Parsnip, Pear and Pistachio Soup

Parsnip, Pear and Pistachio Soup is so easy and delicious that it’ll become a part of your regular rotation.

All you have to do is simmer the ingredients and blend!

Both unique and comforting, it’s the perfect hug in a bowl during the cold winter months.

And it happens to be Paleo, gluten-free, dairy-free, Whole30-compliant and can be made vegan with vegetable broth.

This post was originally posted on Dec. 9, 2018 but I updated it on Jan. 29, 2020.

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Parsnips, pears and pistachios, oh my!

I swear I didn’t make this soup just because I like alliteration (look, I like alliteration a lot).

I found this recipe in local culinary hero Stephanie Izard’s Girl in the Kitchen. She won Top Chef and the food at her restaurant Girl and the Goal is fantastic (roasted pig face! The best cauliflower I’ve ever had! Cocktails for days!), as it is at her other restaurants.

Plus, the restaurants are very gluten-free friendly, either noting GF on the main menu or having separate GF menus entirely, plus well-informed staffs.

So when Izard released her first cookbook back in 2011, I was optimistically cautious.

I say cautious because books by restaurant chefs tend to get pretty…chef-y.

The recipes can contain so many ingredients, so many advanced techniques and so many steps that you’re halfway into making burgers and you realize you need a laser ice cream maker and organic sea urchin juice, and that’s just for the marinade.

But Girl in the Kitchen has a TON of great, accessible recipes. And the soups, dear reader. Oh, the soups. So many, and they’re all unique enough to be interesting but not too demanding or crazy.

How to make this parsnip and pear soup

I love parsnip recipes. I love pear recipes (like in a butternut squash pear soup). I love pistachios in…everything.

So when I saw all 3 in a soup, I knew I had to try it.

I changed around the proportions, ingredients and process to accommodate my laziness, and every time I make this – which is many – it surprises me how good it is.

Oh, and it makes for a lovely breakfast soup with a protein like meatballs on the side (or even in the soup).

And the process is so simple!

• Peel and chop the parsnips and pears if you wish (I usually peel the parsnips but not the pears). Peel and chop the onion.
• Add them to a large soup pot with the pistachios, seasonings and broth (store-bought or use your own homemade broth). You can sauté the onion in 1 tablespoon of oil over medium heat for 10 minutes first but I find it unnecessary.
• Simmer for 20 minutes.
• Blend!

To make it even easier, I highly recommend blending it right in the pot with a stick blender like this one. It’s so much easier than transferring the soup to a blender, plus good stick blenders are pretty affordable and don’t take up a lot of room.

I like this bone broth.

To make it vegan, use a vegetable broth that doesn’t have too many spices to interfere with the flavor, like this one.

Done: Parsnip, Pear and Pistachio Soup

Yep, that’s it. You end up with a thick, creamy soup that has the earthy sweetness of parsnips and pears and that unmistakable nuttiness of the pistachios. Plus there’s a bit of cayenne just to ground it all in extra savoriness.

You can even serve this as shooters in shot glasses for parties! Top with some crushed pistachios for an Instagram-worthy garnish.

Simply said, this soup is sensational.

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