Slow roasted root vegetable soup

Another part of the Brand New Me program of 2013 is diet, I have no choice on this one, I bought my wedding dress which was a wee bit tight but I thought, hey I’ll lose a couple of pounds by March and it’ll be fine. Ker-ching, I paid and took the beauty home and didn’t think about it until 1st January.

Now ‘a couple of pounds’ had become a half a stone thanks to a massively good Christmas and New Year feasting. The first week of the year we were still clearing out the fridges and freezer but week 2 I introduced soups as lunchtime options. I’m making my own so I know how much salt and sugar is in them (not a lot) and getting a lot of pleasure too.

First up was a Broccoli and Stilton soup, made in my Morphy Richards soup maker, it tasted absolutely delicious but I had to scrape the cheese off the side of the soupmaker when it came to washing up so not ideal for that machine. Second up was a Delia favourite

Slow roasted root vegetable soup

Ingredients

Root vegetables (carrot, parsnip, swede, potato, celeriac, leeks) about 1k chopped into bite size pieces

1 onion, chopped

1.5 litres vegetable stock

3 bay leaves

salt and pepper

As Delia says in her Soup book from The Delia Collection ‘ Something happens to root vegetables when they are cooked very slowly for a long time: their flavour becomes mellow but at the same time more intense.’

I chose to make my Root Vegetable soup slightly differently from the master’s 3 hour in the oven process. I roasted the veg and then made the soup in my slow cooker

Peel and chop all of your chosen vegetables, place in a large oven proof dish with a good seasoning and a drizzle of olive oil over it, shake well so all covered and roast in the oven for 40 minutes until soft. If it’s coloured it’s not a problem it will add to the flavour.

Pop the roasted root vegetables in the slow cooker along with all the other ingredients and cook on slow for 4 hours.

Remove the bay leaves and liquidise, re heat if necessary and serve with fresh bread for dipping.

 

It’s really tasty, it’s incredibly cheap and amazingly easy to make. I shall be doing this again :)

 

Marianne Weekes