Pear and Parsnip Soup

This is a Foodland Ontario recipe from last year's fall flyer. Their fall recipe flyer had me in its thrall.

The soup has great flavour if you happen to like parsnips and pears, and interestingly, did not require the addition of either salt or pepper to enhance its flavour. I did find the texture to be somewhat fibrous but that may be because I did not peel the pears (as suggested in the recipe). I did attempt to make parsnip chips to garnish the soup, but unfortunately answered a phone call at a rather critical point in the frying process, and that was the end of that.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups vegetable or chicken broth

• 1 cup milk or cream (10% butterfat)

• 4 cups diced parsnips

• 1 small onion and 1 small shallot diced

• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

• 2 cloves and 2 bayleaves

• a 1/2 inch chunk of ginger root , peeled and halved

• 2 tablespoons of both vegetable oil and balsamic vinegar

• 3 pears peeled, cored and diced

Methods:

Pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees F. In a roasting pan, combine the parsnips, onion, shallot, thyme, cloves, bay leaves, ginger, oil and vinegar. Toss the ingredients well. Roast for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the pears and roast for 10 minutes longer. Add the broth and roast for an additional 10 minutes or until the parsnips are tender. Discard the bay leaves, cloves and ginger. Purée the mixture, then place the soup in large saucepan. Add the cream (or milk) and re-heat on low. 

Foodland Ontario suggested serving the soup with crumbled blue cheese and fried parsnip shavings. Good luck with that.