Ok well first of all, I realize my description of this blog is “Adventures of a music, food and photography lover” yet I have not mentioned music ONCE! So without further ado, this week’s musical obsession is electro-swing. I was listening to a playlist on 8 Tracks called Electro Swing #2 and it has pretty much been on a loop ever since (including while I was cooking this, I recommend you do the same).

Moving on, I’m so happy my beets are growing in at a good size (most of them, some of them are too small because I got too excited planting seeds and smooshed a bunch together). I had a few particularly good looking ones that I wanted to put to good use, and I was also craving soup because today was just downright cold, so the first thought that came into my head was borscht!

The majority of the time when I cook I like the have a picture of what the final product is supposed to look like to see if I have severely messed it up or not. In this case, I found a recipe that had no photo but it looked basic and tasty so I got to it. I altered my recipe a bit, but for the most part I’m following Cooking Light‘s Beet Soup with Potatoes and Beet Greens.

Ingredient List:

• 2 large beets, peeled and finely chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 1 1/2 cups red potatoes, finely chopped
• 3 tbs. olive oil
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup celery, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup carrots, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 2 tbs. tomato paste
• 1 1/3 cup vegetable broth
• 2 cups canned diced tomato, undrained
• 1 tsp. white vinegar
• 3 cups beet greens, coarsely chopped
• 1 tbs. brown sugar
• 2 bay leaves (optional)
• Black pepper to taste

Method:

Heat olive oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat, adding carrots, celery, onion and garlic. Cook stirring occasionally for 5 minutes, or until carrots begin to feel tender.

Stir in beets, potato, tomato paste, water, broth, canned tomatoes and vinegar. Depending on your personal tastes, add in bay leaves and black pepper at this point. The soup should be looking very chunky and red. Bring to a boil and reduce heat; cover and simmer for 35-40 minutes, or until beets can be easily poked with a fork.

Add in beet leaves and brown sugar, and let simmer (still covered) for another 5 minutes. Once done, blend 2 cups of the soup until smooth and add back in with the rest to give it a creamier texture. In my case, I used a hand-mixer so I just guessing how much to blend.

And you’re done! That wasn’t SO bad, minus to potential beet stains on your clothes. One of the great things about borscht is you can garnish it so many different ways; you can stir in a tablespoon of sour cream, you can put some sliced hard-boiled egg in, you can drizzle balsamic vinegar and feta. All of those are good, trust me.