Beet(root) Soup

Sqeekyjojo

Tastes great, but is much lighter than shop bought ones.

Beetroot (well, obviously!)
1 medium Potato
1 Onion
Stock (Chicken, vegetable, bouillon, whatever you want or have - except beef, as that's a bit too strong flavoured for this)
Pepper
Fresh Thyme/Parsley

Magic ingredients:

Lovage. If you aren't familiar with it, it's a herb (remember the old film Lettuce & Lovage?). It tastes very savoury, so you only use a tiny bit of it - it's nicknamed the Maggi Plant because it's used in the manufacture of their stock cubes.

A splash of the pickling vinegar from a jar of pickled beetroot.


Microwave beetroot chunks unpeeled & potato for however long it takes to be soft. Set aside and let cool.

Slice up the onion, gently soften in a pan (if it's a good non stick one, you can get away with almost zero fat) with a small pinch of salt. Let cool slightly. Have a cuppa, check MFP, whatever.


Put half the stock in a blender (note: ONLY do this hot if the blender instructions say it can deal with it - but room temperature stock works as well). Blitz with the beetroot and potato, plus the herbs, topping it up with more stock if it seems a bit too gloopy to get smooth. Taste, add a splash of the pickling vinegar (it's sweet and just adds *something* to the flavours) season, taste. Remark on how amazing the colour is.


Pour into the pan you cooked the onion in, gently warm it up to hot.

The potato makes its texture richer without adding sour cream/goats' milk cheese or whatever dairy products most people add. It also freezes very well (and makes it look as though your freezer belongs to a vampire/serial killer on first glance).