Description
Hearty soup starts roasting butternut squash, parsnips, sweet potatoes, carrots, fennel until caramelized. Everything simmers with potatoes, broth, thyme before being partially blended perfect creamy-yet-chunky texture. Finished milk. Vegetarian easy vegan gluten-free options.
Ingredients
For the Roasted Vegetables:
- ½ small butternut squash, peeled, seeded, cut into 1-inch dice (about 2 cups)
- 3 medium parsnips, peeled and cut into 1-inch dice (about 1 cup)
- 1 medium sweet potato, peeled and diced (about 1 cup)
- 2 medium carrots, peeled and diced (about 1 cup)
- ½ fennel bulb, quartered and thinly sliced (about 1 cup)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
For the Soup Base:
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion, diced (about 2 cups)
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 2 medium russet potatoes, peeled and diced ¾-inch (about 2 cups)
- 4–5 fresh thyme sprigs
- 1 cup milk (2% or preferred milk)
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
For Garnish:
- Additional pepper and thyme leaves
- Optional: crumbled bacon for topping
- Optional: unsweetened almond milk (for vegan/dairy-free version)
Instructions
Turn oven to 400°F. Cut vegetables while it heats. Put squash, parsnips, sweet potato, carrots, fennel on baking sheet. Pour 2 tablespoons olive oil over everything, sprinkle ½ teaspoon salt. Mix with your hands so everything gets oil. Matters because dry vegetables won’t brown.
Spread out in one layer. Don’t pile them. Crowded vegetables steam, don’t roast, no brown edges. Pan too small, use two pans. First time I made this I piled everything on one crowded pan being lazy. Vegetables came out pale and mushy, not brown. Soup was boring.
Roast 40 minutes total. After 20 minutes take pan out, stir everything, put back for another 20 minutes. Done when you can poke with fork easy and they have brown spots. Some pieces darker than others, fine – those dark bits add flavor.
While vegetables roast, start soup. Put 3 tablespoons olive oil in big pot, turn heat to medium. Add onions with pinch of salt and pepper. Salt helps onions soften.
Cook onions slowly 10 minutes, stir sometimes. Want them soft and see-through. Not brown. Start browning, heat too high, turn down. Making onions sweet, not caramelizing. I clean cutting board while onions cook.
Onions soft, sprinkle 2 tablespoons flour over them. Stir with wooden spoon. Keep stirring constantly 3 minutes. Don’t stop or flour burns on bottom. Looks pasty and weird first – normal. Cooking raw flour taste out.
This stops lumps and keeps milk from separating. I used to skip this thinking it didn’t matter. Wrong. Skipped it once, soup looked curdled when I added milk. Tasted fine, looked gross. Never skip now.
Pour in 4 cups vegetable broth, stir. Add potatoes and thyme sprigs. Throw whole sprigs in, take out later. Heat to high, bring to boil. See big bubbles.
Boiling, turn heat to medium-low, gentle simmer. Small bubbles around edges, not big rolling boil. Simmer uncovered 15 minutes. Potatoes completely soft when you poke with fork. Some start falling apart, want that, thickens soup.
Spoon or tongs to fish out thyme stems. Leaves fell off into soup while cooking, what we want. Just removing woody stems, nobody wants to bite a stick.
Roasted vegetables done now. Add all to pot with broth and potatoes. Stir together. Blend some soup, not all. Makes texture perfect.
Ladle scoop about 3 cups soup into blender. Get both liquid and vegetables. Lid on, blend high until completely smooth, no chunks. Takes 30 seconds to a minute. Pour smooth blended soup back in pot, stir.
Creates creamy base, still leaves chunks of roasted vegetables. Get smooth texture but also pieces to bite. Want completely smooth, blend more. Want chunky, blend less. I like middle.
Immersion blender, stick in pot, blend part of soup. Move around to different areas, blend some not all.
Pour 1 cup milk, stir gently. Heat to medium-low, heat soup, stir occasionally. Takes 5 minutes. Important – DO NOT let soup boil after adding milk. Boils, milk curdles, separates, looks grainy weird. Keep gentle simmer, steaming hot not bubbling.
Plant milk like almond or oat, same rules – don’t boil. Oat milk works well, naturally creamy. Almond milk thinner, soup won’t be as rich.
Taste soup, add more salt and pepper if needed. I almost always need more salt, vegetables and broth vary. Probably add another half teaspoon salt, several grinds pepper. Taste, adjust until right.
Ladle hot soup into bowls. I top with extra cracked pepper, fresh thyme leaves if I have them. Sometimes save few prettiest roasted vegetable pieces before blending, put on top each bowl. Looks nice. Eat meat, crispy bacon on top good. Tom always adds bacon.
Notes
Cut vegetables same size – roughly 1-inch pieces. Different sizes, small ones burn before big ones done. Aim for uniform cubes. Doesn’t have to be perfect, similar sizes help cook evenly.
Don’t skip flour step even want gluten-free, don’t have cornstarch. Flour crucial for stopping separation when add milk. Without it, soup looks curdled, milk separated into little white curds floating. Not appetizing. Learned from experience tried to skip. Soup tasted fine, looked gross.
Always taste soup before add milk step 6. Just vegetables and broth, can really tell needs more salt or pepper. Add milk, dilutes seasoning, makes everything milder. Taste after blending before adding milk, adjust seasoning, taste again after adding milk see if needs more. Usually needs little more salt after milk.
Finished soup too thick, add more broth quarter cup at a time until consistency you want. Too thin (rarely happens), simmer uncovered another ten fifteen minutes cook off excess liquid. Or make slurry mixing 1 tablespoon flour with 2 tablespoons cold water, stir into soup, simmer five more minutes thickens.
Extra richness, use half milk half heavy cream instead all milk. Or all heavy cream want really decadent. I do sometimes serving soup to guests. Soup becomes incredibly creamy rich, almost bisque. Adds more calories don’t do every time, special occasions worth it.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 55 minutes
- Category: Soup
- Method: Roasting, Simmering
- Cuisine: American