Borscht, Baby

I like making borscht, a beet soup originally from Russia. I use a vegetarian version, and make substitutions, based on what I have. The original recipe is from a book I picked up in a used bookstore at Harvard, Nikki and David Goldbeck's American Wholefoods Cuisine. I added a bit of fat (original recipe has no animal products at all) by sauteing a diced onion in butter, then adding 3 cups water and one 8-ounce can tomato sauce (instead of tomato paste) after the onion was soft. I peeled and shredded together 3 carrots, 2 beets (from out back!), and one medium-large potato. I tried to shred in the beet stems to substitute for celery, but they were too fibrous and made a mess in the top of the Cuisinart. A fine dice would have been better.I used the beet greens, chopped, instead of cabbage. Added one bay leaf and some black pepper for spice, and served with sour cream. Cooked for a while as I picked, cleaned (though I still found a tiny, live spider in my salad!) and prepared the lettuce and nasturtiums for the evening salad (with almonds). You can eat this.

The only disturbing thing is the blood-red color of the soup, though it tastes fine. And we ate in the comfort of home, barefoot and happy.