The Lowly Turnip

   I am a very lucky person. What I mean by that is that when there are left overs from an event, often the staff and myself can divide it up and take it home. Just recently we had a whole mess of mashed turnips left over so I packaged it into Tupperware and let the staff know to help themselves. I ended up taking home 2 medium sized containers with turnips home.
  I had ideas of a creamy turnip soup when I brought them home but it wasn't until the second container that I was able to make this happen. Container number 1 was just eaten with butter for several meals. I don't follow recipe's very well and tend to cook with a pinch of this and a dab of that so this is my recipe process for you to follow.

SAVORY CREAMED APPLE TURNIP & CHEDDAR SOUP

  I had in mind a creamy turnip and cheese soup. Since these mashed turnips were fairly sweet and not bitter at all, this would be a good flavor to combine with cheese. I was picturing a cheese with a nutty finish and a smooth creamy taste. What I imagine, and what actually happens are not always the same thing. lol. While shopping today I found canned coconut milk for .99 cts per can. So when I got home this is what I did. 

-put the mashed turnips into the soup pot.
-added the can of coconut milk... this didn't thin the turnips out that much as i anticipated.
-added about 1/3 cup whipping cream...still to thick
-added about 1 1/2 cups 2% milk... now it's a bit thin

Maybe I should see if I can find a recipe online? I couldn't find a recipe that paired turnips with cheese but I did notice that apples & onions were used often and I had an apple that needed to be used up so...

-chopped up the apple and 1/2 white onion, sauteed in olive oil.
-While the apples were cooking I decided to add some "base" to increase the mouth feel of the soup and add balance. I squirted liquid chicken oxo (about 1/4 cup) into the soup and stirred it in.
-I found the "fancy" cheese in the freezer. The oka didn't freeze well and smelled off ( I am not a picky person so if I thought it smelled off it definitely is) so unfortunately I had to send it to the great garbage can (I hate wasting).
-Since a hint of cheese was still on my mind I pulled out the Marble cheese from the fridge and shredded it (1 1/2 cups) and added it to the soup with the apples and onions.
-I pulled out the hand blender and went to town, making sure all items were blended.
-I decided to taste test the soup and it was very creamy, sweet and delicious but I decided to add a sprinkle of pepper and salt.
-I let it simmer on a very low heat (2) as the thickness of the soup made it sputter a hot burning magma of liquid and I don't like to get burnt.

While this was cooking, I made some toast with butter and when it was ready I had a delicious hot soup with toast for supper.

Tomorrow I will take some to a good friend I am going to visit.  :)