Easy Curried Parsnip Soup with Brown Butter Drizzle
Soup season is here, and this Easy Curried Parsnip Soup with Brown Butter Drizzle absolutely deserves a place in your rotation. The natural sweetness of parsnips is complemented by warming curry spices, a creamy texture, and a luxurious drizzle of brown butter to take it all to the next level!
💌 Save This Recipe
We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
I'll also send you other recipes I know you'll love. Unsubscribe at any time.
Every fall, I get excited about all of the root vegetables coming into season and the change in cooking that they bring.
And for me, parsnips are always near the top of the list because I love the flavor and find that they complement so many rich dishes this time of year.
They also spark a fond childhood memory for me, as I grew up eating them breaded and shallow-fried.
I typically make them as a side dish, roasting them with other root vegetables or mashing them with potatoes, but this soup may just be my new favorite. The natural sweetness of the parsnips is enhanced by roasting them and the perfect counterpoint to the warming curry spices.
It is a delicious soup – perfect for a weeknight dinner or a special occasion.
Let’s get into it!
Want some other soup recipes to add to your repertoire? You have to try these: Creamy Carrot & Red Lentil with Garlicky Croutons, Potato and Wild Mushroom Soup, and Easy Pumpkin Soup with Star Anise and Ginger.
Why I love this recipe:
Recipe Ingredients
You’ll need the following ingredients to make this delicious spiced parsnip soup:
Ingredient Notes & Substitutions
The ingredients to make this curried parsnip soup are easy to find and readily available at any grocery store.
Here are a few ingredient notes:
Parsnips: Belonging to the same family as carrots and parsley, parsnips, the main ingredient, are a root vegetable. Cream-colored and similar in shape to carrots, parsnips are unusually sweet and can be more fibrous (very large ones may need the core to be removed). The flavor of parsnips pair wonderfully with warming spices, just like in this soup. Look for firm vegetables that look fresh and not dried out on their ends.
Garlic: No need to chop garlic to sauté in this soup. Just add whole cloves to the sheet pan to roast with the parsnips. The cloves will become caramelized and sweeter adding a mellow garlic flavor to the background in this soup.
Ginger: This soup features both fresh and dried ginger. The fresh ginger is sliced into large pieces and added to the rest of the vegetables to roast. The dried ginger is added along with the other spices to coat all of the vegetables before they are roasted. If you don’t have one of the two forms of ginger, you can add more of the form you do have, as a substitute.
Curry powder: Curry powder is a mix of traditional Indian spices that Westerners use to replicate Indian flavors. Typical ingredients can include a mix of turmeric, ginger, coriander, cumin, black pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, mustard seed, and chili pepper. Different brands use different mixes, in my experience, and therefore can have varying levels of heat. Look for a mild curry powder or medium curry powder for the best results. If you use a hot curry powder you will end up masking the flavor of the parsnips.
Cardamom: A spice native to both India and Indonesia, cardamom is sometimes included in curry powder and sometimes not. I happen to love the slightly sweet and floral, almost piney, flavor, and so included it in my spices for this soup. Ground cardamom is preferable in this recipe because it can coat the vegetables as they roast.
Miso: A fermented soybean paste full of salty umami flavor, I love to use a touch of miso in broths to add character and depth. A mild white miso is best here. If you don’t have it, it is not an issue to just omit it.
Butter: Whole butter is used to easily make brown butter, which is nutty and an incredibly delicious garnish for this soup. It takes it from great to WOW!
The Technique: A Formula For Basic Oven-Roasted Soup Making
- Prep the vegetables. The key point for this step is to cut everything such that the cooking time is the same for every single vegetable.
- Season the vegetables. Olive oil (or an oil of your choice), kosher salt, and black pepper are non-negotiable. This is your first chance to add seasoning to your soup, so season generously. Over and above those items, this is a good time to introduce any other spices that you would like to use.
- Roast the vegetables. This easy step is the cooking of the whole soup! Place all of the well-seasoned vegetables onto a sheet pan and roast them in a high-temperature oven (400 degrees or more) until they are tender and offer no resistance when pierced with the tip of a knife.
- Heat the stock. While the vegetables are roasting, heat the stock in a saucepan on the stovetop.
- Combine with stock to blend. If using a blender, work in batches, adding some roasted vegetables, along with stock to blend until smooth. Or, if using an immersion blender, add the vegetables to the pan of stock and blend.
- Adjust any seasoning and add any finishers. After you blend the soup, return it to low heat and taste it. Does it need more salt? A little pepper? Adjust these as necessary and then consider how you want to finish the soup. This could include a squeeze of citrus, some citrus zest, a splash of vinegar, something creamy like heavy cream or coconut milk, a drizzle of olive oil, a dollop of creme fraiche, sunflower seeds, torn and toasted bread, chili flakes fresh herbs. I could go on and on – you get the idea. Have fun with it!
*Always remember to season with salt at each stage, tasting as you go! This is the difference between a well-seasoned finished dish and a finished dish with salt on top. The taste really is different!
Let’s Make Curried Parsnip Soup Together: STEP BY STEP
Check out the full recipe with ingredient list and instructions in the recipe card below.
Steps 1, 2 & 3:
First, using a vegetable peeler, peel and cut the parsnips and carrots and be sure to cut into even-sized pieces so that they cook evenly. The pieces at the end should be thicker and the higher up you go, the slices should get thinner and thinner.
Second, cut the onions and celery, slice the ginger, and peel the garlic cloves. Put all of the vegetables onto a sheet pan.
And third, add the olive oil, all of the spices onto the vegetables and toss them until everything is well coated and then bake in a 425 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.
Steps 4, 5 & 6:
Then, while the vegetables are roasting, heat the stock and whisk in the miso paste.
Next, make the brown butter by melting the butter in a saucepan or small sauté pan over medium heat. Let it cook until the milk solids start to separate and fall to the bottom of the pan.
Steps 7, 8 & 9:
Let the milk solids continue to turn more golden until they smell nutty and reach the color of caramel. Then, remove it from the heat and pour it into a bowl to stop the cooking process.
Steps 10, 11 & 12:
Finally, remove the vegetables from the oven and, working in batches, add them to a blender along with enough stock to cover them and blend until smooth and creamy. Make sure to take the cap off the lid of the blender and cover it with a folded kitchen towel so that steam can escape while you blend. Pour the blended soup into a large pot and return to the heat to adjust the consistency or seasoning, as necessary.
Natalie’s Expert Tips
- Cut all of the vegetables to a similar size, so they will all require the same amount of cooking. That is to say, you don’t want some pieces over-cooked and some under-cooked.
- Do not keep the brown butter in the pan that you make it in – it will continue to cook and you risk it turning into black butter (an actual thing!), which is incredibly bitter.
- Make the brown butter while the vegetables are roasting and hold it somewhere warm, as I have shown above.
- Use a high-speed blender if you can for the creamiest texture (I use this one). If you don’t have one, a stick blender or food processor can also be used.
Serving Suggestions
- Crusty bread and a simple green salad always make for a delicious and easy meal.
- Sticking with the root vegetable theme, consider serving this soup with this unbelievably delicious Beet and Butternut Squash Salad with Ginger Vinaigrette – the flavors pair really well together!
- Or here’s another show-stopping salad to serve it with – Roasted Pear Salad with Spiced Maple Vinaigrette.
- Serve this simple parsnip soup as an appetizer before these Juicy Pork and Apple Meatballs with Apple Cider Sauce.
- These Sheet Pan Chicken Tikka Masala Meatballs would be delicious after a bowl of this curried parsnip soup.
- It would be delicious alongside this hearty Sheet Pan Salad with Chicken, Pears, and Squash.
Storage & Reheating
STORAGE:
Store this in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
REHEATING:
Add the soup into a saucepan on the stovetop and heat over medium-low heat until warmed. You can also reheat everything in the microwave in 30-second intervals until everything is warmed through.
FREEZING:
This soup freezes well in an airtight container for up to 6 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight before reheating.
Frequently Asked Questions for this Curried Parsnip Soup Recipe
I hope you love this Easy Curried Parsnip Soup with Brown Butter Drizzle!
If you make it, be sure to leave a rating so I know how you liked it!
Recipe Card
Easy Curried Parsnip Soup with Brown Butter Drizzle
Ingredients
- 1 onion
- 1 carrot
- 1 celery stalk
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 inch knob of ginger
- 2 lbs parsnips
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 tbsp curry powder
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp cardamom
- 8 cups chicken stock
- 1 tbsp white miso
- 4 tbsp butter
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Prep the vegetables. Using a vegetable peeler, peel the parsnips and carrot, and cut them into similar-sized pieces so that they will cook evenly. *If the parsnips are really large, it is a good idea to remove the core at the thickest part. You can do this by cutting the top portions of the parsnips into quarters and cutting out the core. Add the parsnips and carrots to a sheet pan.
- Cut the onion and celery into pieces the same size as the parsnips and add them to the sheet pan.
- Peel the garlic cloves and add them, whole, to the sheet pan, and slice the ginger into 1/4-inch thick slices and add them to the sheet pan with everything else.
- Season the vegetables. Drizzle everything with the olive oil and add the curry powder, ground ginger, cardamom, salt and pepper and toss everything until well-coated.
- Roast the vegetables. Transfer the sheet pan into the preheated oven and roast for about 30 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender and give no resistance when pierced with the tip of a knife.
- Heat the stock. While the vegetables are roasting, heat the stock in a saucepan over medium heat and whisk in the miso paste. Once the stock is hot, remove it from the heat and set it aside.
- Make the brown butter. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat until it bubbles and the milk solids separate and fall to the bottom of the pan and start to turn brown and smell nutty. When the brown bits are nice and golden brown, remove the pan from the heat and pour the brown butter into a heat-proof bowl to stop cooking. Set aside, keeping warm if possible, until ready to serve the soup. *If the butter has started to solidify again, just pop it into the microwave for a few seconds to re-melt, if necessary.
- Blend the soup. When the vegetables are done, remove them from the oven. If using a blender, working in batches, scoop them into the blender and add the hot chicken stock to cover and blend. *Be sure to remove the cap from the lid and cover it with a kitchen towel when blending so that the steam can escape. If using an immersion blender, add the roasted vegetables to the pot of stock and blend.
- Adjust the seasoning and serve. Return the blended soup to the heat and taste it. Adjust the consistency and any seasoning (salt and pepper), if necessary. If the soup is too thick, add a little more stock to achieve the desired consistency. To serve, ladle into bowls and drizzle with the brown butter. ENJOY!
💌 Save This Recipe
We’ll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
I'll also send you other recipes I know you'll love. Unsubscribe at any time.
Notes
- Cut all of the vegetables to a similar size, so they will all require the same amount of cooking. You don’t want some pieces over-cooked and some under-cooked.
- Do not keep the brown butter in the pan that you make it in – it will continue to cook and you risk it turning into black butter (an actual thing!), which is incredibly bitter.
- Make the brown butter while the vegetables are roasting and hold it somewhere warm.
- Use a high-speed blender if you can for the creamiest texture. If you don’t have one, a stick blender or food processor can also be used.
Nutrition
Did you make this recipe? I want to know!
I’d love to hear from you! Consider leaving a comment and rating below.
My readers love to read your reviews, adaptations and suggestions! Have a question? I’ll personally respond within 24 hours. Please share any photos on instagram and tag me @nataliemarblecooks so I can see your creations!
Nice to meet you!
I’m Natalie and I love to create seasonal and interesting elevated food for busy everyday real life! Dinner doesn’t have to be boring and I’m here to help. This is where busy meets delicious!
