Root Vegetable Bisque

With fall upon us, root vegetables are available in the height of their freshness. In this recipe, ingredients such as turnips, long since thought of as working mans' cuisine are transformed into a rich and delicate palette pleasing bisque.





Ingredients:
2 lbs turnips
2 lbs yams
1 qt of low sodium chicken stock
2 shallots - chopped
3 cloves garlic - rough slice
3 tbs olive oil
2 leeks, cleaned and cut into circles, some for the bisque, some to garnish.
5 bay leaves
1 sprig of tarragon, plus some additional for garnish
1 tbs maple syrup
Salt to taste
1/4 cup yogurt
1/4 lb pancetta


Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Peel and slice yams and turnips.
Toss yams and turnips on 2 tbs of olive oil.
Place on sheet pan and place in oven until they start to brown
In a large stockpot add 1 tbs olive oil, shallots, and garlic over medium high heat, cook until the onions turn translucent.
Add yams, turnips, and chicken stock. Bring to a high simmer.
Add 1/4 cup of leeks, bay leaves, and 1 sprig of tarragon.
Simmer for 30 to 45 minutes, until the middle of your largest root vegetable is tender.
Remove from heat and add the mixture to a Food Processor in increments. It will probably take 3 to 4 rounds to puree all the ingredients.
Add the puree back to the stockpot.
Add maple syrup and salt.
In a frypan, add the pancetta and cook until crispy. Remove from heat and place pancetta on a paper towel to dry.
Add the remaining leeks to the frypan, turn the heat to medium/low and cook for 5 to 10 minutes, until leeks are tender.
Crumble the pancetta.
Finely chop any remaining tarragon
Just prior to serving add the yogurt to the bisque and stir well.

To serve, add the bisque to your bowl, top with leek rings pancetta crumbles, and finely chopped tarragon.

Notes/Variations:
Any starchy vegetable will work well with this recipe, be it potatoes, carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, beets, or parsnips. However, if you use parsnip, be sure to trim out the core of larger roots, as they tend to be overly bitter.

Nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon, in small quantities, can turn this particular dish into a pumpkin pie flavored soup.

In order to be a traditional bisque, it is ideal to use fish, lobster, or clam stock. However, it is not readily available in low sodium varieties. Feel free to substitute ocean based stock if desired.