Tofu for Two

We needed a quick and effortless supper on Sunday, since I had a mean flu and Heikki was hurrying to meet some friends. I decided to resort to my trusted veggie soup recipe, but instead of carrots I used lovely beets and the cauliflower that had been sitting in our fridge for a day or two. This was a success in all its simplicity – beets and cauliflower practically melted into one wonderful velvety soup, balanced by a little bite from lime and fresh red chili. And I could eat this soup for the color alone!

Since the sunflower that had decorated our living room for a few weeks had just started to wilt, I used a few of its petals to garnish our soup. They were actually quite tasty as well! I’m also thinking that coconut milk instead of the cashew nuts would probably be a nice tweak.

Here’s what I threw in the pot (enough for 3-4 as a main):

• 3 large beets
• 1 medium cauliflower
• 2 red onions, roughly chopped
• 1 red chili
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 7 and 1/2 dl water
• 1 dl cashew nuts
• juice of 1 lime
• zest of 1/2 lime
• (pinch of cayenne)

I heated up the oil in the cooking pot and fried the onions until they’d browned. Meanwhile, I prepped the veggies: peeled and thinly sliced the beets, chopped the cauliflower, and de-seeded and sliced the chili.

When the onions were soft and browned, I added the chili to the pot, fried it for a bit, and added the beets, the cauliflower and the garlic. I fried the vegetables for a few more minutes and then added the water, the cashews, and the salt in the pot. Now, I cooked the soup until the beets were tender, for 20 minutes approximately.

I puréed the soup with our immersion blender until it was completely smooth, and stirred in the lime juice and the zest, a little cayenne pepper for extra heat, and checked the salt.