This delicious and healthy soup is very easy to make. Beetroot is full of folic acid and a very good source of fibre, manganese and potassium. This recipe will make around 8 portions.
Ingredients
- 1Kg Raw beetroot, peeled (net weight)
- 200g Red onions, peeled, (net weight)
- 100g Celery
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- Toasted mixed seeds, your choice. I like to use sunflower, pumpkin, linseeds and pine kernels
- 1 pot of crème fraîche (around 250g, either full fat or skinny depending on how healthy you want to be)
- 1 to 1.5 Litres of vegetable stock (fresh is best but you can use a bouillon paste made up with water)
- A little olive oil
- 2 Cloves of garlic
- 100g Leeks
- Chives and edible flowers to garnish
Method
Roughly chop the beetroot, onions and garlic.
Roughly chop the leeks and celery and wash well.
Sweat the onions, leek, celery and garlic in a little olive oil over a low heat until they have cooked, are starting to turn translucent and are not brown.
Add the chopped beetroot and 1 litre of vegetable stock and simmer with a lid on until the beetroot is well cooked. This should take at least an hour.
Using a bar blender, purée the soup and for a finer finish pass it through a medium seive. At this point you will want to check the seasoning and add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. You may also need to add some more vegetable stock if you find that the soup is too thick for your liking.
Return the soup to the heat to thoroughly warm it.
Serve with a dollop of crème fraîch and garnish with the toasted seeds, edible flowers, a couple of chive stalks and a little drizzle of olive oil.
This hearty soup goes very well with darker rye based breads as they compliment the bold earthy flavour of the beetroot.