lemon
1 tablespoon sherry
1/3 cup light cream

Peel and dice the rutabaga, and put it in a soup pot with the broth and bay leaf and salt. Bring to a boil and boil steadily for 40 minutes, until tender. As soon as it is in, peel the carrot and cut it into dice. Add it to the pot of rutabaga to cook along with it.

When the rutabaga and carrots have about 15 minutes left to cook, peel, core, and slice the apples. Heat the butter in a medium-sized skillet over medium heat. Cook the apples gently until quite soft and slightly browned. A few minutes before they are done, sprinkle them with the ground anise seed and ginger. Mix in well.

Transfer the cooked carrots and rutabaga to a blender or food processor. Add the apples and process until smooth. Return the soup to the pot, add the lemon juice, sherry, and cream and re-heat just up to the point of being steaming hot, but do not allow it to boil. Serve at once.




Last year at this time I made Chick Pea Choux Pastry. 

Posted in: Ontario Food