Beetroot Soup

There is something really beautiful about beetroots. Their colour is out of this world...and they also have the ability to make a right mess of the kitchen. Hubby went a bit mad when buying beets for the beetroot brownies so I had quite a few left over. I wanted to make a hot dish with only a few ingredients. After a bit of searching online I settled on a beetroot soup.

Hubby is obsessed with beetroot. As a child he was known to eat a whole jar of picked beetroot, which in turn caused concern to his poor mum when he started peeing purple...anyway that's another story. Today he reveled in his beetroot themed lunch of beetroot soup and beetroot brownies. Bless him. I promise this will be the last of the beetroot recipes for a while!

Beetroot Soup
Serves 3-4

knob of butter
1 onion, diced
500g beetroots, boiled and diced (approx 4 medium sized beets)
300ml vegetable stock
1 tbsp cider vinegar
1/2 tsp celery salt
150g pot of plain yogurt
black pepper

1)In a deep pan cook the onions in the butter until softened. Stir in the diced beetroot.

2) Pour in the stock, cider vinegar and celery salt. Bring to the boil. Take off the heat, blitz into a smooth consistency then stir in yogurt and a twist of pepper. Eat hot or cold

Beautiful Beetroot Brownies

This week is National Baking Week and to celebrate I decided to make brownies, very special brownies with a intriguing ingredient. My love of baking is well documented. I enjoy it because it is stress-relieving, creative, rewarding, fun and I believe a home-baked good is always better than shop bought.

Hugh is officially a god. If he can turn a humble beetroot into a glorious, moist, rich chocolate brownie he's a god in my eyes. Hey you know what I'm like, I'm always drawn to pink food like a magpie to anything shiny, and if it is pink and glittery...well I'm hooked. The taste was nothing like I expected. You can certainly taste the beetroot, but rather than it being an earthy taste its paring with dark chocolate turns it into a deep sweet taste, not unlike cherries. This has helped conquer my belief of vegetables not belonging in cakes.

This recipe was featured on River Cottage Autumn last week and has caused a bit of a stir on foodie forums. One thing I did find was that I had to bake it for quite a bit longer than the original recipe, but this is probably because I used a different sized pan.

Beetroot Brownies
makes 16 squares
From River Cottage Autumn

250g 70% dark chocolate
250g unsalted butter
250g caster sugar
3 eggs
150g self-raising flour
250g boiled beetroot, grated (boil your own, or use ready boiled-as long as it's not pickled!)

1) Preheat oven to 180oc. Line an 8x8 In a bain-marie (or using the oven method Hugh uses in the above link) gently melt together the chocolate and butter. Allow to cool for a few minutes.

2)Whisk together the sugar and butter then beat in the chocolate/butter mix.

3)Fold in the flour then beetroot. Pour into the tin and bake for 20-30 or until a skewer come out just about clean. Allow to cool in tin before slicing as it will continue to cook until cooled.

Creamy Beetroot Risotto

We've been growing a special variety of beetroot in the garden. Rather than the beets growing round like a traditional beet they grow down in a tubular shape which is perfect for growing in containers. They have been ready for a few weeks and I've just been trying to come up with ideas for them, instead of just pickling them all.

The weather is still appalling and we were in severe need of something to brighten us up so I decided to make a beetroot risotto. It ended up as a rather shocking pink and Hubby looked rather shocked when I served it up! As for the taste you could really taste the sweet, earthyness of the beetroot.

Creamy Beetroot Risotto
Serves 2

3-4 beetroots
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion finely sliced
1 clove of garlic, sliced
200g risotto rice
50ml red wine
400ml hot chicken stock
2 tbsp creme fraiche
1 tbsp butter
seasoning

1) Roast beetroots (with the skins still on) in a foil parcel at 200oc for an hour. Allow to cool, peel off the skin and dice.

2) Gently fry onion and garlic in the olive oil in a deep saucepan for 3 min. Add rice and stir for a further 2-3 until the rice is translucent.

3) Pour in the wine and turn up the heat until the wine is absorbed. Gradually add stock 1 ladle at a time, each time waiting for the stock to be absorbed before adding more.

4) Stir in beetroot and leave for 4 min. Take off the heat then add creme fraiche, butter and seasoning. Leave for 2-3 min before serving.