Borscht

My parents have always kept a large vegetable garden - a hobby the entire family benefits from year-round. Although I have to say that neither I nor my siblings were entirely grateful for the bounty of beetroot. In our opinion our parents knew one or two recipes too many for dishes based on beetroot. Pickled beetroot were appreciated by all (e.g. as topping for liver pâté) - beetroot steaks and beetroot pâté not so much. Interestingly they never made us beetroot soup, which I think might have won me over a little more effectively - or maybe my taste just changed since then. Anyway, now it's autumn again, and therefore soup season, so I made a big pot of borscht.

Ingredients:
- olive oil
- 3 medium/small red onions, chopped
- 400 g (almost 1 lb) potatoes
- 800 g (almost 2 lbs) celery root
- 1500 g (over 3 lbs) beetroot
(all tubers were peeled, and cut in cubes 1 cm per side (1/2 inch per side))
- 2 dL (almost 1 cup) flour
- 2.5 L (2/3 gallon) beef bouillon
- 4 cloves garlic, mashed
- 12 peppercorns
- salt
- 6 bay laurel leafs
- thyme & oregano
- 0.5 L (2 cups) cream

In a large pot, a little oil was heated. The onion was sautéed for a couple of minutes before adding the tuber cubes. After another 5 minutes, the flour was added and stirred in to coat the cubes with the flour. The beef bouillon was added together with the herbs, salt, and peppercorns. The soup was brought to a boil, then the heat was reduced. The soup was covered and allowed to simmer for an hour with occasional stirring, before adding the cream.

Served warm with a little sour cream on top.