Beetroot Soup

From Vegetarian Supercook, Rose Elliot, Hamlyn, 2004.

Beetroot is such a good vegetable to use. Whenever I have a batch of them I like to cook them all in one hit. I put them in the saucepan, fill it with water then bring it to the boil and simmer them for about 45 minutes. At this stage I turn off the heat and leave them in the water until it cools. That seems to work the trick quite well. I know that baking them will bring out the flavour a little more but it takes a bit more work to do it that way and boiling them does not lose a lot.

I had some cooked beetroot on hand when I came across Rose Elliot’s recipe for iced beetroot soup. I didn’t want iced but the recipe says that it works as well hot.

An onion was fried in olive oil until it was soft. A potato, peeled and cut into pieces, was now added to the saucepan. With the lid on, it was left for another few minutes to cook a little further.

I then added 4 medium sized beetroot, cut into pieces, and a little over a litre of stock and brought it to the boil. The rind of half a lemon was added and the mixture was left to simmer long enough for the potato to be well cooked.

The mixture was now pureed with a stick blender. A little lemon juice was added and the soup was seasoned. It was served with a little sour cream on top.

While Rose Elliot said that this recipe got her a marriage proposal I would suspect that there was a little more behind the proposal than just this soup. It was tasty with the sweetness of the beetroot heightened nicely from the sourness of the lemon juice.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔