Hazelnut soup!

I didn't get any photos of this, so my apologies in advance.

I brought back parsnips. I'm going to make hazelnut soup for dinner!

Ever since I saw Tangled, I've had the idea of parsnip and hazelnut soup percolating in the back of my mind. This weekend, I finally made it a reality!



Hazelnut soup 
(serves 4 for dinner, or 6 as a small starter)

Ingredients

8oz. hazelnuts OR 1 cup hazelnut butter
3-5 parsnips
1 Tbsp olive oil
Salt to taste
3-5 shallots, diced (mine were extraordinarily large, so I used 3; for tiny ones, I'd use more)
1 Tbsp butter
4 cups high-quality chicken stock
1 bunch sage, slivered, a few leaves reserved for garnish if you like
1-2 tsp white pepper, or to taste
1/2 cup cream or half and half, or to taste

Preheat oven to 450F. Peel and roughly chop the parsnips, throw into roasting pan, drizzle with olive oil and a pinch of salt. Toss well to coat. Roast for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the parsnips are tender and have some golden-brown bits.

If you're working with raw hazelnuts, put them in a dry skillet over medium-high heat and toast, shaking the pan frequently, until they're beginning to darken and smell nutty and warm. When they're cool enough to handle, take a handful and rub them between your palms. The skins should flake right off -- don't worry if there are some that just won't seem to come loose. Pulse in a food processor until they resemble coarse sand.

Melt butter over medium heat and add shallots. Cook, stirring frequently, until they're soft and your whole house smells delicious. Add broth, parsnips, hazelnuts or hazelnut butter, sage, and white pepper. Cover, bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes or until the parsnips are well and truly soggy and the nuts have swelled up some.

With an immersion blender, blend soup well. You can also work in batches, transferring the soup from the pot to a stand-alone blender, but be careful -- work in small batches or the steam will blow the lid off the blender and you'll end up spattering yourself and your kitchen with scalding soup. Not that I've ever done that before or anything.

Add cream (do not allow the soup to boil again after this point!), taste and adjust seasonings (and creaminess) as necessary, strain if made with nuts instead of nut butter*, and serve with a sage leaf  for garnish if you like. (Don't bother reserving some pretty hazelnuts for garnish; they just sink, and it's very sad.)

Enjoy!

*This is a totally fine soup as it stands, but the texture is definitely rustic (it's full of ground nut meats, ffs). Since the flavors are pretty delicate, it'll be much improved by passing through cheesecloth -- or even a fine wire mesh sieve -- before serving. That's definitely what I'd do if I were going to serve this as a course in a dinner party. But for family? They can deal with the chewiness of the ground hazelnuts :)