Irish Farmhouse Root Vegetable Soup
Anraith Glasraí·(on-rah glos-ree)
The Midday Warmth: The Big Pot on the Stove
Four o'clock on a damp Tuesday, the kitchen is cold. A heavy Dutch oven goes on the back burner, ready to turn supermarket parsnips and forty-five minutes on the stove into a weeknight meal. The secret isn't what you add, but how you begin: sweating the roots in good butter under a piece of parchment paper to extract every ounce of their sweetness before a drop of liquid hits the pot. Cut the roots thick, keep the simmer low, and let the pot do the work.
Before you start
The Butter Wrapper Trick.
Historically, Irish grandmothers used the waxy wrapper from a block of butter as a lid to trap steam; a piece of crinkled parchment paper works perfectly today.
Ingredients
- Irish butter4 tbsp
- yellow onion1 cup
- Russet potato1 cup
- carrots1 cup
- parsnips1 cup
- rutabaga1 cup
- kosher salt2 tsp
- black pepper1/2 tsp
- fresh thyme3 sprigs
- chicken or vegetable stock5 cup
- heavy cream1/4 cup
Method
- 01
Melt the butter over medium heat until it foams.
Use a heavy-bottomed Dutch oven for the best heat distribution.
- 02
Toss the vegetables in the foaming butter and season them aggressively.
Add the onion, potato, carrots, parsnips, and rutabaga, stirring until thoroughly coated, then season with the salt, pepper, and thyme.
- 03
Press a crinkled piece of parchment paper directly onto the surface of the vegetables.
Cover the pot with its heavy lid, drop the heat to low, and let the vegetables sweat for 10 minutes to extract their natural sugars without browning.
- 04
Discard the parchment paper and pour in the stock.
Bring the pot to a gentle boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the potatoes and rutabaga yield completely to a fork.
- 05
Puree the soup to your preferred texture.
Remove the thyme sprigs and use an immersion blender to blend the soup until creamy, leaving a few rustic chunks intact if that's how you like it.
- 06
Stir in the cream, adjust the seasoning, and serve immediately.
Ladle it piping hot alongside thick slices of heavily buttered soda bread.
Notes
The 1:1:3:5 Ratio.
Traditional Irish soup relies on a strict volumetric ratio: one part onion, one part starchy potato, three parts mixed root vegetables, and five parts liquid.
The Rutabaga Substitution.
What the Irish call a turnip or swede is sold strictly as a rutabaga in American supermarkets; avoid watery US white turnips.
From Cook Irish-American Food.