Roasted autumn vegetable soup

[Duffey]

I love rutabagas!!!! Thank heavens John hates them; that means there's more for me to eat.
I recently sprinkled nutmeg on some, and it really was good.

I don't care for mashed sweet potatoes with marshmallows & pecans, like they serve at Christmas & Thanksgiving. I prefer baked sweet potatoes. That is heaven.

Logan's Roadhouse has the best baked sweet potatoes I've ever eaten. My son is one of their managers, and I asked him what the secret was. He said they wrap huge potatoes in heavy duty foil and bake them at high heat for an hour. I can't remember the exact temperature, but I think it was 450. The skin is charred when they're done, but the potato is oh-so-good!

 

[catwoman]

Are parsnips similar to turnips, but not as bitter? I think I've had them and they were fine.

Marsha, I'm the opposite on the sweet potato. I need the added sweet for some reason. I just use butter or margarine and splenda. I don't need the cinnamon typically served with them. However, if you can get good sweet potato fries, that is one of the best things in the world!

I use butter; I find the sweet potato is sweet enough. Some places that served baked sweet potatoes serve them with brown sugar.

 

[Duffey]

Made the soup last night, and it was delcious! Thanks again, Marsha.

 

[CThrock]

I had Butternut Squash soup at a restaurant the other day. It was a little to sweet for me but was very tasty. Your soup sounds good to Marsha think I might try it. I love the soup weather, but not the cold.

 

[catwoman]

I bought some carrot soup several years ago in the to-go area of a Central Market (H.E.B. stores) grocery in Fort Worth.
It was fantastic, but I fear that I'm in the minority of fans for carrot soup. They seldom have it at Central Market.

It probably isn't a heart-healthy soup; I'm sure it has some type of cream in it. Even fat-free half & half has calories, and FF evap milk would too.

 

[Missy]

I bake sweet potatoes in foil also when I can. My brother in law turned me on to a little trick with sweet potatoes. Add a little salt and stir and it brings out the flavor. Kind of like putting salt on grapefruit or apples. Only better! Just try a little spot.
I also cook my candied sweet potatoes long enough to carmelize them. No nuts or marshmallows. Just butter and sugar. My mom did this and the huge family still does it.

 

[ponygirlmom]

upon marriage, about 59 yrs ago, my husband asked me not to cook TWO things - one was parsnips; the other sweet potatoes.

How can you NOT like sweet potatoes???? Did he have a traumatic sweet-potato incident?

 

[ponygirlmom]

My family likes roasted parsnip sticks. Cooked that way, they have a natural sweetness.

Line one or more jelly-roll pans with heavy-duty aluminum foil. An alternative is a glass baking dish. (A jelly-roll pan is a cookie sheet with veeeery short sides.)

Grease the pan(s) with a little olive oil and sprinkle lightly with ground kosher salt.

Peel parsnips and cut them into sticks somewhere in size between thick fries and steak fries. Lay in rows on the pans. Don't crowd too close together.

Brush them with a light coating of olive oil. This takes a little time, but there is no way to short-cut this step without drowning them in oil. Sprinkle lightly with ground kosher salt.

Cover with another sheet of foil and bake at 400 for 20 - 30 minutes, until soft. (They don't have to be super-soft.) If the bottoms are brown, turn them over. If the bottoms have burnt black, turn down the heat in your oven to 350 and turn them over. They will be fine, though.

Uncover and turn down the heat in your oven to 375 (if you didn't already turn it down to 350.) Bake for at least 30 minutes. They can be tricky near the end of cooking time, because you want them crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, but they can be not-cooked-not-cooked-not-cooked and suddenly burnt!

 

[ponygirlmom]

Baked yams:

We use red jewel yams (they are not identical to sweet potatoes.) They have dark red skins. To choose the most flavorful ones, run your fingernail along them in the store. Is the flesh underneath orange? Good. Yellow? Not so good, but okay.

Wash them and prick each twice with a fork. Place on a foil-lined baking sheet or in a foil-lined baking dish. Trust me on the foil-lined part. They can leak sticky goop. No need to oil anything.

Bake at 450 for at least an hour, no matter how thick they are. After that you may have to remove some and leave others in. Test for doneness with a fork. It should slide in very easily.

To eat: We are messy eaters, so we just break them in half and scoop out the insides with a spoon. You can also scoop out the insides and mash them a little so you can eat them without the mess!

Once you've scooped out the insides you can do things to them. Adding fats (butter) or sweetener defeats the whole purpose of baking them whole, because baking them whole in that way makes them naturally very sweet. So if you're going to mash them up with stuff, do it in a way that makes them more interesting, like using the kind of spices you use for pumpkin pie, or adding pineapple, or even yogurt. I make yam pie -- like pumpkin pie, but with no crust. I'll post the recipe later.

DO NOT WRAP THEM IN FOIL. Trust me -- the insides will be watery and not nearly as sweet or flavorful. This is the HUGE mistake made by restaurants, whether they are offering whole baked sweet potatoes or whole baked yams. That's why they offer their baked sweet potatoes with butter and brown sugar. Their finished product is always watery and bland.

 

[EireCara]

Marsha, that soup sounds gorgeous. *We have always eaten parsnips in Ireland. Either in a stew, or cut into smallish pieces, and boiled alongside carrots or turnip, then mash the two together, add some butter and they are yummy. The carrots counteract the bitterness of the parsnips. Another way is to slice in half and roast in the oven, when they are about half way cooked cover in lots of honey and continue roasting....yuhummy.