Striking while the Iron is Hot...

Iron Man, that is...

     There was a time when Iron Man was my little one's hands down favorite superhero.  He has never seen a movie or a comic book.  I think he's watched a couple of cartoons.  Mostly he was in love with his Iron Man toy.  He got to pick it out using a gift card that his Uncle sent him for Christmas.  It was the prize toy for nearly a year in this house.  Many a moment was spent looking for that darn thing (he always had to have it with him, but never remembered where he had it last!)  It has a button on the front that says clever things like, "I am Iron Man!"  It's shiny, it's red, it might be the coolest toy ever invented.  He's grown past it a little recently, it no longer occupies the coveted position beside his head at night, but I like to think that with this soup, he'll be able to take a little of that old love into adulthood with him.

     Just like my son has heard of Iron Man but never seen the movie, I have always heard of borscht, but had never eaten any!  I looked it up and realized that most of the recipes call for boiled beets.  I. Do. Not. Like. Boiled. Beets.  (Unless they're mixed in with a bunch of chocolate...) So I decided to roast everything and see what happened.  I found the result fantastic, as did my boys.  My husband is not much of a beet guy.  He would have liked to have tasted more onion or garlic.  I think you could cut the beets back by a cup or so if you want it a little less "beety."

Iron Man Roast Borscht
Yields 6-8 servings

3 large beets (4 cups cubed)
1 C carrots
2 C parsnips
1/2 medium head cabbage (quartered)
4 cloves garlic in peel
1 large onion, quartered
olive oil
salt and pepper
2 C vegetable stock
2 C water
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
sour cream

Roast whole beets wrapped in foil at 425° for 2-3 hours or until soft.  Remove from oven.  Place carrots, parsnips, cabbage, garlic, and onion on a sheet, drizzle with oil, season with salt and pepper, and roast until slightly browned, remove cabbage first, if necessary.  (Cabbage cooks in about 1/2 an hour, the rest of the veggies in about 45 minutes).  Remove peels from garlic, peel and cube beets, and put all veggies together in a large pot.  Add water and stock and cook together until everything is heated through.  Either in a blender or using an immersion blender*, puree the soup together.  Stir in vinegar.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Add sour cream to top.  I used a piping bag and smoothed it with the back of a spoon (high tech, that...)  Tastes great with sour dough bread!

*Be careful using an immersion blender with this one!  I burned myself pretty good when a bit of it plopped out... An apron is a good idea for this red soup, too...

Review:
For once something my little Iron Man kid likes!  He actually liked it from the first bite.  It took my eldest two bites.  A wonderful, filling soup that's great for cold winter days.  This does take quite a while to roast everything.  I did the beets the night before and roasted the veggies the next day.  It makes quite a bit though, so you can freeze half and have two meals!  Tomorrow, the final day of Soup-erhero week!