The Orangery Parsnip Soup

December is always a busy month, but probably more so when you get invited on a trip to London, England. One of the best meals we enjoyed there was our late lunch/afternoon tea at the Orangery beside Kensington Palace. The Orangery used to be a green house for the place. It was beautiful inside with it's high ceilings, huge windows and little wire tables in white tablecloths.



We were served mint tea and rosehip-hibiscus tea. I was fascinated with the tea strainer. It was so pretty! I don't drink loose tea (and these were herbals), but I just thought those tea strainers were so ornate. They served raw sugar cubes for the tea. I was expecting to see perfectly shaped sugar squares but these were actual lumps of sugar.



Our lunch was divinely wonderful. My friend had some parsnip soup and I had a beef, mushroom and horseradish dish. These weren't overly filling, but perfect for a freezing afternoon. For dessert we had a raspberry meringue dish with unsweetened cream on top. Divine!



When I came home I had to try to make the parsnip soup. It was surprisingly simple and came out wonderful! Here's the recipe for you:

Parsnip Soup

Ingredients:
3 T. butter
2 lbs. parsnips
1 large onion
2 pinches of sugar
3 cloves of garlic
1 t. celery salt
1 t. ginger
1/2 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. allspice
1/2 t. pepper
1 t. salt
6 c. chicken broth
1 pint whipping cream

Directions:
Chop your onion. Peel and slice the parsnips. Melt the butter and saute the onions, garlic, celery salt and parsnips. Put a lid on them and cook on medium-low heat for 15 minutes, or until the parsnips are tender. Add the other spices and chicken stock. Bring to a boil and let boil until the parsnips are mushy.

When the parsnips are mushy, carefully pour the soup into a food processor, mixer or blender and puree the soup to this point. Pour back into the pan, add the cream and mix until blended. I didn't bring the cream to a boil as it was hot enough without extra heat.

I cannot attest to the healthiness of this recipe, but it was wonderful! We had it with gluten free biscuits topped with garlic salt and dill butter.