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STOP! Before you hit ‘Jump to Recipe’ check ‘Skip to the Good Bit‘ below. I may answer a query you have about this recipe.
I have a feeling I’m going to be eating a lot of this naturally gluten free Roasted Parsnip Soup Recipe over the next few weeks. My body is telling me it needs sunshine on the inside and outside. While sunshine is scarce here in the UK at the moment, I can but oblige with giving my body sunshine in the form of natural goodness instead.
Soups are hands down the easiest way to get good old vitamins and minerals into the system with very little fuss and nonsense. Super quick and cheap to make, soup really is hearty comfort food at its best. In fact, I’ gather quite the collection of soups here on Glutarama so fell free to pop the kettle on and take a moment with my simple recipes all made gluten free.
Skip to the good bit
- How do you prepare the parsnips for this soup?
- Fun fact about parsnips!
- Why roast the parsnip first?
- Batch cook this soup to save money
- Save even more money and microwave
- How to store this soup and keep fresh if cooking in batches
- Want to change the portion sizes?
- Other soup recipe ideas
- Roasted Parsnip Soup Recipe
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How do you prepare the parsnips for this soup?
I see no point to peeling a parsnip. You may have a different opinion, but if the parsnip is clean then keep the skin on. There’s way more fibre and goodness in those skins and they add to the natural sweetness too, making this a much more kiddie-friendly soup.
I simply top and tail each parsnip (remove the end root and the head of the vegetable). Then, depending on the size of your parsnip I cut straight down the middle into halves or again into quarters.
This isn’t a beauty contest, these parsnips are destined to be roasted and then blitzed into puree for soup so no need to seek perfection.
All that’s left to do is place the parsnips onto a baking sheet or in a roasting tin, drizzle with your preferred oil (I use olive oil) and season with salt and pepper. Then pop them into the oven to roast until golden, sweet and soft in the middle.
Fun fact about parsnips!
I love researching foods and their fascinating facts. I knew the fact below about parsnips getting sweeter after a frost and put this to test when we had our own allotment a few years back – it really is true.
Parsnips taste best after the first frost, as some of the starch they contain is converted to sugar in cold weather. They do, however, become sweeter when cooked, so taste great any time of year!
Facts and information about parsnips – Crop drop
For more facts on parsnips I recommend the linked article as it goes onto tell you about nutrition, the history (spoiler alert, it was the Romans who brought it to the UK surprise-surprise) and how to freeze fresh parsnips.
It does go on to say that there are toxins present in the skins if eaten in vast quantities! But unless you plan to eat a whole vat of soup in one sitting you’ll be fine if you take my advice and keep skins on.
Why roast the parsnip first?
Roasting the parsnips before making them into soup has several benefits. First and foremost, roasted vegetables of any kind are frankly way more delicious than their boiled or steamed counterparts. Secondly, the process of roasting intensifies the flavours by caramelising the starches and increasing the natural sugars. Its the same principle when you caramelise onions to top your hotdogs for a BBQ.
Lastly, it deepens the colour of the soup making it a richer, more golden colour as opposed to a pale creamy colour.
Batch cook this soup to save money
We can all agree that buying in bulk and cooking in batches is much more cost effective right? This is because bigger bags of fresh vegetables are cheaper. Also, firing up the oven just once to cook the vegetables is cheaper than remaking the whole recipe on another day from scratch.
The act of reheating soup is way more cost effective and using a microwave if you have one is considerably less in energy bills.
Did you say ‘Poppycock’! Don’t take my word for it, this really handy energy calculator is mildly addictive and comes in really handy when I’m invoicing people for recipe development. You do need to know a few things about your personal energy use first but once you know those factors you can work out how much it costs you to heat up a tin of beans to roasting a Sunday dinner to warming up your cold tea!
How much does it cost?
To make this Roasted Parsnip Soup I’ve worked out the cost using basic (non-organic) ingredients. If you buy in bulk, this price will go down. The energy costs are based on the current energy rates in the last quarter of 2022 with a capped rate of 0.52per kWh
400g Parsnips – 0.49p
1 Knorr Stock Pot – 0.30p (based on a pack of 8 pots)
Garlic Clove – 0.02p
£0.81 for two large servings (40p per serving)
To roast vegetables in the oven it costs between 0.42-0.62p (max. 72p per serving)
To steam the vegetables in a microwave it costs between 0.18-0.28p (max. 54p per serving)
Save even more money and microwave
Times are tough for many and I find myself looking for cheaper, quicker, more efficient ways to cook these days. However I don’t want to compromise on taste and nutrients.
Microwaving foods does leave you with a different flavour to roasting so if you do opt to do this you will not have a Roasted Parsnip Soup, just a plain old Parsnip Soup!. So be prepared for a different end result if you chose to microwave rather than roast the veggies for this soup recipe. Basically, the flavours are less intense and slightly less sweet, but you may think that’s a good thing?
How to microwave vegetables
One way to microwave vegetables is to invest in a microwave steamer they’re easy to clean, have an integrated steam basket and the one linked holds vegetables for two people. They come with full instructions on how to use and what you can cook in them.
If you don’t like the idea of a plastic microwave steamer then you can make your own with a microwave-proof dish (I’ve used my glass Pyrex Casserole Dishes with lids in the past) then cover with microwavable plastic wrap or (and this is better for the environment) use a lid or upturned plate.
To arrange the veggies, simply prepare them as you would if using a conventional steamer, then arrange them in the microwave dish making sure there are plenty of gaps for the steam to travel around them.
Next add 1-2 tablespoons of water, that’s it – the vegetables will already be wet after you’ve rinsed them.
Heat on full power for 2-4 minutes depending on how hard your vegetables are*.
TOP TIP: heat for 30 seconds at a time and keep checking. Eventually you will know exactly how long different type of vegetables take to cook and become a microwave steaming pro!
* absolutely no point in me giving you exact times as everyone’s microwaves are different powers, mine is 900w for example, yours may be 700 or 800w.
How to store this soup and keep fresh if cooking in batches
When batch cooking, you not only save energy by only cooking the recipe once, but you also give yourself quick and easy lunches and dinner for the rest of the week or the following week for that matter.
I explain how to sterilise portion sized jar below but you can also ladle the soup into Tupperware containers to keep in the fridge. Note that if using Tupperware the shelf life of the soup will only be 4-5 days as you will not have gone through the sterilisation process first.
How to sterilise jars for your individual soup portions
Wash your jars* and the lids in hot soapy water, but do not dry them. Instead, leave them to stand upside down on a roasting tray while they’re still wet.
Pop the tray of clean, wet jars and lids in to a preheated oven at 160-180ºC for about 15 mins.
Using a funnel pour your soup into the jars. Be very careful not to touch or get any of the mixture onto the rim of the jars as this could introduce bacteria.
Ideally you want to fill the jars not quite to the top, leave about 1/4 inch (1/2 cm) gap at the top between the soup and the lid.
While everything is still hot, secure the lids tightly.
Once in sterilised jars like this your soups should keep for about 1 month in the fridge probably longer.
*you could easily use 500g jam or cooking sauce jars
Want to change the portion sizes?
That’s easy, simply go to the recipe card below and you have the option to choose the number of portions you want to make. for one person choose 0.5x, for two people 1x, 4 people 2x and so on…
Other soup recipe ideas
For a full soup recipe collection and top tips on how to; make free from soups from scratch, thicken soup, source gluten free stock cubes and more head over to my Delicious Free From Homemade Soup Recipe Collection
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Roasted Parsnip Soup Recipe
If you make it and like the recipe I would be eternally grateful if you popped back and commented leaving a star rating as this will tell search engines that this recipe is worth checking out and others will get to find it in searches.
Roasted Parsnip Soup
Equipment
- 500 ml glass jug or more if making a large batch for later
Ingredients
- 4 parsnips halved or quartered depending on size
- 500 ml vegetable stock
- olive oil enough to drizzle over parsnips to roast
- 1 garlic (powder, puree or clove)
- salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- Pop the chopped parsnips on a baking tray with some olive oil and seasoning and roast for 40 mins at 200°C | 180°C fan | 400°F | Gas 6.
- Make your vegetable stock by following the instructions
- Once roasted, place the parsnip, garlic clove, prepared vegetable stock and seasoning in a blender and pulse until smooth.
- Add fresh or dried parsley if you wish.
- Serve immediately with a crusty gluten free roll.
- If keeping for later, pour into a suitable jar/container and seal immediately. Allow to cool before popping in the fridge.
Notes
Nutrition
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*disclaimer: I use affiliate codes on my website, the vast majority are to Amazon. If you click on any of the links or images in the post and make a purchase my family will benefit from a small % of that purchase at no extra cost to you.
For full transparency, in 2020 I made my first £25, and in 2022 I reached my next £25 (Amazon don’t transfer the money until you reach £25). Recently I got paid a whopping £27.10 for 2023.
So to date I have made £78.58 since I first started the scheme in 2017. It won’t pay the bills, that’s for sure but it does help to pay for ingredients or little treats to cheer me up!
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