Monday, January 21, 2013

Rainbow Soups

In order to get DD to try something new I have to insist and offer a small bribe - cake for dessert usually. I've been pushing the soup issue for a while now. Let's face it, a bowl of soup in the winter is the best way to go on every level. It's warming, filling, cheap, and easy to make a big batch for a few days and some for freezing.

DD, however, was not interested. Although she loves the mandlech (soup-nuts) on their own or with grated cheese (why not?) the soup always met with a defiant, "DON'T WANT!"

Then yesterday I had one portion of orange soup left over. (Squash, sweet potato, carrot, and a dash of orange juice added to sauteed onions and garlic, salt and pepper - all liquidized into anonymity of course.) I laid down the law - no mandels on their own, only in soup. Luckily I had cake to offer for dessert.

DD was doubtful. Then I was inspired. Remembering the enormous raw beetroot I'd popped into my shopping trolley earlier, with no idea what I was going to do with it, I told her, "if you eat orange soup today, I'll make purple soup tomorrow."

Her eyes lit up. I continued. "And then we can have red soup (tomato obviously), green soup (pea), and even white soup (cauliflower and potato)!  No darling, I can't make blue soup."

So tonight we have purple soup. It's delicious, even if I say so myself. I didn't expect it to be this good. here's what I did:

Sautee an onion and a few cloves of garlic in oil, add an enormous beetroot cut into cubes, more than cover it with water and bring to the boil.

Meanwhile add a cup of tomato ketchup (or puree and sugar), a dash of soy sauce, some onion soup mix, salt, pepper and.... because beetroot has a sharp taste.... two tablespoons of honey. Reader, I kid you not. It works.

Simmer for up to an hour (beetroot is tough) and zzhuzzh (I think that's Yiddish for wizz) with a hand blender. It comes out a velvety purple. Here is mine with some mandlech. (It looks more purple in real life).


I'm linking this to Mrs M's Meal Planning Monday (go take a look to see what people have planned for the week). Even though it's not a week of meals, it is a plan to see us through the winter and add a major element to each meal.

I don't know why naming soups by colour is so much more fun and less threatening to a 4yo than naming the vegetables in it but it is. Whatever it takes eh?

21 comments:

  1. That's fab. I once made purple stew by using red cabbage, the dumplings went sort of Blue. It didn't go down well.

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    1. LOL - I've had blue experiences with red cabbage. Beetroot doesn't go blue though.

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  2. The only way I could get my kids to eat tomato soup was by telling them it was invisible bob the builder soup which worked! I dread to think they'd even look at anything else!

    BNM

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    1. Invisible Thomas the Tank Engine Soup is made with beetroot and honey - see the recipe above :)

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  3. That looks delicious, have revisited beetroot lately, might make this soup. Soup is hard work here too for TC, will keep plugging away!

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    1. I can't recommend the soup enough. Good luck with TC and his soup.

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  4. invest in a couple of little bottles of food colourant, 2 or 3 drops in white soup and.....hey presto blue/green/pink/purple soups all become a reality - tasteless and great fun too.
    Tried & tested
    x

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    1. Good idea but I'm aiming for real food here - it's a whole philosophy of food that looks like the food it is rather than doctored in some way.

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  5. I make sunshine soup - it's mostly cauliflower with turmeric.

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  6. I make sunshine soup - it's mostly cauliflower with turmeric.

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    1. Is it yellow? I could add it to my list. She asked for pink today which i could do with the white soup and a bit of beetroot.

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  7. My two have never been that keen on soup but I love it as does the Mr. A great idea to have funky coloured ones to encourage her to eat x

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  8. I think we all love rainbows and you are certainly creating a rainbow of soups. You can actually make a two tone soup, by pouring 2 thick contrastingly colored soups intro a bowl at the same time from 2 jugs. looks very pretty. Gilly

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    1. That was all the rage here a few years ago. We're starting out simple :)

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  9. Brilliant! Isn't it funny how their minds work at that age! My son's favourite dinner is viking boats (baked potatos stuffed with ham and cheese, and a little sail made out of pepper!), but if I were to give him a baked potato, forget it! :D

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  10. That looks lovely. My family would never eat it but I would! Thanks for linking up.

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  11. The truth is that she didn't like the purple soup (shame because I loved it). So far she likes the orange soup land the red soup.

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