This squash, root, and apple soup with rosemary oil is styled after the starter I had at Brasserie Blanc. It’s very simple, warming and quite lovely (if I do say so myself).
It’s not very involved at all. All I did was:
1) Cook the onions with a bit of oil until translucent and starting to get a bit of color. (I added a couple of sprigs of rosemary during this process which I removed before the next step but it’s far from essential).
2) In with the prepped veggies, stir. Then fill with water and some stock powder. Stir again.
3) Once it’s bubbled until all the veg is tender take it off the heat, whizz it until smooth and you’re done.
I was really pleased with the way it turned out. The texture was spot on and the rosemary oil was quite flavorful and absurdly easy to prepare. Now I feel like I’m an amateur professional wot with making– without the recipe– a soup similar to one which is served at a real chef’s restaurant (and if I can do it, y’all can too).
If you’d like to try making it the same, here’s what went in:
1 oversized parsnip (2 normal)
1 hugely oversized carrot (about 4 normal)
1 sweet potato
2 potatoes
2 apples
1 squash
2 medium onions
1 sprig rosemary
about 2 tbsp stock powder
I spotted the Kabocha squash that I used in this and thought I’d give it a whirl as I like to try new things but must admit I was disappointed. It took rather a lot of effort for little reward. Squash is always a bit tricky to cut and peel but the form of this one proved to be particularly challenging. When I make this again I’ll go for a butternut or something similar.
As for the rosemary oil, all I did was let a few sprigs of rosemary sit in a jar full of olive oil for about two weeks. I bruised the rosemary up a bit first in the mortar in case that’d get more flavor into the oil. (I should try another batch without this abusive measure to see if it made any difference).
Oh, and I threw a few croutons on top for a bit of crunch (which might be de-poshing Monsieur Blanc’s style but I enjoyed them). So there you have it. A very basic soup that, it would appear, can pass at a fine establishment such as Brasserie Blanc.
Bon Ap!
The Amalgam Collection 