Work in Progress: Beet Soup

I love, love, love beets. One of my other loves is the soup served at Les Caves in Corvallis, my favorites being their beet soup and anything that includes parsnip. And, the chicken paprikash...and... Ok, let me get back to my soup.

I had some lovely beets and thought I would use Les Caves as inspiration. I made a roasted beet soup with parsnips, onions. garlic, and spiced with garam masala and fresh ginger.

Note: The beets on the left are golden beets, while the other beets are traditional red.

Something isn't quite right in my combination. I added a trio of strong flavors: parsnip, ginger, and garam masala. Three is too many, I need to cut one out; I have a feeling the ginger doesn't belong. I would like to try this soup again with just the parsnip and garam masala, or perhaps a different type of curry that isn't so cardamom-heavy. 

Do you have a favorite beet soup recipe I should try? Or any ideas of how to make this recipe work???

Improvisatory Moment in the Kitchen: Frugal Rice Salad

When it's hot, I don't always feel like cooked food or anything very warm, for that matter. Rice has become one of my favorite foods and a meal with rice almost always sounds like a great idea. The other night, after working outside all day in the park, I wasn't very inspired. Z. was bound and determined to make stir-fry. I looked at the fresh veggies and thought they would also be great raw. I chopped a bunch of vegetables, gave half to Z. to cook, and created a rice salad with the rest. I splashed the rice and veggie mixture with a bit of rice vinegar, olive oil, salt, and red pepper flakes. A great improvisatory moment in the kitchen. Use whatever veggies you have on hand. Since I had it, I used:

• cooked jasmine rice
• red bell pepper
• green bell pepper
• red onion
• purple cabbage
• basil
• cilantro

What vegetables would you use?

Enjoy!

Recipe Testing Failures

Creating new recipes is full of surprises. Sometimes my meals are better than I could have imagined. Such as, Coconut Curry, Pappa al Pomodoro, and Pasta with Béchamel Sauce and Spring Vegetables. Other times, it takes me a couple of tries to get things right. That's why I do not have a new recipe today.

Let's see, I've tried warm pineapple compote several times.

I enjoy pineapple compote over French toast but it's not quite good enough to share on here.

Yesterday, I tried breading zucchini with an old-school recipe and bake them. I first dredged the zucchini in flour, then dipped into an egg wash, then covered the zucchini sticks with fine dried bread crumbs that I had seasoned. It was overkill. And...I overcooked them. I have an idea of how I need to change the recipe to make it work. Zucchini is in abundance and cheap at the farmer's market. I'll be trying this again.

Tabbouleh "Salad"

This is a meal we had recently, created in an improvisatory moment.

Basically, it's tabbouleh deconstructed. Tabbouleh is a salad of bulgur wheat, cucumber, tomato, occasionally onion, with lots of parsley and mint, dressed with olive oil and lemon juice.

 

I took the components of tabbouleh but rather than combining them, I layered the ingredients on a bed of crisp lettuce and topped it with my own light, bright vinaigrette. I have become quite smitten with parsley and mint in my green salads. Then, the still slightly warm bulgur added substance and its own nutty deliciousness. If you would like a complete meal, add a few chickpeas. Enjoy!