Vegetable Soup, but good

Yes, I know - it's easy to scoff at the idea of a vegetable soup because they're often pretty ordinary, but it's really easy to make a delicious one. The below recipe is just one example, and was made to use up some vegetables that we had bulk of (and we used this stock as a base).

Roast Beetroot, Fennel, Jerusalem Artichoke, Potato and Obi (Kumera) Soup with Leek, Obi Chips and Ricotta


Ingredients

Equal or close to equal parts of each root vegetable, but really whichever vegetables you'd like ie: Beetroot, Jerusalem Artichoke, Potato, Kumera, Pumpkin, Carrot, Turnip, Parsnip, etc
A bit of extra Potato, Kumera or Pumpkin for chips
3 or 4 cloves of garlic
1 big onion
4 shallots (save a bit for garnish)
1 leek
Ginger or other flavours that you like
2 cups of stock
A small amount of ricotta or cream or sour cream
Olive Oil
Seasoning - salt and pepper

Pre-heat your oven to 180 celsius. Coarsely chop your vegetables and roast them - everything except the onion, shallots and the leek (yes, roasting the garlic rules). Fry the onion and leek until they start to clear, then add the shallots for a little while. Also add anything like ginger or chili or whatever you dig that will suit the vegetables that you're using. While this is cooking, shallow fry some kumera, pumpkin or potato chips in a bit of olive oil to use as garnish.

Put everything into the processor then gradually add stock until it reaches the consistency that you like. Once you have done this, add it back into the pot to re-heat. Season with salt and pepper to taste and feel free to add spices that you like. Serve it in a bowl and add a dollop of ricotta, then top it with the chips and sprinkle the shallots over the top.

This is pretty loose, but that's just how soup rolls! I always like roasting soup ingredients when possible, as it adds an extra complexity to the flavour.

Yup, seriously.

Enjoy.

Kurt