Beet this!

My friend wrote about her son’s beet soup, and the image stuck with me, even though I haven’t eaten beets too often.  Her photo of the finished soup was pretty amazing.  Because I didn’t have enough butternut squash to make butternut curry soup, I decided to improvise.  Ed signed us up for a veggie food coop thing last year, and we get a random assortment of fruits and vegetables every couple of weeks.  Lately, lots of potatoes, beets and kale. He likes to tell everyone that when he first started getting the big bag of random vegetables, I would peer into the bag skeptically, retrieve some odd looking, odd shaped vegetable and ask, “What am I supposed to do with this? I don’t even know what it is!”  We gave much of it away to Hanna and our grad school babysitter who was vegetarian.

Then, all of a sudden, I started cooking.  And now when Ed shows up with a big bag of random vegetables, I am actually excited and interested.  I peer into the bag with genuine delight, wondering what new recipe I’ll find or invent.  I’ve been cooking up all kinds of things that I never would have imagined myself eating.

Back to the beet/butternut squash/apple/curry soup. With my half butternut squash left from last weekend’s feast of butternut squash risotto,  coq au vin, and sautéed kale, I decided I needed more substance. After rummaging around I came up with a couple of apples and two beets.  I peeled, chopped, and added them to the pot with lots of curry power, onions, olive oil, cumin, and mustard seed.  I added chicken stock and let it simmer for about an hour, then poured it into the food processor and chango, presto, had a deep red savory soup.  I added a dollop of sour cream and some cilantro as garnish in the bowl.

Gorilla Girl tasted it because it was pink (after the sour cream was added), but did a Tom Hanks in Big move.  (Remember when he tried the caviar and then spit it out, moments later, wiping the inside of  his mouth with a napkin?)  Even though it was pink, the soup tasted too much like beets for Gorilla Girl.  She’s been asking for candy ever since.

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