Vegetarian Apple Parsnip Soup

Name: Vegetarian Apple Parsnip Soup
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons olive oil; 1 onion, peeled and diced; 4 carrots, peeled and diced; 1/2 stalk celery; 2 leeks, cleaned and diced; 2 bay leaves; 2 branches fresh thyme; 3 plum tomatoes, diced, or 6 ounces canned San Marzano plum tomatoes; A few sprigs fresh parsley; A few sprigs fresh chervil; Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste; 1 pound parsnips, peeled and diced; Juice of 1 lemon; 2 tablespoons olive oil; 2 tablespoons butter or pareve margarine; 6 shallots, diced; 4 tart apples, peeled and diced; 1 cup cider; 8 cups chicken or vegetable broth (see headnote); Salt and white pepper to taste; A few gratings of nutmeg; 1 teaspoon cider vinegar (optional)

December 9, 2011

I once knew a very distinguished French ambassador to the United States who felt that soup was the only way to start a dinner. For Jewish people in France, the broth of a stew is often the prelude to holiday and weekday meals, whether it is an Alsatian pot-au-feu or a North African dafina. A way to give new life to leftover meat and vegetables, soup has always been the food of sustenance for poor people. When I first tasted this extraordinary soup at a dinner at the French embassy in Washington, I thought that it must have been made with good chicken broth and heavy cream, but to my surprise, it wasn’t. Francis Layrle, the ambassador’s former chef, made it with fresh vegetable broth, something he used very often for guests at the embassy who kept kosher or were vegetarians. This elegant and light soup has become one of my favorites, with its wonderful vegetarian broth that can be used as a basis for so many other soups. Those who do not keep kosher may, of course, substitute chicken broth. I have separated the ingredients for broth and soup, to facilitate making the vegetarian broth as a separate recipe for other occasions.

Recipe notes