SOUP--OR POTAGE, IF YOU WANT TO SOUND FRENCH

(An October bouquet from the last of my zinnia patch.)


This glorious Sunday I've spent doing my "kitchen meditation" using one of Lynne Rossetto Kasper's Weeknight Kitchen recipes. I've loved The Splendid Table for years, and a while back, I signed up for Lynne's newsletter. I read every recipe that shows up in my email, and this week's FABULOUS FALL ROOTS SOUP, excerpted from Sunday Soup: A Year's Worth of Mouthwatering, Easy to Make Recipes, by Betty Rosebottom (Chronicle Books) did indeed make my mouth water, and since it's Sunday, I decided, why not give it a try in my messy kitchen. (My photos try to frame only the parts I'd want my friends to see!)

Actually, I decided to begin this recipe-meditation yesterday, spending part of late afternoon roasting the vegetables so they'd be ready this morning. I also wanted to make my own chicken stock, of course, and I wanted to be able to leave it in the fridge overnight, so that I could skim the fat off the top

You can click on my blog title to be taken to the recipe on Lynne's website, by the way. (You can also check on how faithfully I followed it.) Yes, I cheated a bit. No leeks. I walked right past them at Ingle's; they are not part of my lexicon. I'd never heard of them while growing up. But I HAD heard of rutabagas and sweet potatoes, and carrots. And after I became sophisticated, I even heard about creme fraiche. And I knew how to make chicken stock. My grandmother always seemed to have a pot of it on the stove.

(My succulent roasted root veggies!)

So, this morning I took my gorgeous roasted veggies from the fridge, resisting the urge to cram some of them into my mouth, and scooped them over into the chicken stock. I let them simmer for a little while longer, just to make sure all were cooked thoroughly. And then....

....and then, a major decision. The un-pureed soup looked so good. And I do like what my friend Vicki Lane calls "texture" in my soup, as does she. Did I want this to be a vegetable soup or a "potage." Should I follow the recipe or diverge from its path? I meditated a little while, looked out the window at the fall foliage, and decided to follow the path of the recipe this time around.

I did not, after the luscious puree was done, add creme fraiche. I added non-fat sour cream instead. Non-fat is good for you, right? Next time I'll do the French.

We will have this soup for supper tonight when my husband returns from hiking in the Smoky Mountains. I think he'll like it, even if it does have rutabaga in it!