The Endive Chronicles

When I bought the beets for this dish, I actually had no intention of making soup at all. Phil had requested my roasted beet salad for dinner and I guess I went a tad overboard at the produce stand because I ended up bringing home two bunches. I just couldn’t resist those little, orange, light filled beacons calling to me from atop a mountain of brown and seemingly colorless root vegetables.

During the summer, I try to do things like roasting in the morning and usually  roast things that I can use cold throughout the week so I don’t have to heat up the kitchen more than is necessary. I decided to add the excess beets to a pan of Yukon Gold potatoes I was roasting for another dish. When they were done, I had four perfectly roasted beets; but what was I going to do with them? Why, make soup of course.

While I was at the market I had also picked up a lovely bunch of local spring onions that were sitting in my fridge waiting for a purpose. What better purpose than as a layer of subtle flavor for this soup. So I sweat the onions in a bit of olive oil adding a touch of salt and de-glazed the pan with the last bit of a bottle of sauvignon blanc I had leftover from our bivalve bonanza* the night before. I blended the onions together with the cold beets, some stock, fleur de sel, cracked pepper and an ingredient I have been using a lot of lately, dill.

I learned something important on my first taste: you really can have too many beets. It was a problem that was easily remedied with one of those Yukon Golds I had roasted for another purpose, still in the fridge waiting for a turn a bat. I peeled and sliced the potato and added it to the blender and lo, there it was; the flavor I was after.

The result was a radiant, eye catching soup that is quite lovely finished with a good dollop of Greek yogurt. The flavor is sweet, refreshing and herbal with a bit of tang from the yogurt. This dish would pair nicely with seafood.

Chilled Yellow Beet Soup

4 Medium Yellow beets, roasted whole, cooled, peeled and sliced
1 Yukon gold potato, roasted whole, cooled, peeled and sliced
1-2 TBS olive oil
2 Spring onions, sliced
1/4 cup white wine
2 cups** low sodium chicken or veggie stock
Fleur de sel or kosher salt, to taste
1/2 tsp freshly cracked pepper
3 tsp Dill
Greek yogurt to garnish

Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium heat and saute the spring onions. When they begin to take on a little color de-glaze the pan with the white wine, remove from heat and allow to cool

Combine the sliced beets, potato, onions and 1/2 the cold stock together in the blender and pulse. After the beets and potatoes have been chopped up a bit, add the rest of the stock, salt, pepper and dill and pulse until smooth. Chill until serving time.

Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with Greek yogurt and a sprig of dill.

*We ate clams steamed in sauvignon blanc . . . a lot of them.

**I miade this soup a bit thick, but if you want something a little thinner add extra stock.

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