Five Spice Beetroot Soup
I have a confession. I think about beetroot a lot and it’s not normal. This Five Spice Beetroot Soup is a result of one of those days.. I had been playing around with Chinese 5 Spice and there was a bunch of fresh beetroot from our garden, and I got the bright idea to put the two together.
My fascination with beetroot stems from it’s Superfood status; whenever my knee swells up [from an old skiing injury] I think of the anti-inflammatory benefits of beetroot. In her later years, my mother suffered from age related macular degeneration, and was nearly blind as a result. She had to get injections into her eyeball regularly as part of the treatment. That in itself is enough motivation for me to take care of my eye health and eat plenty of foods to support my eyes and vision, such as this Five Spice Beetroot Soup.
This soup wants to be a bit chunky, in my opinion, but play around with it to achieve the texture and consistency that you prefer. The Chinese 5 Spice lends a warming note to this vegetarian soup and the ginger root adds a nice zing. The natural yogurt tempers the spices and adds a cooling note at the finish- replace the natural yogurt with a vegan/soya yogurt and this soup is vegan.
For a light vegetarian meal, pair this Five Spice Beetroot Soup with Sweetcorn Fritters. For a fantastic combination of flavours and texture, pair this soup with Chicken Breast stuffed with Tapendade and Goats Cheese and add a batch of Soft White Dinner Rolls to the table for the final WOW!
Five Spice Beetroot Soup
Equipment
- Electronic digital scales
- Blender OR Hand held blender
- Conical Strainer OR Fine mesh strainer I prefer a conical strainer
Ingredients
- 3 Large Beetroot, Roasted [instructions below] 750 grams [about 1 1/2 pounds]
- 1300 ML Vegetable Stock [45 ounces] You probably won't use all of this, but keep it to hand
- 1 medium/large Red Onion, peeled and quartered 150 grams [5 ounces]
- 1 Knob Ginger Root, peeled and cut into quarters 10 grams
- 1 Large Garlic Clove, peeled 7 grams
- 2 Large Cleaned Celery sticks, roughly chopped approximately 95 grams, keep back some leaves for garnish [about 3 ounces]
- ¼ - ½ teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder more or less to taste
- Soured Cream/Creme Fraich OR plain yoghurt to finish
- Salt and white pepper to taste
Instructions
Roasting the Beetroot
- Preheat the oven to 205c. Top, tail and peel the fresh beetroot, and wrap in foil.Place the wrapped beetroot in a small baking pan/dish and fill 1/4 of the pan with water. Bake in the preheated oven for an hour + and check- when a knife easily inserts into the beetroot, it is cooked through.Remove from the oven, and gently open the foil and remove the beetroot to cool.
For the soup
- Place the red onion, ginger root, garlic and celery into a medium sauce pan and pour over some of the vegetable stock, until just covered. Cover the saucepan and let this simmer over medium/medium low heat until tender- depending on your temperature, about 20 minutes or so.
- When the temperature is safe to handle, blend the onion mixture. Place the conical strainer over a medium bowl and strain. Using a wooden spoon or spatula, push the mixture through the strainer to get all the juices. Discard the bits.
- Pour the strained liquid back into the blender, or if using a hand blender, add the roasted beetroot to the liquid and blend. [Note 1] Return to the heat and add your seasoning to taste. [Note 2]
- Ladle soup into bowls and put a generous dollop of either the soured cream/creme fraiche or plain yoghurt. [Note 3] Add some of the chopped celery leaves on top for the final garnish.
