Beet soup!

Beets are like nature's delicious purple candy. And this soup, from Celia Brooks Brown's wonderful Vegetarian Party Food, is one of my favorites; I found myself wanting to type it up today, twice, but I realized that I'd made so many tweaks to Americanize it that I might as well rewrite it from scratch. I also roast, instead of boil, the beets, because roasted beets are wonderful; sipping this soup is like drinking the undiluted ichor of Zeus.

I particularly like this recipe because it's elegant enough for entertaining, but ridiculously simple to make. You can keep it warm in a slow cooker with fairly good results while you make the rest of your holiday dishes. If making for company, I recommend shredding the beets with a food processor before the immersion blending step to get a completely smooth texture; otherwise, you can save time by chopping the beets into large pieces.

Coconut-Beet Soup

Ingredients

1 lb fresh beets

3 cups vegetable stock

1 can coconut milk

4 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped

1 t. ground cumin

zest of one lemon, grated

juice from 1/2 lemon

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375 F; wrap beets in foil, put on a pan, and roast them for about 75 minutes. You should be able to stick a fork into the middle of the largest beet easily; if not, keep roasting.

2. Towards the end of the beet roasting time, heat vegetable stock to boiling in a medium stockpot. Add coconut milk and stir together.

2. When the beets are cool enough to handle, rub the skins under cold water to peel (this should be easy to do with just your hands; wear gloves if you don't want to look like you've been slaughtering innocents). Coarsely chop or grate beets, then throw them into the stockpot.

3. Add garlic, cumin, and lemon zest to the beet mixture. Using an immersion blender, puree until smooth. Simmer for 10 minutes.

4. Taste to adjust seasonings (you'll probably need at least a teaspoon of salt) and add lemon juice right before serving. Serve with toasted pita wedges.