Thursday, February 7, 2008

couple kinds of soup for my (wonderful) in-laws

As Martha might say, "soup is a good thing to have on hand with guests." It fills the house with an inviting aroma, and it's easy to warm-up upon desire. My in-laws were in town to help celebrate a certain someone turning 5 years old! Hard to believe.

This is 'Split Pea and Parsnip Soup' from Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker.




Here are the ingredients for the soup ready to go minus some chopping. This was my favorite of the two soups for a couple reasons. Foremost, I enjoyed the flavors, though I think the parsnips may have turned some off. Parsnips have a strong, earthy flavor that may be unfamiliar. For me, however, after carefully choosing, peeling, and cutting them into half moons, I was already fond of them.



Secondly, I enjoy the ease of my Crock Pot. Simply prepare the ingredients, and press a button. Fresh From The Vegetarian Slow Cooker is a wonderful cookbook, and may as well have the word "vegan" in the title, as I've never run across a recipe using dairy.

And, if possible, this recipe is even easier if you have a helper to pick over and rinse the split peas.



Here is the making for my in-law's favorite soup, 'Roasted Butternut Squash Soup' from Vegan with a Vengeance. I make it for them each time they come to town, and they keep on coming!

The hardest part of this soup is peeling the 5 pounds worth of squash. Maybe I'm a wimp, but my arm was sore afterwards!





Here it is after the fun part - pureeing everything in the food processor. The kids gather around, and I always have an audience for that part!

Each bowl served had a drizzle of maple syrup on top, which put the flavor factor over the top.

Soup. It's a good thing.

12 comments:

The Little Mama said...

Yum! My in-laws were here this weekend too, and I also fed them soup! :)
Yours look super yummy and perfect for the middle of winter.

moi + toi PHOTOGRAPHIE said...

Squash is the worst to cut up, i hate it. Trying to peel acorn squash!? forget it. I love squash soup, and that is the part i dont like. No you are not a wimp. It does hurt the hands.

I havent used my crock pot in ages. I should get it out and create something.

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

soup IS a great meal to make/have on-hand - such a wonderful way to treat the in-laws to delicious food :0)

yikes, 5 pounds of squash?!?!?! I could never do that, haha - kudos to you for going through the trouble to peel that much squash!!

trina said...

It is indeed. I've stopped peeling or even cutting raw winter squash, just stab it a couple times to vent steam, stick in a roasting pan or baking sheet with a lip to collect juices, and pop in the oven until a bit squishy. Then it's so easy to cut and scrape out the flesh for uses like soup.

aTxVegn said...

Mmmm, 2 of my favorite soups! I love the earthy flavor of parsnips.

I would love to send you some berbere, Vicki. Email me at atxvegn at yahoo dot com if you'd like some.

urban vegan said...

It all looks soup-er. Sorry. Sometimes, I really love a bad pun.

Jackie said...

I am really going to have a great Winter this year (ours starts around May) as everyone is giving me such great soup ideas on their Vegan blogs :)

Yours look great. I must admit with the butternut I cheat as I buy it already cubed as nearly chopped my fingers off trying to cut it myself!

Lisa S. said...

Ok.. um... YUM?!! Wow. We're going to attempt to make a vegan version of potato leek soup this weekend, I'll have to let you know how it turns out. My husband, the chef-in-training, likes to invent his own recipes. I'm looking forward to this one!!

How in the world do you get your kids to eat all this wonderful food? My son sees a shred of green on his plate & runs screaming. (literally)

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

Ooh I own "Fresh from the Veg Slow-Cooker" and I absolutely adore parsnips, so I'm going to go pull that book out right this very minute and look for the recipe! How could I have skipped over it?!

Vegan_Noodle said...

My arms get sore too when peeling and chopping butternut. It's a lot of work! Looks like it was worth it though.
My goal during our next cold snap is to make some split pea soup... I've been seeing it on so many blogs and need to try it out!
Hope you had fun with the in-laws!

a n i s h i said...

Hello!! I live in Spain and I like your blog and your recipes. You are invited to come to my blog. Your family is very nice. I visit you every day and I try to learn your recipes.
Kisses
Ana

Jody from VegChic said...

Yay for soup! It is so cold here, all I want is soup. Actually, it warmed up today and now it is just pouring rain. ---Still makes me want soup. Though, I'm not sure about parsnips.

Last night I made an awesome batch, but failed to post it yet.

That sausage recipe is another one I need to try making soon.

As usual, I love all the pics of the girls in the kitchen!