Recipe: Veloute de panais, croutons, et lardons

On Saturday, B and I were staying in so I wanted to make us a nice dinner to eat after the kids were in bed but it needed to be something easy as I was EXHAUSTED after entertaining the two cranky/sick monkeys all day long. I decided to try out this recipe that I had spotted in Elle magazine. It was amazingly good. So good, that I am posting here, both to generously share it with all of you but more importantly, to have it noted down in several places so that I never lose the recipe. Of course, it is so easy that I probably could just memorize it, but it is so ridiculously rich that I don't think it would be wise to have it too often. Save it for a special treat- and who thought that could ever be said about parsnip soup?

The link above is to the recipe on the Elle magazine site and is in French so I will do a quick translation below. Enjoy!


Parsnoip Veloute with croutons and bacon

Prep: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
For 4 people

6 parsnips
70 cl creme liquide
50 cl de lait
20 g salted butter

Garnishes:
50 g petits lardons/bacon
100 g croutons
50 g fois gras mi-cuit


1. Peel the parsnips, rince them and cut them in big chunks

2. Pour 1 liter of water in a pot with the cream and milk.* Salt lightly and bring to a boil. Add the parsnips and let cook for approximately 30 minutes, or until very tender.

3. Brown the lardons in a dry non-stick pan. Put aside and brown the croutons in the fat left in the pan. Put aside.

4. Cut the fois gras in small cubes

5. Using a hand-mixer, puree the parsnips, adding the butter and seasoning, as needed

6. Divide the garnishes among 4 bowls. Pour the puree over the top, pepper, and serve immediately.

* I mis-read the recipe as ml instead of cl and so after I pureed the mix, I found it too thick. To correct this, I just added water til I liked the consistency. I think that it still tasted fab and was less rich than the original recipe so I think you could probably even eliminate more cream without it affecting the final product.

recipe from Andree Rosier, Meilleur Ouvrier de France 2007 and head chef at Les Rosiers, Biaritz