Lentil Love: More Soup!
It's c-c-c-cold and everyone's making it, plus parsnip muffins & biscuits to eat with it, and a nod to MLK, Jr. and his day
After I shared a piece about lentil soup last week, suddenly my inbox was filled with posts about the many wonderful soups everyone was making. One hailed from Sinù Fogarizzu of the wonderful Dash of Prosecco blog writing about “Pasta e Fasioi, The Classic Venetian Soup for Deep Winter,” made with borlotti beans and pasta.
Another from Vicki Smith of the excellent Easel to Table included a recipe for butternut squash soup with chicken stock and coconut milk. And then there was Ingredient by Rachel Phipps, where once a month Rachel does a deep dive into a single ingredient, with history, recipes and lore that usually sends me to the fridge, the cupboard or the store to dig out or purchase whatever she’s writing about so I can experiment too. That was the case with parsnips, the subject of her latest post, which included a recipe for “Sri Lankan-inspired Curried Parsnip Soup,” made from her own signature curry.
As it happened, the recipe for my lentil soup had included a parsnip, something I almost never use but that Rachel discussed in preparations ranging from boiling, then roasting the pale, fairly sweet (apparently especially so after winter frosts) vegetable alongside a Sunday roast (a traditional meal in her native Britain) to mashing them with potatoes when making gnocchi, to a Christmas recipe for Maple, Walnut & Clementine Glazed Parsnips. All sounded wonderful to me, but what caught my attention in particular was Rachel’s statement that
“Grated parsnips are also popular for adding moisture and sweetness to cakes and bakes, again taking the place of carrots, but providing a much more subtle result, usually backed up by careful spicing.”
Except that her oven was being repaired and her loaner couldn't be trusted to bake anything properly, she would have made a cake, Rachel said. I resolved to take up the challenge, but in the end, instead of the parsnip cake with cream cheese frosting I hoped to make (here’s a link to the recipe I intended to try), I baked some parsnip muffins and biscuits. Both were pretty good, but needed to be served warm to be at their best—with a nice pot of soup to go with them. Lentils to the rescue once again.
Unfortunately, we’d eaten all of the brown lentil soup I’d made the week before. One of the comments I received on that post came from fellow Substacker Annette Laing, author of the entertaining and informative blog, Non-Boring History. Annette wondered if she might use red lentils as she didn’t particularly like brown ones. As I had said that of course she could, I decided to give it a try myself. I pretty much following the recipe I’d used for the brown lentil soup I made last week (link to my post with the recipe HERE), except:
I used homemade stock1 made from leftover chicken bones and vegetable scraps (including some charred, spicy Hatch peppers). I also added a parmesan rind for more flavor.
I used tomato purée instead of V8 juice, plus a mirepoix of chopped onion, carrot and celery.
I left out the leeks as I didn’t have them (note to Annette and other leek lovers: You could definitely use them!).
I added a can of garbanzo beans toward the end of the cooking.
Spices and herbs, most of which I’m afraid I didn’t measure, included cumin, smoked paprika, Herbes de Provence, Aleppo pepper, about a tablespoon each of grated fresh ginger, grated fresh turmeric (powdered spices are perfectly fine), and two minced garlic cloves.
I puréed half the soup with an immersion blender (can’t live without it!) to thicken it.
Instead of sausage, I added chopped chicken and some leftover couscous at serving time.
As is usual in our house, grated parmesan was sprinkled atop the soup. You can never go wrong with that!
Parsnip bakes: muffins & biscuits
Below are links to the recipes I used and a few notes on changes and verdicts. What I noticed in looking up recipes for parsnip baked goods was that many seemed to parallel those for carrots, which made a lot of sense as parsnips are root vegetables that look quite a bit like cream-colored carrots and have a similar texture and sweetness. But there are key differences; they’re not usually as sweet, and their centers, especially in larger roots you buy at the supermarket, can be on the tough side. Unfortunately, unlike Rachel, I don’t have a garden where I might pull them out of the ground at just the right time!
Parsnip (& Carrot) Muffins
I turned to a recipe for “Healthy Carrot Muffins” from the Cookie and Kate blog that you can find HERE. When baked goods are considered “healthy,” they usually contain alternates to the usual fats, sugar and carbs—and this recipe is no exception. It calls for maple syrup or honey instead of sugar, Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, coconut oil or olive oil in place of butter, and white whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose. My changes:
I decided on a mix of grated parsnips and carrots (1 1/2 cups parsnips and 1/2 cup carrots).
I used olive oil, and added a tablespoon or so of chopped candied ginger.
I happened to have some muscovado sugar, a dark brown, molasses-flavored, less-refined sugar, on hand and sprinkled that on top, along with a little white sugar. (Sorry, health purists, I think the sugar helped bring out the flavor!)
The consensus, from tasters, including my neighbor Susie and mother-in-law Judy, was that the muffins were a little a bit bland if you ate them cold—but when you warmed them up and added a bit of butter, they perked right up and were delicious. Top with some honey or jam? Just yum! I froze a few and have been eating them in halves for breakfast and snacks for several days now.
Parsnip Biscuits
Last but not least, the best soup accompaniment other than bread may be biscuits, especially if you add a bit of cheese (in this house, cheese really is king!). My recipe for parsnip biscuits came from Caroline’s Cooking. This time the parsnips were puréed, not grated—and really, with the added cheese, you could hardly taste them, but I knew they were there, and my husband Jeff, as finicky as a kid when it comes to vegetables, ate them and actually liked them! You can find the link to the recipe HERE. I pretty much followed it, except:
I added about 1/4 cup of grated gruyère cheese to the dough.
I used a pastry blender instead of a food processor to incorporate the butter into the dry ingredients.
I used thinned sour cream instead of buttermilk as I didn’t have the former.
I brushed the tops with milk and sprinkled grated parmesan on top.
Not reading that the recipe only made six biscuits, I made 13, which meant the biscuits came out flatter and more like cookies than biscuits.
Verdict from Jeff: “Delicious, especially with the soup!” Good enough for me. I’ll be making them again, though maybe adding rosemary, thyme and a sprinkle of Aleppo pepper (my new favorite spice!) instead of cinnamon and nutmeg—and doubling the recipe! And maybe I’ll try making a soup without lentils—maybe one of those recipes from Vicki, Sinù or Rachel!
What’s your favorite soup? Do you have a preferred bread, biscuit, cracker or something else you like to eat with it? I’d love to hear about it.
Remembering MLK, Jr.
Wishing everyone a meaningful Martin Luther King Jr. Day Monday. It is, according to the National Museum of African American History & Culture, “the only federal holiday designated as a national day of service to encourage all Americans to volunteer and improve their communities.”
I can’t think of anything more important for us to do than to be of service in some way to our communities without seeking pay or praise. MLK’s work to promote equality, justice and peace is clearly not done. We would do well to walk in his footsteps.in seeking to make a better world.
MLK was a prolific writer and speaker, and some of his most famous quotes are engraved on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C. Here’s one of them:
“Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a better person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in.”
—Martin Luther King, Jr., in a speech delivered at the March for Integrated Schools, April 18, 1959
As always, thanks for reading, liking, commenting, sharing and subscribing. I know you have a lot of demands on your time, so I feel privileged that you found a moment for me!
See you soon.
Ruth
I highly recommend making your own stock when you make soup if you have the time. It adds a depth of flavor that no store-bought variety can contribute. I save vegetable peelings in a large plastic bag in the freezer. Sometimes I make a pure vegetable stock, but more often I add the peelings to leftover bones from roasted chicken, turkey or other meat for more flavor. The broth is easy to pour into containers to freeze for later use.
Testimony to soup versatility! Yay! Thanks, Ruth, and thanks for the shout-out. 😀Now I will totally give your soup a go. I often revert to Scottish lentil soup from nostalgia and habit, so yours, which sounds delicious, would be a great way to shake up my soup scene!
Btw, I got your post while I am nuking frozen stock, to go with a bowl of chopped veggies for Mary Berry's Everyday Vegetable Soup. It's the simplest recipe imaginable, barely a recipe, and I make it even simpler by using whatever root veg, the aforementioned frozen stock, and the Instant Pot: I just wanted something light as a side to my leftover runzas (Midwestern beef and cabbage turnovers)
I'm very impressed with your inventive use of parsnips! I read somewhere that cooks used parsnips to replace scarce bananas in their bake goods during WW II. I may give those biscuits a try! Thank you for the link to my Substack, Ruth.