beets

This is sunshine soup. It’s the the kind of soup that will cheer you up in the dead of winter. In fact, just peeling and dicing the beets, exposing their brilliantly yellow flesh, put a great big smile on a my face. There’s just something about that color – sunny, warm, cheerful – that will wash away all the gray, stuck-indoors feelings of a frigid January. Smokey cumin and spicy red pepper flakes evoke the cradling heat of a dry Mexican desert while a burst of lime leaves you resting on the white beaches of a tropical getaway. Daydream. Forget about winter for just a moment and brighten your day with this sunshine soup!

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We’re just about to officially enter summer. But I don’t really think of seasons as fall, winter, spring or summer; I think of them in terms of food…tomato season is my fav! But right now, it’s salad season! I’ve been making salads almost everyday with the drop-dead gorgeous veg from my CSA box and from the local farmers markets. I posted the recipe for this Orange Sesame Noodle Salad over at the Laughing Stalk Farmstead Blog, but thought I’d share it here as well. It uses a ton of veggies and the beets color the noodles a lovely shade of pink. Tres girlie!

Orange Sesame Noodle Salad:

Next is a simple salad of lettuce greens, radishes, turnips, kohlrabi and pecans with a chimichurri vinaigrette. I used the leftover chimichurri sauce from the spinach quesadillas post and turned it into salad dressing by adding more olive oil and red wine vinegar to thin it out. Uh-dic-ting! I stood at the counter and ate the whole bowl!