Roasted Root Vegetable Soup and Wine Pairing #winePW

Roasted Root Vegetable Soup features roasted carrots, parsnips and garlic, pureed with potatoes and onions, for a hearty and comforting soup. We explore what makes good wine pairings for soup, and share the pairing we liked best for today’s recipe. Read on for details about the recipe and wine pairings tips for soup; or click here to jump down to the recipe.

We are talking about comfort food and wine for today’s Wine Pairing Weekend event hosted by Cindy at Grape Experiences.

There are a lot of great options for comfort food. Kale Pesto Lasagna and this Tuscan Beef Stew are two of my favorite comfort food recipes…but I already shared those, so I needed to do something new for today’s #winePW event.

Soup is certainly another great option when the cold winds are blowing and you are looking for something to warm you up. So today I am sharing a recipe for Roasted Root Vegetable Soup. 

Making this soup

This recipe gets started by roasting garlic, carrots and parsnips in the oven. As these root veggies roast, potatoes simmer with onions and broth.

When the roasted root veggies and the potatoes are nice and soft, the roasted veggies from the oven get added to the soup pot. Here’s where an immersion blender comes in handy, to puree the soup to a nice creamy consistency. This is a great approach for creating a creamy texture without adding any dairy.

If you don’t have an immersion blender, here’s my  Amazon affiliate link you can use to get one. But you can still make this soup if you don’t have the immersion blender yet. Just carefully transfer the soup in batches to a blender or food processor to puree the roasted root vegetable soup into that cream consistency.

One other cooking note. I give the option of vegetable or chicken broth here; I used the latter as I had some on hand. But certainly use the vegetable broth and you then have a vegetarian recipe.

Pass some Parmesan cheese at the table to top off the soup and add some additional depth of flavor. And of course, cheese is a good partner with wine!

Pairing Wine with Soup

Comfort foods like a roast, lasagna or a thick beef stew are fairly easy to match up with wine. But pairing wine with soup can be a little tricky. You are matching a liquid in your bowl with the liquid in your glass, so the weight and balance of both the wine and soup are factors as well as the flavor profiles of both.

Let’s look at three of my favorite soup and wine pairings and see what they can tell us about pairing wine with soup. First, I like to pair Portuguese Kale Soup with a red wine blend from Portugal, featuring native Portuguese grapes. This taps the old “What grows together goes together” principle that underlies great regional food and wine pairings. You also have a lighter bodied red that doesn’t overpower the soup, yet it has a spice element that matches up nicely with the sausage that is a key ingredient in Portuguese Kale Soup.

Another favorite soup recipe is our Butternut Squash Soup with Sage and Sautéed Mushrooms. Pinot Noir is the natural choice for this elegant soup; anything bigger in the red category would overwhelm it. And the earthiness of the mushrooms always match up nicely with Pinot Noir. So here we have a match that works in terms of weight, and we have used the mushrooms as a bridge that work with our wine selection.

Finally, a shoutout for the pairing we came up with for our carrot ginger soup recipe. We paired the soup with a Sipp Mack Gewürztraminer from the Alsace region of France. Just a bit of sweetness in the wine, just enough to offset the ginger and spice in the soup. So the sweetness of the wine creates a counterpoint to the spice of the soup; this kind of contrast can make a wine and soup pairing work. It’s a light style white wine too, so it matches the weight of the soup nicely. OK, on to today’s pairing…

Roasted Root Vegetable Soup and Wine Pairing

OK, so what wine to pair with our roasted root vegetable soup? I thought perhaps the thickness of the soup and the roasted flavors could work with a Merlot.  I noted on the wine and herb pairing list that basil and cinnamon were among the herbs listed as being good match for the merlot, so I included those herbs in our roasted root vegetable soup recipe.

I picked up a bottle of 2013 Powers Merlot ($14, 13.5% ABV) from Columbia Valley in Washington to try with the soup. I get cherry blossom on the nose. Good mouthfeel, currant and plum fruit. Notes of anise with bark undertone. A pleasant enough wine for sipping.

How did the merlot pair with the roasted root vegetable soup? The weight of the wine was OK for the soup, but the flavors were on the bold side for the soup. Rather than harmonizing on the palate, the wine and soup seemed to be competing for attention. Not what we want in a wine pairing!

We had leftover roasted root vegetable soup for dinner the next night. As you might have guessed, the soup tasted even better the next day as the flavors melded together. And we had a chance for another go at the wine pairing. This time, I went with a Pinot Noir, a wine that has worked for me with other soups. Ellipsis Pinot Noir from Russian River Valley was the one we tried.

The Pinot turned out to be a much better partner for the soup. The wine was lighter in body than the soup, and had a more delicate flavor profile than the Merlot. These factors helped to put the soup in the forefront with the wine as a supporting partner. So if you try the roasted root vegetable soup at home, I’d definitely say open a Pinot or other lighter style red wine to pair with the soup. Or do your own experimenting and be sure to report the results!

Recipe card

Roasted Root Vegetable Soup

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Roasted root vegetables simmered and pureed for a creamy, satisfying soup.

• Author: Cooking Chat
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 50 mins
• Total Time: 1 hour
• Yield: 6 servings 1x
• Category: Soup
• Method: stove top
• Cuisine: American

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 3 parsnips, peeled and chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 head garlic
• 3 tbsp olive oil, divided
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 medium potatoes (about 3 cups), peeled and chopped
• 4 cups vegetable or chicken broth (vegetable to keep recipe vegetarian)
• 2 cups water
• 1 Bay leaf
• ½ tsp dried basil
• ½ tsp dried sage
• ¼ tsp cinnamon
• Dash soy sauce
• White pepper & salt to taste
• Parmesan cheese for topping

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Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Prepare the garlic for roasting: chop about ½ inch off the root end to expose the garlic cloves. Place the garlic root side up on a sheet of aluminum foil, and sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the olive oil over the garlic. Wrap the garlic tightly in the foil, and place it in the oven. It will take 35 to 45 minutes to get good and soft. Set aside to cool when done roasting. When the garlic has cooled, squeeze the good stuff out of the skin and it is ready to use.
3. Spread the chopped carrots and parsnips in a roasting pan. Spread 1 tablespoon of the olive oil over the vegetables, and add salt and pepper to taste. Toss the veggies to combine with the olive oil.
4. Place the carrots and parsnip pan in the oven, and roast the root vegetables for 25 minutes. Remove the pan to check for vegetables that are done. Most likely some of the parsnips will be done first. They are done when browned and easily pierced with a fork.
5. Remove the vegetables that are done, and set aside. Return the rest of the vegetables to roast for another 10 minutes. Remove the roasting pan, and set the vegetables aside to cool.
6. As the root vegetables are roasting, heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil in a large pan on medium heat. Add the onion, and cook for about 5 minutes until it begins to soften.
7. Add the chopped potato the the pan, stir to combine with the onions. Add the broth and water, and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer, and add the bay leaf.
8. Simmer the potatoes until they are soft, about 25 minutes.
9. After the potatoes are soft, add the roasted carrots, parsnips and garlic to the pot. Remove the bay leaf. Let it cook for a few minutes to let the flavors combine, then remove from heat.
10. Use an immersion blender to puree the soup. Return the soup to medium heat, and stir in the basil, sage, cinnamon and soy sauce. Let it cook for about 5 more minutes to let the flavors combine.
11. Ladle the soup into bowls, pass cheese at the table for topping, and enjoy!

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Comfort Food Wine Pairings from Wine Pairing Weekend

• Cindy of Grape Experiences shared Wine and Comfort Food: Alder Fels Chardonnay and My (New)Favorite Grilled Cheese Sandwich
• Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla posted her Kick Ass Mac’N’ Cheese and Kung Fu Girl Columbia Valley Riesling
• Lori of Dracaena Wines wrote about Comfort Food with a Side of Wine
• Jill of l’Occasion is Cookingat Home: Affordable Bordeaux & Homemade Pasta
• Jade of Tasting Pour contributed her recipe for Croque Madame and Treveri Brut Prestige #winePW
• Nancy and Peter of Pull That Cork tempted us
  with Brandade de Morue and a Lovely Lirac
• Wendy from A Day in the Life of the Farm made us feel warm and cozy with Mushroom Stroganoff with MarkhamSauvignon Blanc
• David of Cooking Chat explained his Roasted Root Vegetable Soup and Wine Pairing (you are here)
• Michelle of Rockin Red Blog is Finding Comfort in Food and Wine
• Lauren of The Swirling Dervish made us want to visit warmer weather for Winter Comfort Food forThose 80 Degree Days
• Gwendolyn of Wine Predator is thrilled to
  give us her ideas for Valentine’s Day: Share a Special Red Wine PairedWith Comfort Foods with Your Sweetheart
• Sue of Palatable Pastime shared her notes for Rigatoni with Bolognese Sauce

On the second Saturday of every month, the Wine Pairing Weekend group explores a topic related to wine and food pairing. The #winePW event includes blog posts and a live Twitter chat at 11 a.m. Eastern Time. Tune in using the #winePW tag. Check out past and upcoming Wine Pairing Weekend events here. March’s topic is “Open That Bottle Night Pairings” hosted by us here at Cooking Chat.