Summer Root Vegetable Soup

in 5;2 diet soup, 5:2 Diet, carrots, leeks, low calorie soup, root vegetable soup, soup, summer soup, turnip, vegan, vegan soup, vegetable soup, vegetarian, vegetarian soup - 26 comments

A summery soup rich with lots of root vegetables. Low in calories and fat so the perfect recipe if you are watching your weight or calorie counting.

Summer Soup

Calling this a summer root vegetable soup may be a misnomer. Are these summer root vegetables?

Well no, but they are pretty much year round crops in Scotland.

They are grown or available in the summer, this is the summer and it is such a colourful cheerful soup. Yep I'm sticking with it being a summer soup.

Do you eat soup in summer?

We do.

We eat a lot more salads and light meals in the summer, but we still crave soup, so I have to make a pot fairly regularly.

This is my husband's favourite soup.

He loves a chunky root vegetable soup and I don't make it very often.

I hate chopping the damn turnips. They are so hard. I'm always in fear of losing fingers while I try to get my knife through. I use sharp chef's knives, but they are still a blasted nuisance to cut.

Cooper, well he doesn't like this style of soup so much. He did eat most of his soup but grumbled that he prefers my other soups.

I think it's probably because I cut the vegetables quite large for this soup. There was a lot of dunking of bread and a small pile of vegetables left in the bottom of the bowl when he claimed he was finished.

Me? I cleared my bowl. It was yummy! Graham went back for a second bowl. My work here is done.

Also try - Sweet Potato, Green Lentil and Spinach Soup

What is a Scottish Turnip?

Right let's talk about that blasted turnip that's so hard to cut.

This is what we call a turnip here in Scotland. The Scottish word for it is neep.

We traditionally serve it mashed and serve it with mashed potato and haggis, or chopped in stews and soups.

It was introduced to Scotland in the 1700s and is thought to have arrived here from Sweden.

What is aTumshie?

To confuse things further, we also call them tumshie, although my mother has always called them turmshie, so that may be a regional difference in dialect or maybe just my mum.

Turmshie or tumshie is more of an affectionate name for it than an official Scottish name. To call someone out on being a bit daft, you could call them a 'tumshie-heid' (turnip head).

Oh yes and until recently we carved them at Halloween instead of pumpkins.

Of course we have now cottoned onto the fact that pumpkins are much easier to carve and switched to them, but as a child we had turnip lanterns.

What is a Swede?

In England they call this big purple beast a swede and they call the wee baby ones turnips.

Of course they are wrong (queue Scottish/English debate). The big ones are turnip and the wee ones are swedes.

What is a Rutabaga?

Are you ready for this? It's also call the rutabaga! This is the north American name for the turnip. It comes from the Swedish word rotabagge which mashes together rot (root) and bagge (short, stubby object).

Whatever you call the big purple yin, it's gives a lot of flavour to soups, it fabulous mashed with lots of butter/dairy-free spread, a touch of salt and lots of black pepper.

It's also rather nice raw. I always crunch on some while I am chopping the blasted things,

A large white cast iron pot full of Summer Root Vegetable Soup

So what's in this hearty root vegetable soup?

Onion, garlic, celery, leeks, carrots, turnip and potatoes.

No wonder it's so tasty. It's also healthy and very filling. We serve it for dinner with some crusty buttered (dairy-free spread), but it is a treat for lunch too.

It's also low calorie, with only 89 calories per bowl (6 servings), which is great if you are trying to lose a bit of weight like I am. It's also perfect for the 5:2 diet, which I'm a great fan of.

Some other really tasty 5:2 diet soups to try are my spiced carrot, lentil and spinach soup (my favourite) at 138 calories per bowl, my carrot, leek and mustard seed soup at 119 calories per bowl or my broccoli and celery soup at 111 calories per bowl.

Of course you need to add the calories of that bread you are serving with it too.

also try - Easy Carrot & Mixed Vegetable Soup (5:2 diet)

summer soup, root vegetable soup, vegetable soup, Scottish soup, low calorie soup, diet soup, 5:2 diet recipe, 5:2 diet soup, 5:2 diet

dinner

Scottish, vegan, vegetarian

Yield: 6 bowls of soupAuthor: Jacqueline Meldrum