This little humble bowl of joy will warm you and your dinner guests up. I say that because I recommend that you serve this to some visitors, it is so easy and looks spectacular, hence lending itself well to all Winter dinner party menus. It is basically a riff on potato and leek soup so it's fairly minimal in flavours but with the toppings has some great textures and pops of freshness from the herbs and salty, chewy parmesan.

Ingredients:

• 1 large Chinese turnip, peeled
• 2-3 large potatoes, peeled
• 1/2 a celeriac root, peeled
• 1/2 fennel bulb with leaves intact, bulb shredded with mandolin
• 1-2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 bay leaf
• Maldon sea salt
• Unsweetend almond milk
• Filtered water, just enough to cover vegetables
• Extra Virgin Olive oil

Toppings:

• 1 small head of romanesco cauliflower, cut into florets
• Vegan parmesan* (see below)
• Fennel leaves
• Tarragon leaves
• Tarragon oil*

Instructions:

1. Chop all vegetables into cubes for quick cooking, put in a soup pot with bay leaf and a big glug of olive oil, tossing the cubes around and coating them with the oil, but do not brown them. Add a  teaspoon of salt, then just barely cover with water and bring to a gentle boil, then simmer until vegetables are soft enough to blend, then remove bay leaf.
2. Using an immersion blender, pureee the soup, adding a splash of almond milk as you go to make the soup smooth and creamy.
3. Set aside, cover with lid and start steaming the romanesco florets. Once tender enough that a fork goes in, rinse them under cold water to stop the heat taking them too far.

4. Pour soup into bowls, dot the centre with romanesco florets, tarragon and fennel leaves, sprinkle a little parmesan and drizzle over tarragon oil, simply delicious!

*To make tarragon oil, chop a handful of tarragon up roughly and put in a sealable glass jar with plenty of olive oil and a pinch of sea salt, leave to infuse for a few hours or overnight if you can.

*Vegan Parmesan

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup raw cashews (or use a mix of sunflower seeds/hemp seeds/sesame seeds as a good, cheaper and nut free blend with a high protein value.)
• 3 Tbsp nutritional yeast
• 3/4 tsp Maldon sea salt
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder

Instructions

Add all ingredients to a food processor and mix/pulse until fine. Store in a glass jar in the refrigerator to keep fresh. Lasts for several weeks. Use on everything, seriously.