Another Beet Soup (with Cauliflower and Dill!)
it's never too hot for soup
things you’ll need: stock, onion, cauliflower, beets, dill, olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper (optional dairy garnishes: crème fraîche, sour cream, yogurt, or some such).
a friend of mine sent me this recipe, cut from Martha Stewart Living (February 2013), because all my friends know that I love cauliflower, beets, and also soup, and beet soup in particular.
If you live in or near Rochester, NY (or just like pictures of plants and herbs), please follow her on Instagram and keep your eyes peeled around valentine’s day and the winter holidays for her candies and sweets.
incidentally gluten-free, vegetarian (with veg stock), and vegan.
Chapter 223
A funny thing happens when you eat hot food in the summer, your body cools itself down. So even though you’re in the first hostile throes of summer, when the sun is actually trying to kill us all, you have a pot of stock simmering on the stove. The struggle bus is running express, all day, and everything surrounding that simmering pot is chaos and dysregulation, but the stock is doing great and the kitchen smells delicious. At least there is that.
There are times when you treat yourself with prime ingredients, splurging at the cheese counter or procuring mushrooms that cost as much as sushi-grade fish. Then there are days like today when you turn to your stalwarts and comfort objects, relying on what you know to steer you out of the miserable thicket.
Break down a head of cauliflower into small florets of similar size to ensure even cooking. Trim and cube the stalks because you don’t like to waste any of your precious brassicas. Peel and cube 3 beets (about the same size cubes as your cauliflower, if not a little smaller). Chop an onion.
In a dutch oven or the well-loved pot that you always use for soup, heat up some oil and sauté the onions with a little salt until translucent. Stir in your cauliflower and beet cubes along with a little more salt. Push it all around for a minute until everything is a bit pink, then add 6 cups of your strained stock (enough to cover). Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer, cooking until the beets and cauliflower are fork-tender.
Remove the pot from the heat and add a few tablespoons of chopped dill.
Using your blender, purée the soup. Forget to work in batches and let the blender’s hot, and very impolite, belch be a reminder that hot foods seem to expand in a blender. Clean up and try again. Maybe use an immersion blender instead to blend until smooth. Add a little more stock or water to loosen as necessary, add the juice from one small lemon, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Squint at the watery tomato color of it, a little disappointed. You wanted something dramatic, something unapologetic and maybe a little alarming. Let the soup cool and then sit in the fridge overnight. As the soup sits, the color will shift to the beet blood pink that better matches your mood and the stains on your fingers.
This is a lesson in resting, the alchemy of not doing, and the stillness required for the best spell-making. The next day, something akin to calm begins to assert itself. Let it in as you gently bring the soup back up to a simmer. Top with more fresh dill, stir in a little sour or heavy cream, yogurt, or don’t.
What you need doesn’t always make sense. Sometimes you need to stop in order to get anything done. Sometimes the solution means that nothing gets solved. When the weather breaks, open the windows, drink the soup cold from a mug, and go back to doing.
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🤩🥰🤗
YUM