Week Five, Day Two? or Day Three?

A friend said the other day, that her Mum always said, Waste Not Want No, as did my mother, and Jean is of the same Ilk, as she used up her squidgy tomatoes. I am very much of the same mind, it amazes me that in the UK 65% of adults say they throw food away, and to the tune of £9.5 BILLION each year. I grew up in a time of relative austerity, so if it looked good and smelt good, then it was probably still good.

Consequently, I made beetroot and orange soup yesterday, I have made it previously a completely made up recipe, but then aren’t all recipes made up, somewhere, sometime, somehow.

I bought from Marks and Spencer, a while ago a tub of their beetroot and orange soup, to see what it was like and it was OK, hence why I have made it on more than one occasion. Easy to make. Have also made beetroot and horseradish, which is equally lovely, the colour itself is very pleasing and also Beetroot and Horseradish Ice Cream to serve as a starter. Umm, it is really very nice. We first had this in Mexico, in a town called, San Miguel d”Allende. We were there for Easter 5 years ago with # daughter and family and baby Sam. A really lovely town, where we found this restaurant called ( funnily enough ) Restaurant, we liked it so much that we went there twice. And it was here that they served Beetroot and Horseradish Ice cream.

SO Beetroot Soup, and yes the ingredients needed using, the beetroot, been sitting in the refrigerator for a while and the oranges no looking great and the cream was going off as was the yoghurt.

This is all very much hit and miss, I used a

packet of the precooked beetroot, ( 4 small ones),
4 clementines which I boiled/simmered for an hour or so for the them to become soft
500 mls vegetable stock
a clove garlic chopped
a small onion chopped
a smallish lump ginger, peeled and chopped,
500 mls of any of the following or any of them combined to make up the quantity, cream, sour cream, plain unsweetened yoghurt, milk, skimmed, semi skimmed , full fat.
a tablespoon sugar
salt and pepper to taste.

Simply heat the stock add the onion, garlic and ginger and let them cook. Into a blender put the cooked clementines, Skin and all ( hopefully there are no pips) along with the beetroot, Carefully add the stock etc and give it a whizz. Return to saucepan, add the dairy of your choice ( also of course Oat Milk, Soy Milk, Almond Milk, all will work), Mix well and honestly that is that.