Sunday, July 11, 2010

Weekend Cooking: Beetroot Soup

 Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs.

Today I am going to share the recipe for beet/beetroot soup ... okay... I can see most of you wrinkling your nose hearing the word 'beet'... well I was and still am not a big beet fan myself but my dear husband loves the vegetable a looooot and recently he put me up for a challenge to the likes of "Iron Chef" wherein my 'secret ingredient' for the three-course meal was beetroot!!! Initially I was a little shocked when he revealed the secret ingredient but then I have to say, in retrospect am glad he chose beetroot as the secret ingredient, 'coz that really made me rack my brains and look out for some innovative meal options and the beet soup was what I made for the appetizer course. I found this recipe at recipezaar and modified it based on the ingredients I had at home and the outcome was  a big hit with both my husband and me.... :)


So without any further ado lemme dive into my beet soup recipe... 

Prep & Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Serves: 2

Ingredients:

Olive Oil - 2 tblsp
Medium-sized Onion, diced - 1 
Carrot, scraped & diced - 1 
Medium-sized Beetroot, peeled & diced - 1 
Spinach, chopped - 1 small bunch
Garlic, finely chopped - 1 clove 
Orange Juice - 100 mL
Vegetable Stock - 500 mL
Salt & Pepper - to taste
Yoghurt/Sour Cream - for garnish
Coriander/Parsley Leaves - for garnish


Method:

  1. Heat a heavy-bottom saucepan over medium heat.
  2. Add oil, garlic and onions and saute for 5 minutes till onions become translucent.Then add the spinach and the chopped carrots to it. Saute it for a couple of minutes.
  3. Add the diced beetroot and saute the vegetables for a further 5 minutes with constant stirring. 
  4. Then add the vegetable stock, orange juice, salt & pepper and bring it to a boil.
  5. Bring down the heat to a low and let the soup simmer for around 7-8 minutes.
  6. Turn off the heat, drain the vegetables on a strainer and let it cool down. Retain the strained liquid in a separate container.
  7. Once the strained vegetables have cooled down, put them in  blender and blend till a coarse paste is formed. You can blend it either to a coarse or fine paste depending on how you like to have your soup.
  8. Then mix the paste and the strained liquid together and warm it slightly over the stove.
  9. Then ladle the soup into serving bowls and top it off with  a dollop of yoghurt and a sprinkle of coriander leaves. 
 Yummy and healthy beet soup for two is ready!!! :) 

Have this soup either for a starter course like we did, or you can have it with some warm garlic bread or french bread and make it a light and healthy meal by itself.... 

Lemme know your thoughts on beetroot and whether you like this recipe or not...  Looking forward to hearing your views....

6 comments:

Beth F said...

I am a huge beet lover, but my husband always claims he doesn't like beets. But when I cook them, he always seems to happily eat them!

This looks really good. I don't think I've had a version with spinach in it, so I'm looking forward to trying it. Hummm. I have beets and swiss chard in the house. If it weren't 98F outside, I would try this recipe tonight.

Arch said...

@ Beth: Well in our house its the other way around... Like I mentioned in the post, my hubby loves beets while I just barely tolerate it... but this soup was really tasty..as for the spinach, frankly I added it 'coz I just happened to have it in my fridge that night and well it doesn't hurt to have a bunch of healthy veggies in your soup... Lemme know how this soup turns out for you and if your husband liked it... ;)

JoAnn said...

You know, I have never cooked or eaten beets! I only remember the canned ones my mother sometimes had when we were growing up. My sister loves them though... I'll have to direct her to your recipe.

caite said...

I too love beets...but like BethF, I may have to wait for cooler weather to make that soup. In fact, it would be lovely on a chilly night,,,yum

Anonymous said...

The only vegetable I don't like is beets. It's pretty though :)

suresh said...

wow! looks very nice.We haven't tried the recipe yet, but If the taste is even half as good as it looks, then it is going to be wonderful.

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