Pot Luck Soup and Chili lunch at Work.

It's COLD in Atlanta. Is it Indiana cold? Colorado cold? Of course not.

But for Georgia, this is dead of Winter cold. The wind is howling and we will not get above freezing today.

On Monday, after a look at the weather forecast, a lady at our office suggested we throw a soup and chili pot luck lunch to insulate ourselves from today's chill.

We all shared and compared notes. My personal favorite was a delicious and earthy Chicken Tortilla with chunks of Avocado floating in it; followed closely by a very rich Mashed Potato Broccoli Cheese Soup.

For my contribution, I decided on a roasted root vegetable soup. I get the urge to make these about once or twice a year, always in the late Autumn into Winter. I don't have a recipe and it is never the same twice. This time I started by filling a baking sheet with butternut squash, turnips, carrots, leeks, and some garlic. These were liberally drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper then popped into a 450 degree oven for about 40 minutes.

I took them out of the oven and chopped them roughly before adding them into a blender. I added just a little chicken stock (you could use vegetable stock and this dish would be 100% vegan). I kept the blender on and continued to add stock, Little by Little until I got the consistency I wanted.

Next I seasoned the soup with additional salt and pepper. I also added cumin (fresh and toasted, if you please), paprika, ground up red pepper flakes and a few grounds of FRESH ginger from the Microplane.

For the office event I put the mixture into a Crock Pot which I turned on about an hour and a half before lunch. If I was serving this at home, I would either use warmed stock or move the soup from the blender to a sauce pan , stirring until warm enough to serve.

For the presentation, I placed a dollop of plain yogurt (of course you could use sour cream) in the middle and sprinkled on some minced chives and more cracked pepper. The devil in me required the I also add some Sriracha chili sauce. The color brings some good contrast and it adds a great kick.

Some previous variations I've had success with include:

• Using less stock but adding in some cream to give it some richness and smooth it out.
• Adding some bacon fat. It also smooths things out and really punches up the flavor (plus you can garnish with chopped bacon!)
• I nearly always use parsnips, as well, but Kroger really let me down, here.
• Add plantains! This idea was put forward to me, today and sounds great.