Turnip soup that doesn't taste like turnips

 

I'm working to break the refrigerator cycle that I fall into annually at the end of the year. A frig packed with farmers market and garden bounty like cabbage and root vegetables that I haven't yet managed to cook my way through has to accommodate all the fixings for holiday madness. Eventually it gets to the point where I can cram all the ingredients I need in, but have no room to store any dish I make with those ingredients, and I have to slowly break the stalemate. 

I am very much hoping that more time to cook will alleviate the boom cycle, and doing my best to cook my way out of any lingering obstructions. Some turnips from the farmers market last fall had somehow survived the Rubik's cube phase of refrigerator storage without moldering, so I found this recipe in my file of soup recipes to try. So one thing out of the frig and one thing out of the clipping pile. 

Silken turnip and potato soup

From Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock, adapted from “The Gift of Southern Cooking” as published in the November 2023 issue of Food & Wine

Ingredients

3 tablespoons butter
3½ cups sliced yellow onions
5 cups peeled and sliced turnips
2 cups peeled and sliced russet potato
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3¼ cup chicken stock, divided
⅛ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, plus more for garnish
Basil or other fresh herbs chopped for garnish

Method

Melt butter in a large sauce pan. Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened but not browned. Add turnips, potatoes and salt and stir well. Cover and simmer on low until vegetables are almost tender, about 20 minutes, adding ¼ cup broth if it starts to stick. Add remaining broth and bring to a simmer. Cook until vegetables are tender. Cool and puree mixture in a food processor or blender. Reheat along with nutmeg and salt to taste. Garnish with a sprinkling of more nutmeg and chopped herbs if desired. The original recipe calls for a garnish of thinly sliced basil, but my house is not conducive to growing basil in the winter, so I opted for sage, since it holds up quite well under the grow lights in the basement. I think basil or parsley might have been a better choice since they're less assertive and less likely to detract from the fairly delicate soup flavor.

Rating: It is indeed silken, and quite tasty. Despite the fat that turnips are involved, for some reason I was mainly struck by how it somehow tasted of parsnips and reminded me of this Parsnip Apple Soup recipe I make about once a year. The potato seems to mellow the turnip flavor, which is a plus for those of us who generally like turnips to play a supporting role rather than in a star turn.