Roasted Potato and Heirloom Carrot Soup for #SoupSaturdaySwappers.

It's all my fault this month or is it that I'll just take the credit for this month's Soup Saturday Swappers theme.
I can't make up my mind which one it is.

The theme this month or our assignment or our challenge is to make a Potato Soup.  You can use regular potatoes, red, yellow, white, purple, russet, fingerling, or sweet potatoes. ( I think I mentioned most of the major potatoes).  Potatoes have to be the main ingredient.  You can make a hot soup, a cold soup or something in between.   So here goes.

I was going to make a potato soup my niece made for us once.    It was so good and I got the recipe at the time, but I put the recipe somewhere safe and one of these days I'll find it and then watch out world, I'm coming through.

But in the meantime, I had to come up with a soup for this month's theme.

Potato Soup.

Do you have any idea how many potato soup recipes are on the internet?  Yeah, me neither, but there are a lot. 

You can go French with a lovely Vichyssoise, and it is a soup I love but I wanted something hot. And didn't feel like searching high, low and in between for leeks either. 

I looked at Ireland for their potato soup, but it didn't appeal. 

I even looked at my Danish roots but didn't feel like cooking a ham to get the stock.

So I did a search of my freezer and my fridge, and look what I came up with.

I had some lovely pork stock in the freezer as well as some chicken stock and there was most of a bag of Heirloom Carrots in the produce bin along with a couple of parsnips.   I'm calling this Roasted Potato and Heirloom Carrot Soup.  It can be made totally vegetarian or add some pork to it for a heartier take. 

And you know what happens when you roast vegetables.
They get sweet and luscious and totally yummy.
And you have to stop eating the freshly roasted vegetable so you can leave some for the soup.
Wait, that was me. 
To start with I tossed the peeled potatoes, parsnips and carrots in a little olive oil, sprinkled them with a teensy bit of sea salt and roasted them in the oven for over 20 minutes at 450 degrees.

 I turned them over after ten minutes and then turned the broiler on for an additional  2 minutes.

  While they were roasting I had the chicken and pork stock on top of the stove simmering away.    I tasted it for seasoning and turned off the heat.  As soon as the potatoes and carrots were done, I put them onto a cutting board and chopped them up a little more.

The soup was really thin so I added a little roasted garlic instant potato flakes to the soup, let it cook another minute to thicken just a tad and then I dumped the chopped potatoes, carrots and parsnips into the pot, and let it come back up to temp. 
I added some cooked pork to the top of my bowl that I'd browned a little and decided that from now on, the pork will definitely be a part of the main soup.  And of course a sprinkle of chives.

Yield: 2-4 ServingsAuthor: Sid's Sea Palm Cooking (adapted from Celebrating Sweets recipe)

Roasted Potato and Heirloom Carrot Soup

prep time: 5 minscook time: 21 minstotal time: 26 mins

This is a great soup for those cooler temperatures. A quick and hearty soup, which can ready in just a half hour or so and tastes like you've been slaving all day. Serve with a crusty roll for great tasting meal.

ingredients:

 6- 8 cups pork or chicken stock

2 potatoes

2 orange carrots

2 purple carrots

2 white carrots

2 parsnips

1/4 cup EVOO

salt to taste

1/2 cup finely chopped cooked pork

1/2 to 1 teaspoon oil

2-4 teaspoons instant garlic potato flakes

1-2 teaspoons chopped chives

instructions:

Turn oven on to 450 degrees.  Get out a pan with sides.  Spray with some non stick spray. 

Peel the potatoes, carrots and parsnips.   Cut the potatoes into quarters, and set aside.  Cut the carrots into chunks.  Sprinkle them with some olive oil and a little sea salt.  Toss together and place on baking sheet.  Roast at 450 degrees for 10 minutes, turn over and roast an addition 10 minutes or until the vegetables are done.  If the veggies aren't browned, place them under the broiler for an additional 2- 3 minutes. 
While the vegetables are roasting, bring the stock to a boil, cook for a couple of minutes, and add some instant potato flakes.  I used the roasted garlic kind.  Whisk it into the stock and let cook for a couple of minutes.

Take the roasted vegetables out of the oven, and do a rough chop.  Add to the soup and let it come to a quick boil.  Remove from heat.

In a small pan, heat the teaspoon of oil, and add the finely chopped cooked pork.  Let it brown a little.

Serve the soup in bowls and add the browned pork to the top.  Garnish with a little chopped chives for color. 

Note:  You could also make this a total veggie soup by using vegetable stock and not using any pork.  Although I think some fried crispy tofu would taste good with it as well. 

Created using The Recipes Generator

I've also been a teensy bit busy this week.  I baked not only a wedding cake but also a grooms cake and am heading down to decorate the groom's cake right now.  Both of which are in the freezer for now.

It's a black velvet cake with black cream cheese frosting and a batman theme.   Should be fun.
Check out the final cakes.  I was rather pleased with myself.

In the meantime, check out some other great soups.

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