Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour and 10 minutes

Ingredients (for 2 liters of soup):
– 1/8 butternut squash
– 3 parsnips
– 1 big potato (preferably of a variety good for mashed potatoes, as the potato is here used to make the cream soup smoother as well as thicker ; for example, use a Monalisa or a Bintje potatoe)
– 1 leek
– 1 big yellow onion
– 2 tablespoon olive oil
– 1/2 liter chicken stock (or as much water and one chicken stock cube)
– 40cl crème fraîche (or more, depending on the consistency you wish to obtain)
– 40g butter
– 2 teaspoons grounded cumin
– salt, pepper

Necessary utensils:
– cooking pot or pressure cooker
– wooden spoon
– blender

Vegetables’ Cooking
Before you start preparing your vegetables, put your stock (or the water and the cube) in a saucepan on a low fire so that it heats up a bit. Skin the butternut squash and the potato and cut them in 1cm cubes, put the potato in a cold water bowl to remove the excess of starch. Cut the parsnips in 1cm wide slices, cut in half or quarters for the biggest. Remove the greenest and hardest part of the leak (keep the light green though), then cut it in half lengthwise and make 1/2 cm segments, wash in a colander. Mince the onion.

Put the cooking pot/pressure cooker on medium heat and add oil, let it heat up for a few seconds before adding the onion to color it. After a few minutes, add all the vegetables and pour the hot stock on them. If the vegetables are not all under the liquide, add some water so that they are covered. If you are using a cooking pot, wait for the water to boil, then shut the fire, cover and let it cook for about 1 hour. If you use a pressure cooker, let it cook for only 20 minutes after the steam starts coming out of the vent.

Blending and Finishing Touches
Once vegetables are cooked (pick them to check that they are really soft), put them with the stock in your blender. If necessary, do it twice (remember to leave some space in the blender, as we will be adding some ingredients in the blender). Mix the vegetables for 2 to 3 minutes at high speed, then add, while mixing, the crème fraîche, the butter, the spices. Once you have an homogeneous blend, put it back in the pot and let it cook for 5 to 10 more minutes, uncovered.

Serve the cream soup in a soup plate – or why not in a mug, like I did ? -, after sprinkling some cumin seeds on top of it.

Also published on Medium.

This post is also available in: French