Prime Number Soup

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2 is the first true prime number. It also symbolizes a couple, a pair of lovers or close friends (Rcp# 60).

Ingredients for ‘Prime Number Soup’

  • ½ liter homemade broth (see [Vegetable Broth] or [AnyBroth])
  • 2 small or one 1 medium parsley root
  • 200 g white/yellow or orange root vegetables such as parsnips, yellow or orange carrots, and yellow or orange beets. If you do not have enough parsnips and beets, you can substitute half the amount with regular orange carrots. Do not use red carrots and beets here, they will change the taste and appearance of the dish.
  • 2-3 tablespoons grated fennel bulb
  • 2 tablespoons apple pulp (high quality applesauce without additives)
  • 2 tablespoons mild olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons canola oil
  • 1 ½ – 2 tablespoons dried and salted tomatoes (chopped into small pieces)
  • 2 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley (plain “Italian” parsley works best here)
  • 200g volanti pasta (looks like flat funnels, conchiglie pasta will work too, you know: the shell forms)
  • 100g herbed tofu (we use spinach tofu here), diced
  • 1 large ginger “toe”, peeled and finely grated
  • ½ tablespoon almond butter (stir well before removing from jar)
  • ½ teaspoon bear’s garlic in oil (or ½ teaspoon freshly chopped chives and a knife tip of freshly crushed garlic, not too much)
  • 1 teaspoon vinegar (dark balsamic vinegar)
  • 1 knife tip of smoked sea salt
  • Freshly ground pepper and nutmeg
  • 600ml drinking water (room temperature or slightly warm)
  • you will also need: a soup pot that holds at least 3 liters

Preparations for ‘Prime Number Soup’

  1. Wash and clean the parsley root and the other root vegetables (if you have to peel them because they have been stored, save the clean peel for preparing broth). Thinly slice the roots. Heat the canola oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Saute the root slices until they are tender but still have a little bite.
  2. Reduce heat to minimum and add grated fennel and ginger, 250 ml drinking water, smoked sea salt, freshly ground pepper and nutmeg. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a low simmer for 5-8 minutes.
  3. Add broth, apple pulp, dried tomatoes, vinegar and another 350 ml drinking water. Bring to a boil and add the pasta. Cook pasta according to directions, but turn off heat one minute earlier than directions on package and remove from heat.
  4. Add olive oil, almond butter (stir well before removing from jar), bear’s garlic in oil and chopped parsley. Stir well (almond butter must be dissolved), then add tofu cubes.
  5. Leave to stand with a colander or lid on for 8-10 minutes before serving (put a wooden spoon on the rim to leave an opening, do not close the lid or the soup will turn sour!!!).

Not surprisingly, this makes an opulent lunch ‘pour deux’.

Side Notes:

  • What’s with the mathematician mumbo jumbo? Well, there are a few people in that exclusive circle of twos in my life for whom numbers play an important role. Some of them even squeeze them down further into ones and zeros. Although technically 1 is only a prime by definition and 0 is not even a number, just a mathematical concept. So I was told. But 2 is the most romantic and friendly number I can think of. And you know I love soups. So this is a love poem written in vegetables, broth and noodles. Of course there had to be pasta in it 😉

Please note: For all my recipes (text) on this blog (By MagS, Parsley-Lane Blog) I grant a CC license under the terms of BY-NC-SA 4.0 (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike). For further explanations, please see the Legal Notice or visit creativecommons.org.