This is an easy, warming soup which uses up a bunch of lonely beetroot from the bottom drawer of the frdge. It was inspired by a recipe in the new HFW book "River Cottage Veg Everyday", but I pretty much completely changed the character of it based on what I had available.
Roast your beetroots with a few garlic cloves in the oven at 180 for about 45 mins to an hour, coated in oil and alongside some thyme leaves, a bay leaf, salt, pepper and a slosh of water. When ready, skin them and chop into smallish pieces.
Fry up an onion in a saucepan until soft, then add the beetroot and a pint (500ml) of stock. Bring up to a boil and then keep at a simmer on a low heat for ten minutes or so.
Season well with salt and pepper, then with a small dash of worcestershire sauce *, a squirt of lemon juice and a generous drizzle of balsamic vinegar. If the brew still tastes "unfinished", try a small blob of redcurrant jelly - it worked for me.
Shove the lot into a blender and process until smooth. Pour into bowls and finish with a swirl of cream and some fresh chopped parsley.
* btw, in case you didn't know, you can now get vegetarian worcestershire sauce if you are so inclined. I found this one on the internet, but am sure I also saw one in Waitrose the other day.
This is a pretty classic combo, it's slightly less striking in appearance than usual because I've used chioggia beetroot rather than the normal purple kind, but chioggia is lovely and sweet so it tasted great.
You just need one nice fillet of monkfish to feed two people, plus 2 or 3 beetroots and one pot of soft goat's cheese.
Any leaves will do for the salad base, I had baby gem.
First, boil the beetroot whole for 20 minutes or so, then let it sit on the side to cool slightly before you rub the skin off and cut it into small wedges. Arrange the wedges in a small baking tray and mix with a large drizzle of balsamic vinegar, some olive oil, salt and lots of pepper. Pop into the oven at 180 for a further 15 to 20 minutes.
While the beetroot are in the oven, boil some new potatoes in salted water until cooked through and take the fish fillet out of the fridge to warm up slightly. Arrange the salad leaves on your plates.
Season the fish with salt and pepper. Heat up a frying pan with a little olive oil and butter and, when very hot, place the fish in the pan. Don't move it, just let it cook for a few minutes, until the sides start to turn slightly opaque. Flip the fillet over and cook for another one or two minutes, then take off the heat and allow to rest for a second while you plate up the rest.
Lay the slices of beetroot over the lettuce, then arrange peices of buttered potato around the top. Then top with chunks of the monkfish and teaspoons of the goat's cheese. Sprinkle a few extra drops of balsamic vinegar over the top and give the whole thing a nice grinding of pepper.
