Winter Vegetable Soup With Turnips, Carrots, Potatoes and Leeks

I've made a similar soup all my life since my Scots grandmother taught it to me. Her trick (besides no garlic, more celery and fewer potatoes) was to use her potato masher when all the vegetables were tender. It gives the soup a great rustic hearty texture. It is also much more fun to bash away with Grandma's masher than use a food mill or blender.

Really good and satisfying. If the now-banned Oxford comma appeared after "2 to 3 teaspoons salt" I believe it would be clearer. It would read "2 to 3 tablespoons salt, and pepper to taste."

Tweaked a bit, was fabulous. Sautéed all veg, sequentially, in olive oil and pat of butter, so leeks got golden. (I think soup needs that taste dimension.) Added parsnips, used more celery and carrot. Bouquet fresh from garden: two bay leaves, sprigs winter savory, French tarragon, Italian parsley. Immersion blended, to rough texture (about the texture of porridge). Soup thick and fibrous, in a good way. Added tsp. Sherry vinegar (before creme fraiche) for brightness. Served w/ plain focaccia.

We make this all the time, but usually substitute celery root for the potatoes. Call it "no points soup", very good and satisfying meal. But skip the creme fraiche, not needed.

To those who have written that puréeing destroys vegetable [or fruit] fiber: If you purée a vegetable or fruit, its fiber gets mutilated, but it is still there, and the produce is just as nutritionally valuable as if it were left whole. If you juice the food, however, practically all of its fiber is removed--it's the stuff that comes out of the other end of the juicer. Enterprising cooks who juice may find ways to use the macerated fiber in recipes, but others simply discard it.

I made this soup tonight. I used parsnip instead of turnips and put in coconut milk instead of creme of fraiche and some chicken broth. I made plenty so we can freeze some for later. Excellent winter soup with fresh salmon!!

I almost never peel potatoes (even for mashing!) unless there's an element of elegance needed for a dish. But for dishes like this soup, rustic for sure, why peel the potatoes? Just scrub, remove blemishes. Less work, more nutrition (extra fiber) and tastes great.
amusing how some of the tweaks in the comments actually make a completely different dish.

I doubt that is universal; I have always called each unit a stalk, rather than a rib..

This recipe calls for a large stalk of celery. My family grew celery when I was a child. A stalk of celery is made of ribs of celery. Having made the soup with a whole stalk, I think the author meant "large rib of celery". Celery is a great backnote to a recipe, but is not good front and center, as its too bland. I had to do a lot of adjusting for the stalk of celery I added per the recipe to make this a soup that we would eat more than once. Big miss by the NYTimes.

Love the many suggestions I've read here. The dicing didn't appeal, so I used the food processor grater. Took only a minute. Also, I added 1 tsp of chicken bouillon paste and two leftover cheese rinds stored in the freezer. These I removed before pureeing the soup in a standing blender.

I've had a similar soup in London, but they used parsnips. I love their sweet flavor and prefer them to turnips. They're perfect with carrots.

wow, just finished making this and it's fantastic. after reading other comments i played with the ingredients- added one more carrot, 2 stalks of celery, 3 parsnips, 3 small turnips and omitted the potatoes. i sauteed the carrots, leek, garlic in one T butter, seasoned with Fox Point seasoning, then used chicken broth (2Q). i pureed it then added about 1/4 heavy cream and sprinkled in a little cayenne pepper. it's perfect! next time i'll make a double batch.

I've been making variations of this soup for years. I like the suggestions people made about parsnips and celeriac. I would also include rutabagas. I think that actual turnips are bitter and add an unpleasant taste. Another suggestion that is great is a splash of sherry vinegar. Also, I would cut back on the leek and use some shallot instead of all leek. For a discussion of turnip vs rutabagas, see: http://www.finecooking.com/articles/turnip-rutabaga.aspx Medium size is best.

I made just one small modification to this delicious soup. My turnips had lovely greens, so I cleaned and chopped them, then added them for the last five minutes or so of cooking. They don't make a negligible difference in flavor, but they bump up the vitamins. They also add lovely green flecks in the final pureed product. I use an immersion blender.

Like others, I used parsnips rather than turnips. Still found the soup rather bland, but some smoked paprika and lemon juice brightened it up. I would serve this as a starter, not the main part of a meal.