Timely Inspiration

I love to read other people's blogs; I guess it's the voyeur in me wanting to know how other folks live, what they do for fun, what they cook and eat.  I especially like to broaden my culinary horizons.  It felt like the stars aligned when I saw a fellow blogger mention  cream of apple and parsnip soup he and his partner served at a recent dinner party they hosted because for the first time in my life I had purchased parsnips!  I've never even eaten parsnips and had no idea what to do with them, so I was happy for the inspiration (Thanks Steve!).  I even had apples on hand - can't remember the last time I bought them in Belize - usually you can find only red delicious at the produce stands but this time I found Gala and Granny Smiths.  Other finds were wonderfully fresh leeks, which are hit or miss down here, and fresh cream from a Belize dairy.  I searched online for recipes, found 3 that looked reasonable, and combined the best parts to make my first ever dish using parsnips - Cream of Roasted Parsnip, Leek, and Apple Soup.

Plenty of counterspace next to the air fryer in the outdoor kitchen

I cut up the whites of the leeks and the parsnips for roasting.

Leeks sliced open on the bottom basket.

Parsnips on the top basket.  All spritzed with olive oil.  I put a spacer basket between the leeks and the parsnips for good air circulation.

Popped the baskets into the air fryer for 15 minutes at 400F while I cut up the green parts of the leeks and granny smith apples.

Nearly 6 cups of loosely packed leeks and apples.

Into a quart of duck broth from our Christmas duck.

After 10 minutes, the parsnips were just beginning to brown.  Turned the slices over and spritzed with more olive oil for the last 15 minutes.

Roasted leeks.

Roasted parsnips.

Added the roasted veg and crushed garlic to the pot and simmered for 15 minutes while thinking "oh my gosh - I hope the immersion blender is up to this because I really don't want to use the regular blender."

Kickass immersion blender.

One of the recipes called for seasoning with cinnamon, curry powder, cardamon, black pepper, salt, and dried coriander.  I had everything (except the coriander), so in it all went.

Fresh cream from the dairy, so wonderfully different to the cream you get in the US.

Stirred in the thick cream, heated to almost boiling and here you go -

Cream of Roasted Parsnip, Leek, and Apple soup.

A little greener than many versions because I used the leek greens and didn't peel the green apples.  It was/is/will be wonderful.  Which is a good thing because it made 3 quarts!