Winter Is Almost Over Soup

Spring is just around the corner and the boys are outside playing with the last piles of snow in the backyard (or at least they were when I started typing this sentence but they have since come in and want to paint...)

I really want to have a nice bright soup and finish up all the winter vegetables I have hanging around because it won't be long before we see some green!! 

Recipe for Coconut Curried Turnip Soup

1 ugly-looking inexpensive local wax turnip
1 local sweet potato (if you don't have local sweet potatoes, you could use a local white potato and a local carrot)
2 local cooking onions
1.5L homemade chicken stock (or enough to cover the vegetables + a bit)
1 can (400 ml) coconut milk - not local but also not locally available - buy organic or fair trade if you can 
Curry powder (likely not of local origin)
Salt
1 Tbsp Olive or Vegetable oil


Cut vegetables into small chunks. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium high. Add the onions and sprinkle with a bit of salt. Once you can smell the onions, add the turnips and sweet potato chunks. Turn heat to medium, fry them up for a bit so that they start to sweat. Don't let them stick to the bottom or burn so stir them a few times. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Cook until the sweet potato and turnip are soft (you'll probably have to turn the heat back down to medium or medium-low). Turn off the burner, remove from heat and use a hand blender to make a puree. Stir in the can of coconut milk and add curry powder to your liking. I use about 1.5 tsp. If it needs a bit of salt (which can be the case if you use homemade stock) then go ahead and add some but I like the sweet curry taste of the soup.


You could top with a dollop of plain yogurt if you like the hot/cool combination.


Tip: turnip takes longer to cook than sweet potato so cut the pieces smaller.