discovering new foods. Tonight, we tried a recipe from the January 2011 issue of Bon Appetit for Beet & Fennel Soup with Kefir. The soup looks gorgeous, tastes delicious, and three reasonable ladles' full are very satisfying. My only quibble with something like this is the full quart of unflavored kefir you have to buy for the 1 cup the recipe calls for. But with its nutritional benefits (2 probiotic strains; 11 grams of protein; 10% RDA vitamin A; 25% RDA vitamin D; 30% RDA calcium), I'll try it in recipes that call for yogurt or light cream. It certainly gives the dish a nice tang. I'd never encountered this yogurt-type drink, originally from the Caucasus in Russia where people routinely live to be 100, and in this recipe, I'm certainly glad I did. Pronounced "keh-feer," it's a health food that, at least for me, doesn't have the hippie, fruity-nutty connotations that lemongrass and carrot juice and other health drinks do.
So far, I've used the kefir in mashed and scalloped potatoes in place of milk--works great! I think it could also stretch the fresh tomato and white bean soup to become a tart version of cream of tomato soup. No problem finishing that quart!
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