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Root vegetables make a warming winter soup

Recipe: Adapt the ingredients to your favorites

The soup is garnished with olive oil,  black pepper, crushed Aleppo pepper and cooked bacon.

The soup is garnished with olive oil, black pepper, crushed Aleppo pepper and cooked bacon. Kathy Morrison

Rainy, then cold, then rainy AND cold – that’s been December so far. All I could think of to make the other day was soup – thick, warming soup, to serve with a big crusty loaf of whole wheat bread.

The New York Times Cooking app came to my rescue, with this easy root vegetable soup that I’ve adapted to boost the flavors. Depending on what you like and/or have in the pantry, the soup can include regular or sweet potatoes, parsnips, rutabagas, turnips, carrots or celery root. These combine with the usual aromatics of onions or leeks, plus garlic and celery.

I like potato-leek soup just fine, and could have gone with just russets, but wanted to make the flavors a little richer, so I included carrots and parsnips in my version. I used 4 potatoes, 3 carrots and 2 large parsnips, for a total of 3-½ pounds of root vegetables before peeling.

 I also make and freeze my own vegetable stock, but added some chicken broth and a half-cup of white wine to fill out the liquid needed. And since this was going to be dinner, I cooked a bit of chopped bacon first, then used the fat to brown the onion and leeks. The bacon became the final garnish for a delicious warm meal.

The soup cooks fairly quickly – less an hour, after all the peeling and chopping is done. I used my immersion blender to smooth it all out, but leave it chunky if you like, or maybe blend just half of it.

The bacon, incidentally, is optional, as is just about everything in this recipe. However, I highly recommend a sprinkle of Aleppo crushed red pepper – or any crushed red pepper – as part of the garnish. It gives the soup a delightful pop of heat, and heat is what we all need these chilly days!

Root vegetable soup

Serves 6 to 8

Ingredients:

4 slices of bacon, cut into small pieces, or 3 tablespoons olive oil or butter

1 onion or 2 leeks, or both, trimmed and chopped

3 stalks celery, chopped

3 cloves garlic, smashed and minced

3 sprigs rosemary or thyme

2 bay leaves

Salt

Black pepper

½ cup white wine, optional

Closeup of carrot and potato chunks in broth
Cook the veggies in broth until tender.

8 cups vegetable or chicken broth, or a combination, divided

3-½ pounds of root vegetables, peeled and chopped (a combination of any of these: russet potatoes, sweet potatoes, parsnips, rutabagas, turnips, carrots or celery root)

Juice of ½ lemon

Garnish options:

Freshly ground black pepper

Extra-virgin olive oil

Aleppo pepper flakes or other red pepper flakes

Grated Parmesan cheese

Additional lemon juice

Cooked bacon pieces, reserved from above

Instructions:

If using the bacon, cook it over medium heat in a large, heavy Dutch oven or soup pot until crispy, then remove the cooked bacon and reserve. Otherwise, heat the 3 tablespoons of olive oil or butter in the pot.

one red and one blue bowl of soup on a counter
Garnish the soup to taste. We added bacon, too.

Cook the chopped onion and/or leeks and celery in fat until tender, up to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then add the garlic, rosemary or thyme stalks, and the bay leaves, cooking for another minute.

Stir in the white wine if using, then about 2 cups of the broth. Add 2 teaspoons salt and ½ teaspoon black pepper. Stir well. Set aside 1 cup of the rest of the broth for later, then add the remaining 5 cups broth and the chopped root vegetables.

Bring the mixture to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Taste the broth and adjust the seasonings.

Remove the soup from the heat and let it cool slightly. Remove the herb stalks and the bay leaves from the pot. Purée all or some of the soup with an immersion blender or in batches using a regular blender. Return to low heat, and if the soup seems too thick, add the reserved 1 cup broth and heat gently. (Be careful with hot soup! The purée can volcano out of the pot; I have a burn to prove it.) Stir in the lemon juice.

Serve soup in warmed bowls with a drizzle of olive oil and a grinding of black pepper, plus, as desired, a pinch of Aleppo pepper, a few drops of lemon juice, a sprinkling of Parmesan and/or some bacon pieces.

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Dig In: Garden Checklist

For week of March 24:

In between cloud bursts, try to catch up with early spring chores. 

* Attack weeds now! Get them before they flower and go to seed. Take a hoe and whack them as soon as they sprout. Aim for 1 inch below the soil line.

* Start preparing vegetable beds. Spade in compost and other amendments.

* Prune and fertilize spring-flowering shrubs after bloom.

* Feed camellias at the end of their bloom cycle. Pick up browned and fallen flowers to help corral blossom blight.

* Feed citrus trees, which are now in bloom and setting fruit. To prevent sunburn and borer problems on young trees, paint the exposed portion of the trunk with diluted white latex (water-based) interior paint. Dilute the paint with an equal amount of cold water before application.

* Feed roses with a balanced fertilizer (such as 10-10-10, the ratio of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium available in that product).

* Prune and fertilize spring-flowering shrubs and trees after they bloom. Try using well-composted manure, spread 1-inch thick under the tree. This serves as both fertilizer and mulch, retaining moisture while cutting down on weeds.

* Cut back and fertilize perennial herbs to encourage new growth.

* Seed and renovate the lawn (if you still have one). Feed cool-season grasses such as bent, blue, rye and fescue with a slow-release fertilizer. Check the irrigation system and perform maintenance. Make sure sprinkler heads are turned toward the lawn, not the sidewalk.

* In the vegetable garden, transplant lettuce and cole family plants, such as cabbage, broccoli, collards and kale.

* Seed chard and beets directly into the ground.

* Plant summer bulbs, including gladiolus, tuberous begonias and callas. Also plant dahlia tubers.

* Shop for perennials. Many varieties are available in local nurseries and at plant events. They can be transplanted now while the weather remains relatively cool.

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