Winter Root-Vegetable Soup

Here's a great soup that you can make if you want soup. It's great.


Winter Root-Vegetable Soup


Ingredients:
2-3 leeks, sand rinsed off
1 pound-ish of potatoes
a parsnip
half of a rutabaga
2-4 green onions
salt and pepper





Tools:
knife
cutting board
pot
immersion blender


Preparation:
clean and chop the leeks*
cube the potatoes so they cook faster (peel if necessary)
quarter the parsnip lengthwise
cube the rutabaga
dice the green onion


Cooking:
1. Put everything except the green onions in the pot, add water until everything is covered, and boil until everything is soft/edible. The leeks really only need to boil for about 10-15 minutes, so add them later if you want. Or not.
2. Puree everything in the pot using the immersion blender. Start on a slow setting to avoid splashing scalding water on your hands, forearms, torso, and face.
3. Let it boil/stew/sit for at least 15 minutes.
4. Garnish with green onions. (Put them on top of the soup in your bowl. It looks pretty, and your date will think you're fancy.) Add salt until it's salty enough. Add pepper (black, white, or red) until it's peppery enough.


The taste of this soup is directly proportional to the amount of time it has been sitting and the number of times it has been reheated.


Other notes:
Instead of just water, we used the fat and juices from a leftover pork loin. We also added fresh rosemary. And we crumbled crispy bacon on top of the soup as a garnish. And we put onion dip in it.  Chicken stock too. None of these things are necessary, but they do of course taste awesome.


Now you can talk endlessly about the delicate yet hearty winter root-vegetable soup you made. Your colleagues will think you're a snobby foodie and will be too embarrassed to invite you over for their son's birthday party-- the hamburgers will surely be dry and uninviting to the more refined sensibilities of your taste. The extended family will stop inviting you over because they don't care about root vegetables. And that date will end the way you had hoped: this soup is that good.


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*Since many people have not used leeks before, prepare them by chopping off the roots and any parts that aren't looking so great. Fresh leeks should be dark green and firm with a bright white area near the bottom. If you're not sure which end is the bottom, hopefully the roots will help you make the right choice. Then cut the long stalks into slices and wash the sand/dirt out; a salad spinner works well for that.