This has nothing to do with Norway but does have to do with my own heritage. Last summer we took our "European Pilgrimage" through Sweden, Poland, Germany and Denmark. We stopped in Poland for a few days staying at an amazing manor house in Nawino that we found in airbnb.com - a site where you rent a room in someone's home while on vacation. It takes a lot of trust but we certainly lucked out and the rate we were charged was almost too reasonable! The owner of the house also threw in his "personal chef" for a minimal fee per day.
Well, his "personal chef" turned out to be his elderly Polish mother but she certainly lived up to the title of chef! She made this soup for us on the first night we were there and we ate way more than we should have! Because we loved it so much she made it for us again the next night.
When I asked her son about the soup he said that it was made from very young beet roots - no more than three weeks old as well as the leaves of the plant and some other ingredients. I had always meant to look up a recipe for it but just kept putting it off.
This weekend I became very ill with acute bronchitis, a viral infection in my stomach and a skin infection in the hives (caused by stress) on my face. Whew! For someone with no health insurance that really wiped me out! On Sunday I had a strange craving for botwina soup. I hadn't had it for over a year and yet suddenly I really wanted it. I hadn't been able to keep food in me for 24 hours so I stopped at the store and bought the ingredients I needed. It came to less than $10!
It was all my stomach could "stomach" for the past couple days! I don't know what it is that makes my belly okay with it but I like to think my Polish ancestors had something to do with my craving. You never know! ;)
So, here we go! BOTWINA SOUP ALL AROUND!
(Disclaimer: I had never made this before nor had I cooked with beets so I made a lot of this up! Fortunately it turned out so yummy! Please excuse the quality of the pictures. I had to use only my cell phone.)
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| Some of the ingredients for Botwina soup! |
I used it only as a suggestion because there weren't any measurements (which is how I like to cook!) and I made some tweaks based on what I remembered from Nawino. If you can find young beet roots, awesome. If not, just get the mature roots from the grocery. It's what I did and it worked great.
Ingredients I used: (~ means approximately...I tend to not measure stuff)
2 of the smallest beets I could find (Save the leaves!!)
~3 cloves of garlic
2 large red potatoes
~1 handful fresh parsley
~2 Tbsp white vinegar
~1/2 tsp thyme
~1/2 tsp dill
1 egg
2 boxes of Chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste
1. Peel and finely dice two small beets.
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| Don't throw away the leaves!! |
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| Your fingers WILL turn red but it washes off easily. HINT: Wear an apron! |
2. Let's chiffonade! Chiffonade is a fancy way of saying "cut the leaves into fine strips." I learned how to do this by watching cooking shows on tv. First, stack a few leaves on top of each other then roll them into a tube.
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| Am I successfully hiding my poorly manicured nails? |
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| Chiffonade? Oui oui! |
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| I know, horrible picture... |
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| Your potatoes WILL become pink and look like chunks of beet. |
6. Add thyme and dill, salt and pepper.
7. Smash 1-3 cloves of garlic (don't dice, just release the oils). Add them to the pot.
8. Now for the egg. This isn't in the recipe that I linked to but I remember it was in the botwina soup we had in Poland. I have NEVER done this before so I was just making it up as I go and it worked! I scrambled the egg in a bowl and as I poured it into the hot soup I stirred the soup kinda fast and the egg cooked like egg drop soup. (Another one I need to try now!)
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| Doesn't that look appetizing? I promise it's delicious! |
10. Ladle soup in to a bowl and sprinkle with some fresh parsley.
11. ENJOY!!
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| DELICIOUS! |
Feel free to let me know if you try the soup! It's AMAZING!
