Emma's Famous Beet Borscht Recipe

There are a few dishes that I grew up eating that are my soul food. High on my list is borscht, a beet soup from Eastern Europe. I like it hot, I like it cold. I like it thin, I like it thick. I like it with beef, I like it vegetarian. And I particularly like it with a dollop of sour cream or Greek yogurt. The beets somehow transform mundane carrots, onions, and potatoes into something sweet, juicy and scrumptious.  I used to make borscht from a recipe from The Victory Garden Cookbook . It's a great recipe from a really great cookbook, but it is incredibly involved and time-consuming. To the rescue comes my friend, Emma. Emma is a colleague of mine so I get to see her fairly frequently at events around town. She is in some ways a bit like me  —  she is curious, has a great appetite, is interested in art and strongly opinionated. We don’t always agree about everything but I am guaranteed a good conversation with Emma and I truly enjoy her company. Recently ......

Continue reading

Beet Almond Dip Recipe

I'm in the midst of creating 101 recipes for a new cookbook  (it was announced March 3rd). As a result, I haven't been cooking anything other than recipes for the book. But Passover is coming up and I've been asked to bring appetizers to the seder dinner. Appetizers for Passover are a bit tricky. If the meal is meat, which is typical, then you can't use any dairy. In addition you can't use legumes, seeds and most grains. So that means things like hummus and baba ghahoush are out so are cheeses and dairy based dips. What's left? Vegetables and nuts. Also eggs and meat (chopped liver is typical). Recently I received some samples of Melissa's Organic Baby Beets , peeled and steamed and ready to eat. These cooked beets are great for salads but I decided to try use them to make a dip. Instead of tahini, I used blanched almonds. Beets and almonds are really nice together. But they are both sweet, so I added ginger and lemon to cut the sweetness. It also needs......

Continue reading

Creamy Beet Soup Recipe

Beets are like paint bombs. Deliciously sweet, red, flavored paint bombs, so intensely colored they stain your fingers, bleed into the sink, tint the cutting board, you name it. When cooked, they aren't so much red as deep magenta. When mixed with sour cream they turn paler shades of magenta to pink. The color, like the flavor is either something you love or you hate. Beets get a bad rap from the low carb police, but they are actually quite healthy, filled with antioxidants, low in calories, they have significant amounts of fiber, folate, manganese and potassium. I know some people find beets too "earthy" tasting, but both Lee and I love 'em. Especially in beet soup. There are an unbelievable number of recipes for beet soup. It's commonly served all over Eastern Europe. There are versions that are cold, hot, vegetarian, with meat, chunky, smooth, with tons of vegetables, with no other vegetables. Lately I've been experimenting with "less is more......

Continue reading

Roasted Beet Risotto:Recipe

I love watching cooking shows on TV. Seeing someone cook is just a great way to learn. But even better is watching firsthand. I was very lucky to live with a family in Florence and learn to cook many classic Italian dishes by watching every move in the kitchen. I don't think I really had proper risotto until I lived in Italy. In Italy we ate it all the time as a first course. Since I've been back I rarely order it in restaurants because I'd rather make it at home. Usually when I make it I serve it as a main dish with a salad. I've hesitated to give a recipe for risotto because you use all of your senses to cook it to perfection and there is only so much I can explain. Beets are a vegetable I like cold better than hot, except that I adore beet soup and I think beets make one of the best risotto dishes ever. It might seem like an odd combination--beets and rice, but trust me, it's wonderful. If you've never had perfectly cooked risotto try to find a great pla......

Continue reading