My mom performs the annual ritual around late November/early December of asking what I want for Christmas. When I was a kid I would go through the encyclopedia of ads that got distributed with the Thanksgiving Day newspaper, cut out pictures of all of the things I wanted, and put together a scrapbook-esque version of the more traditional Christmas wish list. As I aged, and especially more recently as an adult when I usually just go ahead and buy whatever I want for myself, my response for that age-old question usually was “Ummm… I dunno.” Not this year!
Mom: “What do you want for Christmas?”
Me: “An immersion blender!”
Mom: “What’s that?”
It purees! It blends! It makes frozen margaritas (a discovery made this past weekend)! I wanted it mostly in order to be able to make tasty blended soups (see below). The recipe included in this post was the result of me trying to use up some of the random ingredients in my refrigerator and play with my new toy at the same time. (I’m good at multi-tasking.)
Ingredients:
- 1 parsnip, peeled and diced
- 4 stalks of celery, diced
- 1/2 lb carrots, peeled and diced
- 1 tbsp red pepper flakes
- 1 tbsp dried thyme
- olive oil
- salt
- pepper
- 1 can cannellini beans, drained
- 1 can low sodium chicken stock
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- fleur de sel, to garnish
Procedure:
- Sweat the vegetables and herbs in olive oil (~10 minutes). Season with salt and pepper.
- Add the beans and chicken stock. Simmer for 15 minutes. Add the vinegar. Taste and adjust seasoning.
- Once the seasoning is perfected, bust out your handy-dandy immersion blender and go to town. (Or you could also pour the contents of the pot into a regular blender.) Feel free to adjust the consistency with additional water or chicken stock if desired.
- Pour into bowls and garnish with fleur de sel.
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