Surprisingly successful swede soup

I had two swede in my veg box and I was trying to ignore them. Then everything around them disappeared and I was forced into a corner. Frankly I was at a loss. Swede to me does not hold very good memories. Bright orange cubes mixed with tinned carrot and sweetcorn in a kind of inedible vegetable medley to accompany a gristly cottage pie was about as good as it got. We’ve never had swede at home as far as I can remember so it’s always been connected with the unappetising smell of the school kitchen.

But I found an old turnip recipe that I thought sounded good and added a couple of things to come up with this. And it turned out to be a truly cathartic experience, an epiphany in the kitchen if you will.

So grab your swede (two small or one big to feed 5 or 6), wash peel and chop it into smallish chunks (NOT perfect cubes). Peel and chunky chop a couple of nice carrots too and put them aside with the swede.

Finely chop an onion or a couple of shallots and smash and slice two garlic cloves. Heat up some olive oil with a knob of butter and sweat off the onions over a lowish heat, adding the garlic after a couple of minutes. Then add your misshapen swede and raise the heat a bit. Brown for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile get some stock ready – chicken’s good but veg is better for vegetarians I believe. 2 pints of strong stuff. Add the stock and the carrots, then let it simmer away for around 15 minutes. Then – and here’s where the magic starts – add half a cup of rice – risotto rice is best so arborio or carnaroli or whatever you favour. Let that simmer for 15, add salt and pepper, then at the end grate in a load of parmesan before serving up with chunky white toast and more parmesan on top if you like that sort of thing.