A Colorful Soup

Monday night, I was scrambling to find a way to use some remaining items. Did I want to try making veggie pancakes with the squash (from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian)? Then I happened upon a recipe that would use three of the remaining items: beets, scallions, and spinach. And we actually had most of the other ingredients on hand!

Beet Soup with Three Legumes
from my old standby Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison


I made it a little simpler by used canned kidney beans. We were out of chickpeas, so I skipped them, but upped the lentils a bit (wanted to use the last of a bag). We didn't have any parsley, so I skipped it. We also did not have any plain yogurt: also skipped. I did add some Penzey's Mural of Flavor because it seemed like it needed something.

It was my first time working with beets--my only memory of them was eating the jarred pickled kind as a child. So I wasn't sure how this would taste. It was certainly...colorful!

And it tasted good, too! Success! And it held up well for a couple of lunches. Next time we get beets, I'd like to try roasting them, as I've heard it's a good way to bring out their flavor and sweetness. They're on the crops list for this week, so we'll see...