Beet soup

Isn't it easy to get bored in the mundane routine of life and also tired of the usual home cooked stuff? How often can you go out to try a new cuisine or do you ever have enough dishes on your cooking list to keep a variety indefinitely going?

I am constantly running out of ideas. Stretching out and experimenting with new things keeps me involved. Cooking something I have never before is fun and exciting. It keeps the kitchen as well as the appetite alive.

Last year, I discovered tarot root. This year, I found beet. Beet is one of those vegetables that has never been a part of our groceries. With it's deep blood red color, this vegetable intrigued me. I've been looking around for how I could play with this vegetable. I have found answers through people/blogs - juice, salad, and soup. Beets are loaded with vitamins A, B1, B2, B6 and C. The greens have a higher content of iron compared to spinach. They are also an excellent source of calcium, magnesium, copper, phosphorus, sodium, and iron.

Having had no past experience with beet, I decided to play it safe. I was warned of the hard texture of this veggie and wasn't so sure how it would taste so I decided to boil the beets and puree them into a soup. I am a soup lover.

Adapted from here.

Ingredients:
1. Chicken or Vegetable broth
2. 1 onion, chopped
3. 3 spoons olive oil
4. Salt
5. Pepper
6. Rice vinegar (substitute with rice wine)
7. 1 mashed potato to counter the bitterness of beet.
8. 2 beets, boiled and chopped
9. Few cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
10. 1 spoon brown sugar (I used jaggery)
11. Green onion for garnishing
12. Sour cream for garnishing
13. Freshly ground black pepper
14. 2 tablespoons tomato paste. This is not necessary but I threw it in just because I love tomatoes!

Instructions:
1. Heat olive oil in a skillet.
2. Saute the onion and garlic in the oil until golden
3. Add the mashed potato, tomato paste, and beet.
4. Cook until tender.
5. Add the broth and bring to a boil. Keep stirring occasionally.
6. Add vinegar, salt, pepper, sugar.
7. Cover and cook on low heat for about 25 minutes. Allow the vegetables to soften.
8. Cool and set aside.
9. In a food processor, blend to a liquid.
10. Heat again
11. Garnish with sour cream and green onion.


Serve hot with garlic bread.

Verdict: Healthy, looks great, but we discovered that beet is not our favorite!