Potato, Beet, Mushroom Soup

Soup can be smooth and creamy or chunky. This soup brings elements that are rustic and presents them in a smooth elegant manner.

What You’ll Need:
• 1 bunch Beets
• 4 Potatoes
• 1 lb mushrooms - whatever you can get that is fresh
• 4 cups veggie stock (make your own, cmon - there’s so many tutorials online, and its so worth it!)
• Some GREAT looking parsley leaves
• Salt and Pepper
• Olive Oil - Extra Virgin
• Thyme
• Rosemary
• Butter

Gear:
• Fine mesh Sieve
• Immersion Blender
• Aluminum Foil
• Big Pot
• Another Big Pot
• Sheet Pan
• Medium Skillet
• Plate
• Paper Towels

Prep Ahead of Time:
Each of the main ingredients requires separate preparation before they’re brought together into a great soup.

Put the potatoes into a big pot and cover with about an inch of cold water. Put about 1/4 cup of kosher salt into the water - you want it to taste like the sea - and mix it up so that the salt is absorbed. Put the pot onto the stove over med-high heat, and let them boil for about 30 minutes - until you can easily slip a pairing knife into each one and have it slip off easily. Drain the potatoes, and let them cool in the strainer, NOT IN THE WATER. When they are cool enough to touch again, take them and peel them - you can probably just use a towel but may need a knife - and break them into medium sized pieces into the second pot.

Preheat the over to 450 degrees. Take the beets and remove the greens (these are great for other purposes!). rub the outsides with salt and pepper, and wrap each beet in aluminum foil. When the oven is hot, place the wrapped beets on the sheet pan and into the over. Let them roast for 20-30 minutes, until you can slip a knife into each beet and remove it easily. Take the beets out and let them cool in the foil. Once cool, peel them, using the foil to protect your hands - the skin should simply pull off. Cut the beets into medium sizes pieces into the bowl with the potatoes.

Stem and clean the mushrooms. There is much debate over whether mushrooms should be washed. Jacques Pepin says, “its not a matter of washing them, it’s a matter of WHEN you wash them - always right before you use them”, so I wash them. At this point you can cut them up if you’d like - but it depends on what kind of mushrooms you have - you just want even sized pieces. Heat the Skillet over medium heat, and add about a teaspoon of oil. Once it’s hot, add a SMALL AMOUNT OF THE MUSHROOMS - so that you DO NOT crowd the pan and reduce the heat in the pan too much. You want to brown the mushrooms, and with too many in the pan, the heat will go down and the water released will steam the mushrooms - not ideal. GIve the mushrooms some salt and pepper, then LET THEM SIT. After about 4 minutes, move the mushrooms around, add a tablespoon of butter, a stem of rosemary and a stem of thyme and let them sit for another 2-3 minutes. Dump these onto a papertowel-covered plate and repeat this until the mushrooms are all cooked. Once they are all cooked, add them to the bowl with the potatoes and beets.

Now comes the fun part. Add some salt (I prefer fresh ground sea salt at this point) and pepper to the mixture. At this point you should add about a cup of the veggie stock and start blending. This process is one of the most important - because it is this series of steps where you will determine the thickness of the soup. Add more stock to thin it out, as you might guess. You’d like it to be slightly more thick than you want it to be for service ( you can always thin it, but thickening it later will be much harder). Once you have blended your soup as smoothly as possible - make it smoother. Run the soup through your seive and get as much through as possible.

At this point, do a few checks to see how you feel about the soup. Things you can add at this point include:
• More stock to thin out the texture
• Salt and Pepper for seasoning
• Lime or Lemon juice to brighten it up
• Butter to smooth it and slightly thicken it up

Once you’re happy with your product, put it into a container and refrigerate it for up to 2 days.

At Service
Take out the soup and warm it up to your desired temperature. Plate it by pulling a beautiful parsley leaf and placing it in the middle.

The smell of the parsley will remind your guests of grass, before they taste the richness of some of the earths greatest gifts.