Beetroot Soup & Little Pies

Awhile ago my husband, who doesn’t usually care for soups, fell sick with flu. He lost his ferocious appetite and for days desired only soups. It gave me a rare opportunity to experiment in the kitchen. This beetroot soup is one of the better ones I came up with. And, oh, it goes so well with lovely broccoli and cheese pies.

We eat beetroots often. They are colourful and fun vegetables. I rarely boil them, but usually roast them in the oven or on a frying pan. Roasting condenses the texture and intensifies the sweetness by lending a toffee-like edge. Boiled beetroots taste rounder and milder.

I’ve made the soup twice with the same ingredients but different methods. First time I roasted raw beetroots, potatoes and spices in the oven and added sundried tomatoes to the liquid (whey) with them. The taste was perfectly sweet and sour, and there was something to chew, too.

The second time I fried raw potatoes and spices on a pan, and added sundried tomatoes and boiled beetroots half way through. When the potatoes were nicely browned, I added the liquid. The taste was richer and softer.

Cheese and broccoli filling for pies, samosas, is excellent when you don’t have time or energy to cut vegetables. With a few chops it is done. Whenever I make more than 30 samosas, I prefer this recipe. I’m yet to find someone who doesn’t like the taste. Sometimes Westerners find Indian style samosas with mixed vegetables or dal too exotic. A concept of lightly spiced cheese and broccoli is easier to relate to. It is similar but less tangy than cheese and spinach.

When baking at home, I use only wholegrain flour. It makes samosas a bit rougher. I often add rye flour, too. It gives a pleasant, smoky flavour. For crisp and flaky pastries, nothing beats refined flour and deep frying! It is the way I would serve samosas to special guests. If you come and visit, I will have a subject for another blog-entry! Until then, mixed flour samosas in the oven it is!

Thank you.