Quick and Easy Sunday Lunch

For us, Church days are very long. We have a "Coffee and Doughnuts" Social after Liturgy most Sundays, but this usually includes sugar and other sweets. I let my children have some, which is a big part of the reason I don't keep any of that sort of thing at home -- at least this way it is a real treat.  Anyway, everyone is absolutely "starving" by the time we get home, so life is much easier if we can walk in the door and I have something substantial ready for lunch.

Today, as I mentioned in my last post, I made the soup during breakfast so that it would be ready when we got home. The soup I made is a carrot and root vegetable soup because everyone has been recovering from the stomach flu over the last week or so. Carrots are very good for digestion, as are potatoes. So I decided to make a soup including both. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

7-8 medium sized carrots
3 good size red potatoes
1 medium-large parsnip
Water
Salt & pepper, to taste
A pinch of dried tarragon
2 Cardamom pods (optional)
2 Bay leaves
Chopped parsley stalks or leaves (or both!)

I roughly chopped all the cleaned veggies (I left the skins on the potatoes) and put them into a medium-large pot then covered with water. I dropped in the tarragon, salt, pepper, bay leaves, cardamom, and chopped parsley stalks then brought everything to the boil. I then lowered the heat and allowed the soup to simmer until everything was tender. Using my stick blender (though you could use a regular blender) I whirred it all up so that it was partially creamy but still had some larger pieces for texture.

I am serving this with some good crackers, an herb omelet, and some good sliced salami (a Hungarian Csabai), and some Brie. We might have a little fruit as a "dessert".