Parsnip, potato and apple soup

We here at Yumblog Villas are always reluctant to post soups (upload, not mail) as they are so simple we fear you might be insulted dear reader(s) and flounce off in one of your famed over-dramatic strops. However, lockdown lends itself to the desire for something comforting and warming and besides we had all the right ingredients in the form of a large bendy parsnip, a wrinkled apple and a slightly sprouting potato.

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: about 35 minutes
Skill level: easy
Serves: 2 – 4 depending

Ingredients

• butter – 20g
• olive oil – glug
• 1 large onion – finely chopped
• 3 fat garlic cloves – pulped
• 1 potato (around 250g) – chopped
• 1 parsnip (around 250g) – chopped
• 1 large apple
• vegetable stock – 500ml
• salt and pepper
• parmesan to serve (plenty)

As usual, start by heating the butter and oil in a large saucepan, add the onion and garlic and cook over a low heat for 5-10 minutes until the onions are soft but not browned.

Add the potato, parsnip and apple, mix well.

Add the stock, bring up to the boil, cover with a lid and simmer gently for about 25 minutes until the vegetables are soft. Remember to stir occasionally.

Remove from the heat and, using a hand blender, blend until smooth.

Return to the heat and season to taste.

You can add a little more stock if too thick, or reduce over the heat if too thin, depending on your personal soup viscosity preference.

Serve with a generous grating of parmesan.

Verdict: There was initial concern and debate that this might be a soup too sweet and ‘appley’, however as usual this turned out to be unfounded scaremongering and panic typical of snowflake Remoaners like ourselves. The apple enhances the natural sweetness of the parsnip rather than overwhelms it. Not bad considering the sorry state of the main ingredients.

Other soup options you could try are haricot bean and carrot, or if you like it chilled, courgette and pea with goat’s cheese toasts

Drink: Bricks of Camden Hells.

Entertainment: Quite enjoying watching Keir Starmer eviscerate a pathetically under informed and barely coherent Johnson at PMQs. No wonder he can’t wait to reopen Parliament so he can be shielded by his braying back bench of Etonian pig fuckers and bum chums. It would be funny if it were not so deadly fucking serious.