Spiced parsnip and pear soup

Name: Spiced parsnip and pear soup
Ingredients: 1 kg parsnips, peeled and chunked; About 100 ml dry white wine or cider; About 100 ml dry white wine or cider; 2–3 cardamom pods; Short piece of cinnamon stick; Salt and freshly ground pepper; Freshly grated nutmeg; Large nugget of butter; 2–3 ripe pears, peeled and cored; Salt and freshly ground pepper

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

A Cook’s Year in a Welsh Farmhouse

By Elisabeth Luard

Published 2011

About

A simple, fresh-flavoured soup, meatless as is proper for the fasting supper of Christmas Eve. The grown-ups can sip it from bowls while the children decorate the tree. The sweetness and earthiness of the parsnips is balanced by the sharpness of the wine and the delicacy of the pears.

Ingredients

1 kg parsnips, peeled and chunked
Short piece of cinnamon stick
2–3 cardamom pods

Supper
Soup
Vegetarian
Gluten-free
Christmas

Method

Put the parsnips in a pan with the cinnamon and cardamom. Add the wine and a litre of water, season with a little salt and pepper, then bring to the boil. Cover loosely and cook gently till the parsnips