borscht

Beets! Delightful earthy treasures to some and awful canned memories to others. Many of us grow up with soggy purple, somewhat rubbery, overly salty rings in jars and thus develop a serious anti-fondness for this vegetable. Those of us who get over this early beet trauma are left with a variety of culinary delights to play with. In northern California, beets are in season all year around and we have a variety of styles and colors to choose from. All beets are different, yet the classic purple beet is the most fun, as everything becomes a gorgeous deep purple that it touches.
One of the classic beet dishes is borscht, an Eastern European soup that is served cold in summer and hot in winter.  There are dozens of ways to make a great borscht and here i one.

Start with roasting some vegetables:
3 large beets, cut into small chunks
1 potato cut into small chunks
1 onion, quartered
8 cloves garlic
1 tsp sea salt
1 tbsp safflower oil

coat the vegetables in salt and oil and roast in a covered roasting pan at 425 for 30 minutes.

Place 1/4 of these roasted vegetables into a blender with 2 cups cold water, 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar  and 1/4 cup fresh dill and puree.
Add this puree to the rest of the vegetables and add 2 more cups cold water.

To serve hot, simply heat up but do not boil. To serve cold, refrigerate a few hours.

Season to taste with more salt and more vinegar if needed  garnish with fresh parsley and chopped green onions