Beet soup

Beet soup is another opportunity to take advantage of the farmer's markets while they last. I am fond of beets, but they're never at the top of my go-to impulse buys when I go to the grocery store. They don't look terribly appealing in grocery stores, especially when they're piled haphazardly in some random loose beets bin. But I go to the market and week after week see piles of beets in different colors and wildly different sizes--from golf balls to softballs--with their nicely contrasting greens still attached and I always wonder why I don't cook beets more often. A couple weeks ago I saw someone buying beets at the market and she asked the farmer to cut off the greens. I had an impulse to either ask the customer why on earth they were wasting such nice and tasty greens that they'd paid for or to ask the farmer if I could have them for free, you know, since after all they were already paid for...me being me, I of course did neither.

I went with an impulse and picked some beets up at the market this week. It's been a while since I tackled beets, and when I start dealing with them I think one reason is is that they're so dauntingly red and seem like they could stain anything. I cut into them and suddenly my hands are red; I rinse off my hands and the sink has red water in it. But this soup is worth it. It calls for you to make your own stock, which adds some needed complexity to the soup. There is plenty of clean beet flavor as well, but the sweetness and literal earthy flavor of the beets is nicely paired with the vegetable stock, the acid of lemon juice, and the, well, "green" taste of the beet greens. A dab of sour cream on top provides both a nice color contrast and a small bit of creaminess that supports the beets well.

A word of warning to those who haven't had much eating experience with beets: The redness of beets' juice is not tempered by cooking or, it seems, anything else. If you eat a lot of beets in one go, the beet colors will go right through you. Do not be alarmed or surprised. Beets are wacky that way.