Valentines week is here. People a going crazy buying chocolates, roses and whatever this Hallmark society marketing tell us to buy. (Nothing beats walking thru Walmart and seeing someone carrying a human size teddy bear around with a humongous pink bow on it, I hope who ever gets it has room for it).
Valentines day should remind us that we should appreciate the special people in our lives but instead it tells guys that she wants jewelry, chocolate and roses and tells women that they should expect jewelry, chocolate and roses.
So to throw you a bit off, Im giving you a quick Valentines meal. Dont be fooled by the pretty innocent look of this soup. It will warm more than your Valentines heart. Beets are a fairly blank canvas flavorwise except their earthy note and are great combined with bold spices. In this case horseradish. If I make the soup at home I throw one or two dried chili peppers in the blender because I like beets spicy.
The foccacia hearts to go with the soup are a seperate recipe and will add about 15 minutes to your total cooking time. You can find the recipe for those cuties in the main blog.
Another note, when peeling the beets and working with them in general, make sure you have paper towels on hand or some sort of old dish cloth that you don’t mind getting purple stains on it. Cooking with beets is messy, the stains are hard to get out and it will stain your fingers too, so keep washing your hands between steps unless of course you think purple stained hands are total sexy, kind of like Henna art.
If you look at the Mise en place for the soup you can see that the ingredients are very few and pretty simple. Besides blanching and peeling the Beets you can throw the soup together in less than twenty minutes. (Pretty slick for a Valentines meal, to give you more time for..uhm..you know)
For the soup you will need:
- One large beet, blanched, peeled and cubed
- 1 can of rosemary lemon sipping broth from Swanson
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 heaping TBS horseradish
- 1/3tsp ground rosemary
- salt and pepper to taste
1.) In a medium sauce pan bring the beet cubes and chicken broth to a boil. Reduce heat, close the lid and simmer until beets are completly soft (about 10 minutes).
2.) Gently transfer the hot soup mixture into a blender (The liquid will be very hot so careful not to reck your plans for Valentines day by sitting in the ER with third degree burns)
3.) Add the horseradish and heavy cream. Place lid on blender. Since you are pureeing hot liquid the steam needs to vent. If your blender has a center hole in the lid, open it and place a towel over it. If not, don’t place the lid on it tight and place a towel over it. Puree until smooth.
4.) Carefully take the lid off, salt and season to taste. Ladle in prepared bowls and the soup is ready to serve.
For the heart design in the soup, add a big drop of heavy creme and drag a toothpick thru it. Garnish with whatever you have at home.
