Christmas Soup!

Here it is!  Phase three of Getting to Know Beetroot:   
Beetroot and Parsnip Soup!
 (which will forever now be known as 'Christmas Soup')

I was going to post this last week but, when I saw how gorgeously Red, White and Festive it was, I had to save this for Day One of my Christmas Countdown.  First of December - Yay!

Back to the soup: I returned to the Good Food Channel (where I found the chocolate beetroot cake recipe) and tweaked their soup recipe to the amount of beetroot which I'd harvested. (I didn't want to pull up too much beetroot in case I didn't like the soup!)  As I only had a third of the beetroot required, the soup leans more towards the parsnip and carrot flavours but retains the beetroot colour which, I think, makes it a soup which children will love.   And this soup, for me, ticks many boxes:  looks, taste,  nutrition, ease of cooking. I never thought I'd hear myself saying that about beetroot!

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Here's my version:

Parsnip and Beetroot Soup

 (heh, heh - note the subtle change of name)

For 4 good sized bowls, you will need:

150g Onion; 250g Carrots; 300g Parsnip (approx 2 medium); 700ml stock; 200g Cooked Beetroot; 1/2 tsp Garam Masala; Olive Oil; seasoning to taste; Dill & Yogurt for garnish.

1. Cook beetroot and leave to cool before peeling and discarding stems and roots. Chop into smaller chunks.  Peel and chunk carrots and parsnips.  Slice onions.
   
2. Heat oil in heavy based pan.  Add onions, carrots and parsnip. Stir to coat. Put on lid and sweat for 5 minutes until starting to soften.
3. Add Garam Masala.  Stir in and cook for 2 minutes more.
4. Add stock and beetroot.  Bring to boil then simmer for 20 minutes, lid off.
5. When cool, blend soup until smooth.  Season with salt and pepper as needed.
   
6. Serve with a swirl of yoghurt (drop in over the back of a spoon, as with Irish Coffee) and a sprinkling of finely chopped dill fronds.  (To make swirls, use a fine knife/ chopstick/ skewer. Dip into yogurt and pull the yogurt gently into the soup in small circles. Repeat.)
   

 And here it is in pictures!

Onion, Parsnip, Carrots about to be 'sweated'.

Stock and Beetroot added. Mmm, getting redder!

Simmering …

Cooled and ready to blend …

First tasting?  Wow!  Yum.

(You should know that I love parsnip and carrots.)

(And that I added a little more stock after this pic was taken, and adjusted the ingredients list accordingly.)

Notebook:

1. The original recipe calls for Ground Coriander which I didn't have.  I used Garam Masala, which has about 50% ground coriander in it, and it was delicious. (It harmonises well with the parsnips.)
   
2. My first bowl didn't have Dill in it and was very nice.  I bought Dill at the weekend for the soup and it added a whole new taste dimension, as did the yogurt - and both are quite important for the Christmas look!
3. Did you know that Dill is traditionally the Ancient Sign of Fortune? Another reason to include it, I think!  (It is a herb described by Waitrose as "feathery fronds of fragrant flavour". Love that.)
   
4. I used homemade chicken stock but if you use vegetable stock (or a veg stock cube), this recipe would be completely vegetarian.
   

Nutrition facts* that make this a very healthy soup:
Beetroot: A wonder food! A good source of soluble fibre, packed with Vitamins A, C and B6, and folic acid.  It is both an appetite stimulant, easily digested and contains an abundance of calcium, potassium, choline, organic sodium and natural sugars.  Helpful for anaemia, anxiety, fatigue, skin problems, liver problems, circulatory weakness, menstrual and menopausal problems, high and low blood pressure.

Parsnips: Another good source of fibre and packed with vitamins and minerals. The organic chlorine (not the sort used in swimming pools!) is a natural mineral and as such is used as a body cleanser. Parsnips are rich in sulphur and silicon which is very helpful for skin and hair health.  Parsnip juice is also very beneficial for anyone suffering from lung conditions, but small to medium sized parsnips are best for this.

Onion:  Rich in vitamin C, copper and iron, as well as sulphur, calcium and phosphorus.  The juice was used by the Romans for treating skin disease and healing wounds but is equally good for the immune system today!

* I firmly believe that being aware of what you eat is better than spending hours at the doctor's surgery.  I occasionally juice fruits and veg and the above facts are taken from a book called "Getting the Best out of your Juicer" by William H Lee.  Published in USA, it's not widely available in UK and  may be out of print.  I think I bought mine in a health shop about ten years ago.

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I think that I've now probably had my fair share of the community beetroot, although there's still a few little ones left. Having discovered this soup, I shall finish my beetroot quest on a note of success and resolve to grow it again next year (sow under cover from March). So, no more beetroot recipes from me for now, especially as I hope to turn my attention towards Garden Inspired crafts in the Countdown to Christmas.

Caro x
PS. Sorry this is such a long post - I had a lot to say about this exciting soup!

And another thing - Leaf Love …

I  like walking on my own and I look all around, but rarely down.  Quite serendipitously (love that word) as I photographed a little woody glade on my Heath walk, I looked down at the carpet of leaves and saw this:

Honestly, I swear, I have not altered this photo! (Honest.)  The leaf was just there at my feet and perfectly summed up Thanksgiving Day.  Serendipitous indeed.  Had to share…

Caro x

A Walk on the Wild-ish Side …

It seems that many people in blogland were giving a nod to the American tradition of Thanksgiving last Thursday.  I spent a part of my childhood living in the USA (Florida) so it's a day that still gives me pause for thought.

I mentioned at the time that I was off for a walk in appreciation of a beautiful sunny afternoon and winter colour on Hampstead Heath.  So an hour and a half of fresh crisp air later and what have we got?  Yup. Plenty of colour still out there!

Blue sky, Yellow leaves, Purple Hebe, White Fatsia, Green Moss, Red berries:

 

And on the way home, growing in someone's garden, a new plant to me:

 

which, thanks to the December issue of 'Gardens Illustrated', I now know is Callicarpa bodinieri.

(My photo doesn't do this plant justice; the berries are a real pop of purple and the leaves a deep, glossy green.  A real treat for colour-starved eyes!)

So what am I thankful for?  Winter sunshine, gardeners who make the world a more beautiful place, the opportunity to grow veg and flowers outside my own door, good friends to share this with, living so close to one of the great London green spaces and - of course - all of my family and friends.

Hope you also had the space and time to reflect.

Caro x

Chopping and tweaking …

Gardening is a matter of your enthusiasm holding up until your back gets used to it.  ~Author Unknown

Well, I've made a start on clearing the ivy in the long bed - five bags waiting to go into the compost maker at our local recycling centre.  (Although it doesn't look much sitting there, I'd like to point out - ahem - that those white bags are quite large - really huge, in fact.)  I paced out the task (to ease my aching back from all the bending over) and I reckon another six sessions should do it.  (On the other hand, we'd get it all done in one session if the Commuuuuuuuunity gets behind it.  Perhaps an appropriately applied welly boot would do the trick… )

On another note, anyone who's looked at these pages before might notice that I've finally put aside the time to figure out how to install a subscription feed.  Yup.  Now you can have my latest mutterings delivered to your mailbox!  (But only if you click the link in the sidebar on the left.)

Now, as I've been sitting at my computer for too long and have got a bit chilled, I'm off to look for rainbows of colour via a nice long Thanksgiving walk on Hampstead Heath, and to warm up and enjoy this beautiful, but cold, London day. 

Phase 3 of Beetroot Mania will be revealed tomorrow.  See you soon friends! 

It's a piece of cake, really …

After quite a storm last night, the day has dawned clear and bright in London.  The Gods have been kind to us as today is earmarked for more Ivy Clearing - this time, hopefully, with a small team working together.  So before I go outside to get on with the hacking and chopping, here's phase two of Getting to Know Beetroot.

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Next up in my bid to like beetroot:  Chocolate and Beetroot Cake.

Your tea, Milady, is served. 

I'm told that this is what is described in Australia as "bonzer".   So I scoured the web and found several versions and chose this one by Simon Rimmer.  Verdict: Actually, not bad.  Moist, chocolatey and not too sweet but with beetroot undertones (unsurprisingly) and incredibly easy to make. (I think I must have quite a sweet tooth, though, because somehow the chocolate hit wasn't as intense as the look of the cake promised.  Does that make sense?  Next time I'd add more chocolate.)

Edited!  Have just taken a piece round to L for a taste test.  Verdict:  "Mmm.  Mmm.  That's really nice.  No, I like that.  I think that's just right.  Is the recipe on the blog?  I'm going to make that.  What size tin did you use?"  And, actually, I enjoyed my taster piece as well.  As did my teenage son (who had two pieces yesterday.)  Because it's moist with good 'keeping' qualities, L thought it nicer than straightforward Chocolate Sponge Cake.  Wouldn't it be nice if you could all come round for a tasting! Caro @ YRG x

The original recipe came from the Good Food Channel and made an enormous cake (23cm tin) so I made a two-thirds mix (17cm tin), using 2 eggs rather than 3.  My quantities below, or go here for the original recipe.

(1)  Heat oven to 190C.

(2)  Cook and peel the beetroot. (You can have fun with this part: it can look as though you're the victim of a nasty Kitchen Accident as the juice drips!)

(3) 116g plain flour; 50g cocoa; 6g baking powder; 150g caster sugar.
      Sift all these ingredients together into a bowl.

(4)  2 large eggs; 133ml corn oil; 150g cooked beetroot 
      Place all the above in blender and whizz up together.

Woohoo!  Now that's what I call pink!

Fold (4) above into (3) above.

This looks disgusting, but don't be put off.

Put into a lined 17 or 18 cm cake tin.  (I like to keep it simple by using these from Lakeland in UK.)

Bake 30 minutes but be prepared to give it an extra 5 if the skewer doesn't come out clean.

See how I cut the liner to fit the tin better?

Notebook:

1. I couldn't get Corn Oil so used Grapeseed.  Seemed to work okay.  
2. Recipe asked for raw beetroot which I thought would be a bit crunchy in the cake so I pre-cooked by boiling, then cooled and chucked in the blender.  My logic was that the recipe wanted un-dressed beetroot rather than salad beetroot soaked with vinegar.
3. The cake was nicest with a blob of squirty cream, which was the genius idea of my son.  (It's also nice with homemade chocolate custard but if I gave you the recipe for that, I'd be getting right off the subject of gardening, garden produce and your 5-A-Day veg!) 
   

See, it's quite nice in close up too!

Trying to like Beetroot …

A couple of week's ago I suffered a touch of the "blogger's black hole" (my brain got distracted by half term holidays and wouldn't produce anything worth reporting) and because of that I don't think that I mentioned our beetroot had finally matured into an edible state.  There it is, in the photo above.  Quite respectable, don't you think?

Before the weekend, I retrieved some of our beetroot from the Veg Patch.  I'm trying to overcome my dislike of beetroot by trying the home-grown variety in a number of guises.  (After all that thinning and watering and nurturing, I have to at least try.)

First up:  Cooked Beetroot.

Wash and chop leaves off to 3 cm, leave the roots intact (stops the colour bleeding out), then put in a pan of cold water and bring to the boil.

Simmer 30 to 40 minutes. Pull one out to test - they're done when they peel easily.

Drain and cool.  (Oops, 'scuse fingers!)

Peel and slice.

So, cooked by boiling, then cooled, peeled and tasted (no dressing).
Verdict: Not bad, but not hankering for seconds; quite nice eaten warm.  Fabulous looking.

P.S.  I also tried them par-boiled and then oven-roasted with parsnips, butternut squash, sweet potato and Vivaldi potatoes.  Verdict: other veg - yummy;  beetroot - yeeuch!

Looking around …

Recently I've been giving some thought to how helpful it would be to have a little Bay tree in our (next year's, expanded) herb patch and then I heard that there already was one growing in the York Rise gardens. (What bliss!) This is one of the greatest joys of the gardens here - the legacy of 70 years of tenant gardeners pottering around, popping plants in here and there as the fancy took them, so you never know what you might come across these days when you really look around.

So, when Tuesday dawned crisp, bright and sunny (albeit very blustery - tralala, as if I'd care!), this was my chance for a spot of looking around.  I'd actually gone out to make a start on clearing the ivy from the area we want to plant our fruit trees in, and there were plenty of surprises to be found along that route as well. I had such a lovely day, I thought I'd share.  (It's not all about growing veg, y'know!)

Walking towards the Veg Patch, autumn leaves growing across the door of the old Gardeners' Shed catch my eye …

Venturing into the front gardens, I discover the not-so-little Bay tree …

Nearby, a very useful Rosemary bush (Have you tried Potato and Rosemary Pizza?) …

And this rose - tipping slightly into decay, but so so beautiful …

Back to the Task of the Day and before I start clearing I find a Strange Creature (who will become the Guardian of the Veg Patch) …

Some letter tiles from a child's game, discarded (with the hope of never being found again?) but revealed when colder months steal the vegetation away - and rearranged with the message for my day …

And, finally, a start was made on clearing the Ivy.  Three bags later and I realise I have a long, long way to go …

Until next time, my friends, enjoy the fruits of your labours!