Roasted parsnip and fennel soup

With ‘roasty bits’ and ‘crunchy bits’, this is a seriously good soup, full of delicious flavour.

Roasted parsnip and fennel soup. Credit: Freshly Picked with Simon Toohey

• serves

  4

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  40 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 4 parsnips, peeled and diced into 2 cm pieces
• ½ fennel, diced
• 30 ml olive oil
• 2 brown onions, thinly sliced
• 3 garlic clove, thinly sliced
• ¼ cup white wine
• 3 sprigs thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 litres vegetable stock
• Salt and pepper

Dressing

• ¼ cup golden syrup
• 2 tsp Korean chilli flakes
• 1 sprig thyme
• ½ lemon, zest only

Crunch

• 1 cup hazelnuts
• 1 tsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp onion powder

Garnish

• Sliced spring onion (green part)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 230°C.
2. Toss the parsnip on a baking tray with some oil and a little salt and place in the oven to roast for 20 minutes, turning half way.
3. Add oil to a large pot on medium high heat and bring to temperature. Add the onion and cook with a little salt until brown. Add the garlic and cook for a further 3 minutes. Add the white wine and cook for 3 minutes again. Add fennal along with the thyme sprigs, bay and a little more salt. Add the vegetable stock, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook until the fennel is soft.
4. Meanwhile, mix the dressing ingredients with little water (enough to create a runny consistency) and set it aside.
5. Place the hazelnuts on a baking tray and cook in the oven for 5 minutes. Be careful though as the oven temperature is high and the nuts could burn.  Take out and place in a tea towel and give a bash with a rolling pin. While they are still hot, place them in a bowl, add the oil and the spices and mix together to stick. 
6. Once the parsnips are cooked and nice and ‘roasty’, remove from oven and reserve a few handfuls. Add remainder to the pot wit the fennel mixture and with a stick blender, blend everything, adding a little more water if it is becoming too thick. 
7. Serve topped with the toasted nuts, a few roast parsnip pieces, a drizzle of dressing and spring onion.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.