Preparing to make beetroot soup
Last week I found myself in WH Smith's, on Leeds Station waiting for a train. I flicked through some lifestyle magazines in the minutes I had to spare and came across some beautiful charcoal sketches of vegetables by an artist called Natasha Clutterbuck. Monochromes of achingly gorgeous bunched carrots and beetroots languishing in sheds waiting for their time to be cooked.
On my return home I sketched some bunched beetroot bought earlier from Booths which sells golden, candy (with the colored rings) and regular beetroot for most of the year.
My sketches are rather quick and impulsive
in comparison to Natasha's
and I like to use some colour but I learned a lot about sketching vegetables from her. I did not realise how hairy beetroot can be in its nether regions. Henry Moore is quoted as saying 'more men should draw their wives. In that way they would get to know them better'. Perhaps as a cook learning to draw fruit and vegetables helps me to get to know them better too.
Sketch of beetroot
Today I cooked the beetroot and photographed it as I went along, starting with the recipe illustration I designed and printed out. Its the simplest recipe and tastes good with walnut bread.
To make beetroot soup....
Recipe for beetroot soup
Beetroot has always fascinated me. It even has a neat way of lowering blood pressure. S
cientists
have found this is because of its high nitrate content. When the juice is drunk about a quarter of the nitrate is converted to nitrite by bacteria found on the on the surface of the tongue. The nitrite is then swallowed and gets into the circulation via the stomach. Once in the blood stream it is converted to a nitric oxide a potent vasodilator (makes blood vessels expand) which lowers blood pressure. How amazing is that?
The walnut loaf in the background of the soup photo is from Emmanuel Hadjiandreou's book "How to Make Bread" published by Ryland, Peters & Small. Its made with nutty flavoured Malthouse flour and is an easy recipe to follow and get right.
At every stage beetroot is a model food. It loves the camera. In its raw state it looks wholesome and earthy. Cooked, the colours and the concentric ring patterns of the candy beet are magnificent. I even loved taking a quick photograph as I drained the regular deep red beet with its carmine juice dripping in the vivid green bowl and white sink and felt I should be doing a quick tie-die experiment at the same time.
My props were gathered from around and about the house and garden - junk shop spoons, dried garlic and garlic flowers grown in my ornamental vegetable garden last year, an old rotting wooden bench I spotted on a run and dragged home from the woods.
Here is the recipe, photos and sketch and I hope you enjoy eating the soup and looking at the illustrations as much as I enjoyed photographing, drawing and cooking with this beautiful, humble vegetable.
Best wishes
Joan
Beetroot soup
Emmanuel Hadjiandreous's walnut bread recipe
Draining beetroot - a colour workshop?
Cooked beetroot
Candy beetroot