Really delicious roots.

I've been making an effort to buy most of our veggies from a farm down the road. On Friday I go and buy a handful of goods and then figure out the rest of the week how to use them. This has been interesting because it's winter. In Germany. Luckily they have avocados from France :) I also scored a huge head of cauliflower, which I normally won't touch, but it made a really good curry with saffron basmati rice.

Mostly we're learning about root vegetables, because that's what's left after the cold and snow come and the sun leaves for these many months.

Last week we had celery root and potato au gratin. This week it's beet, carrot and parsnip soup! I've never had celery root, parsnips or fresh beets (only canned and pickled) until now.


Pre-peeled roots...


Peeling the beets was by far my most favorite thing I've done all week, haha! It's been awhile since I could dig in and get my hands dirty doing anything (usually it's painting, but beets will do!). Did you know that carrots come in almost every color? I want to grow purple ones!

Tricia and Chris are being great sports with this food experimenting!

Beet and parsnip soup:

2 tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
2 parsnips
2 carrots
4 beets
5 c. water w/veggie bullion OR 5 c. veggie broth
salt, pepper
juice of 1/2 a lemon

Peel and chop the parsnips, carrots and beets, set aside.
In a large sauce pan heat the oil, add the garlic and onions and cook until soft.
Add the rest of the veggies and cook for 5 minutes stirring to keep from burning.
Add the water/broth, cover and simmer until all veggies are soft, about 30-45 minutes.

Spoon portions of the whole pot into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Return to pot and add salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the lemon juice and serve :)

I made baked macaroni and cheese to go with this... Yuuuummmm....