Curried Root Vegetable Soup

Today I had a revelation. Today I realised that soup is good.

I know, I know, it's a ridiculous idea. Everyone knows that soup is good and hearty and healthy. As a child, I never really liked soup. I always liked my mum's chicken broth made from the boiled carcass but I never liked soup. Later I quite liked some shop bought carrot and coriander soups and the odd cup-a-soup would pass my lips but they don't really count.

I made my first soup today and it was delicious. It was very simple and after a call to my mum to check out exactly what I was doing (although I pretty much knew) I decided to just see what happened.

I had a friend on his way over and after checking that he liked soup (he did, luckily) I decided to make it. We stood in the kitchen chatting while I chopped up some vegetables and he stirred the pot from time to time. It was quite therapeutic to have good company in the kitchen as I do a lot of cooking alone.

The following recipe is very basic and pretty much relied on the stash of root veg I had at the bottom of my fridge. It is endlessly customisable and would taste good no matter what veg you have kicking about. It was very easy to make and took about 25 minutes to make.

Ingredients:
1 large red onion - roughly chopped
1/2 a small swede - diced
2 carrots - cut into chunks
3 small parsnips - cut into chunks
2 generous teaspoons of madras curry paste
A knob of butter and a little oil.
1 generous litre of chicken or vegetable stock

Method:
1. In a large pan, place a bit of oil and a the butter and turn on the heat.
2. When the butter has melted, add the onion and swede and allow to soften slightly. Then add the rest of the vegetable and sweat them for a few minutes.
3. When the onions are are cooked through, add the stock to the pan followed by the curry paste.
4. Bring the soup to the boil and leave to simmer for around 20-25 minutes or until the vegetables are soft.
5. Blend the soup to your preferred consistency. Taste and season as necessary. Serve with bread and butter.

This was really delicious. There is still a good couple of servings in the pot and I cannot stop thinking about them. I'd happily go and eat the lot but I don't think I should. I think this is the start of a new love. This warm and smoothy soup had a nice spicy kick that lingered and added to the warming effect (most definitely needed at this time of year - it's freezing!). Look out for more soup recipes in future. This is certainly the first of many.