Lately my walks steer me to the Union Square Market where all the farmers gather to sell their wonderful organic vegetables and much more.

September’s Creative Cooking Crew’s challenge was to pick an ingredient and present it as the star of a dish using it 2 ways.  When I saw a bunch of beets I immediately remembered a soup that I made years ago. The flan was the creative part.

Soup:

3 large beets
3 14.5 oz of chicken broth
salt/pepper to taste
2 tablespoons of butter
dash of nutmeg
1 small onion chopped
2 tablespoons of butter
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 cups of yogurt
chopped chives

Peel and slice the beets, and put them in a large saucepan. Cover with the broth and add the garlic, onion, vinegar, nutmeg and butter. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes or until the beets are tender. Check the seasoning and correct by adding more salt/pepper, if necessary.

Puree soup and refrigerate. Once soup is chilled, add yogurt and return to refrigerator until ready to serve.

Beet Flan:

2 small beets, peeled and boiled until tender (reserving some water)
1 egg
1 teaspoon butter
salt/pepper to taste

Once beets are tender, blend adding some of the water until smooth. Whisk the eggs in a separate bowl, adding in a few scoops of the blended beets to slowly warm the eggs to keep them from curdling from overheating. Now add the eggs to the blender and mix on medium low until the eggs are fully combined.

Preheat oven to 350. Butter two ramekins and fill with beet mixture. Place in a baking pan filled halfway with hot water and bake until flan is set about 30 minutes. Remove and let cool. For this post, I used a cookie cutter to shape the flan. You can scoop with a spoon and center it on a plate and pour the cold soup then garnish with chives.

BUEN PROVECHO!