Cranky Gerd: Recipe: Restorative Roots Soup

Stars of this restoring soup -- all those winter root cellar veggies!

The past few weeks have been lousy, motility-wise. I've experienced the "clenched throat" feeling, one evening of shooting regurgitation, fullness after eating, a few moments of nausea, and constipation. The weeks have been emotionally draining -- is this the cause of my increased GERD/stress response? An important work project and new office (a good thing, but like any move, stressful!), the recent blizzard, several late night events and lack of home-cooking -- no wonder I'm a wreck!

The three-day holiday weekend is already soothing my mind and body, and I'm thrilled -- empowered! -- to be back in the kitchen. I lugged home sacks of root vegetables -- the winter greenmarket staples -- and decided to put the immersion blender to use to make a calming, restorative "roots soup." The result was better than I imagined, a bowl packed with nutrition, easy to digest, and tasty, complex flavor. When you make this, once again seek out local produce -- it makes a difference!

RESTORATIVE ROOTS SOUP

I used an immersion blender to get the pureed, creamy texture; if you do not use one, thinly slice/chop the vegetables and use a potato masher in the pot to "hand-blend" the ingredients. It will be a more "rustic" version and will still taste lovely! Once again, there is no salt in this recipe, and little seasoning - just some parsley. Give this less-is-more approach a try. Another root that might go very well here is ginger root -- a great digestion-friendly ingredient.

Note: After having broccoli-sunchoke soup at Angelica Kitchen, I'm obsessed with this root, so I tossed a bit in here. Omitting it should not change this too much...

Ingredients

2 shallots, chopped
3 cloves garlic, pressed or chopped
4 large carrots, sliced
1 medium turnip, chopped
1 small sunchoke (Jerusalem artichoke), chopped into small pieces
6-7 fingerling and/or Butterball potatoes, halved and quartered
parsley
olive oil

Heat olive oil in soup pot, about a tablespoon, on low setting. While heating, add shallots and garlic. Saute in low heat for a minute or two, until shallots soften. Stir often.
Add carrots. Mix and let "sweat" and soften for 3-4 minutes.
Add turnip and sunchoke pieces. Mix and heat for a minute.
Add water to cover vegetables by an inch or two and turn up heat.
Add potatoes; bring to boil.
When boiling, reduce heat. Add parsley.
Simmer uncovered until all vegetables are softened, stirring occasionally.
Turn off heat and immersion blend, adding water if necessary (I wound up adding about 1/2-3/4 cups of water). Stir and blend until desired consistency.

I served this with veggie sausage on the side, and today with a small portion of polenta instead of bread. I think this would also go well with the special cornbread made famous by NYC's Angelica Kitchen.