Smooth & Warming Turnip Soup

Turnip is one of these vegetables I keep forgetting about. There are certain ingredients that are such a recurring part of our weekly shop, that I’d pick them from the supermarket shelves on auto-pilot without really realising I did. Turnip definitely ain’t one of them!

Turnip is one of these veggies I stumble upon when grocery shopping and think “oooh, maybe I’ll try some of that today!”

My significant other is not a big fan of soup, so when I do cook soup it has to be tasty and pack a punch in just one serving. I ended up adding the second texture to make the plate a little more exciting.

I have made this turnip soup a few times now and find it to be a great started on a cold, rainy winter’s day!

Recipe

 

Type: Vegan (as long as you’re not using the optional butter or cream)

 

Approx. Preparation time: 10 mins

Approx. Cooking time: 25 mins

Serves: 2

Ingredients

  • 6 medium size turnips
  • Three cloves
  • Three whole black peppercorns
  • Two green cardamoms – crushed with the flat side of a knife blade
  • A tiny, tiny piece of dry red chilli
  • 600 mL of cold water (room temperature is fine, unless you’re cooking inside a sauna!)

Preparation steps

  1. Cut 5 of the 6 turnips in rough squares – it doesn’t matter how big or small, these will get blended eventually
  2. Cut the last turnip in small cubes and set aside until closer to serving time – these will be used for decoration at the time of serving

Cooking steps

  1. Heat up a teaspoon of sunflower oil in a medium size pan on high heat
  2. When the oil is hot, pop the black peppercorn, the cloves and the red chilli bit into the pan and swirl around. Keep swirling the spices around the oil for about a minute, so that they infuse the oil
  3. Optional – at this stage you can remove the chilli bit if you want it to remain a simple kick rather than grow a stronger flavour
  4. Add the big pieces of turnips to the pan and stir for a minute
  5. Add a generous pinch of salt and pepper
  6. Cover with 600ml of cold water
  7. Leave on high heat until the water is boiling
  8. Once the water is boiling, lower the heat and leave to simmer for 20 minutes
  9. After 20 minutes, spike a piece of turnip with the point of a knife – if the knife goes through without resistance, the turnip is cooked
  10. Fish out the whole spices and discard
  11. Blend the soup – you can use a hand blender. If you are using a NutriBullet you may leave the soup to cool down for a bit before blending.
  12. Optional – before blending you can add half a teaspoon of butter or crème fraîche if you want to make it even smoother and more indulgent
  13. Set the blended soup aside for now
  14. Heat up a teaspoon of sunflower oil a small pan. When the oil is hot, add the remaining small cubes of turnips to the pan. Sprinkle with paprika and stir. Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring regularly so that it doesn’t burn
  15. At the time of serving, put the soup in whichever plate or bowl you are using to serve. Add a spoonful of the little cubes at the center of the soup – this gives a nice second texture to the soup
  16. Optional – you can serve a slice of fresh or toasted bread on the side
  17. Serve hot!

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