Parsnip Soup

Winter is coming! And not only in Game of thrones, but also in real life. You know, real life, that kind of stuff you read posts about on Facebook. Anyway, with summer fading away so did our beautiful vacation in Thassos (if you haven’t read about it you should. It’s illegal not to. Where, you ask? In your country, go figure), and so I decided to bring a touch of autumn in the YOUVEGOTMEAL! kitchen with this parsnip soup. 

You can find many varieties of this dish in the great world of Google, but, in case you didn’t know this about me, I tend to get lazy sometimes… maybe a lot. So I just clicked the 1st search result which was a Jamie Oliver variation of this soup.

I liked what I read, and, with a few changes from the Naked Chef, things went like this, ingredients wise:

• 1 big onion                                            
• 4-5 cloves of garlic (use a sweeter variety if you can)
• 1 piece of ginger, thumb size
• About 750 grams of parsnip, cleaned
• A couple of bacon strips
• 1 red or orange chilli (optional)
• 750 grams of milk
• About 1 l of vegetable stock
• Nutmeg, turmeric, cumin, green pepper and salt
• Olive oil 

The beautiful thing about a cream soup is that you don’t really have to bother to chop your veggies finely and this is not an exception. Chop everything roughly, anyway you feel like it. Heat up the oil and pop in the onion, garlic, ginger and spices. Gently fry the onion on a medium low heat until it softens. Add the parsnip and coat it in the aromatic onion-garlic mix. Add the liquids and cook the vegetables on medium heat until the parsnip softens. To test it just try and put a toothpick through it, if it goes in easily you have a winner. Remove from the stove and blitz the soup. Taste for more salt and pepper.

You can serve it like this, but for a more elaborate approach finely slice your chili, fry a strip of bacon, break a couple of parsley leaves (or coriander) and sprinkle that on top. I have nothing but love for you veggie lovers out there, but I can’t just say no to bacon. It just makes things better, like wine, you just need to know when to stop.

Enjoy,

Express Post: Garlic and Thyme Bread

Ok, some maybe some of you read one of our most recent posts and saw a crispy looking bread behind that mouthwatering fish stew. 

So, as to have the complete picture, we decided to bring the bread also in the spotlight, it most certainly deserves it. We saw this being made by Jaime Oliver and, despite not being more than some glorified bread, it really went well with the stew.

So just grab a ciabatta or another type of medium-density bread and make cuts along the length and width of the loaf, so that you create some sort of cubes. Be careful not to cut all the way through. Stuff sliced or crushed garlic and fresh thyme leaves (even better, flowers) in the created spaces.

Sprinkle a generous amount of olive oil on top and pop it in the preheated oven (“full whack” as Jamie would say) for around 10 minutes. We went for a crispy outcome, you can always reduce your cooking time. So there you have it, garlic and thyme bread, easy mode, super tasty and with many more possibilities of adding flavors like rosemary, sundried tomatoes, zucchini or just herbed oil.

Enjoy,
Mr. G.