Recipe: Beet Soup

I am on Twitter, as I've mentioned in the past. And I am pretty obsessed with it, because I follow amazing food bloggers, my favorite Denver restaurants, and other people who are interested in holistic nutrition. From all of these people, I learn so much about health, nutrition, food and cooking. If you're not on Twitter, I highly recommend signing up. There is so much out there to learn!

Yesterday I came across a tweet from a girl I follow, @TheBlissfulChef. She has a wonderful blog here, but happened to be guest blogging here for @GreenBlossoms.

Have I confused you yet? Not if you're a fellow tweeter!

Anyway, the recipe looked like something I wanted to try: Beet Soup. I know that Ed hates beets. I once made a golden beet salad and he ate it up and seemed to have changed his mind on beets, but I think the large amounts of goat cheese topping the beets may have had something to do with it.

So, knowing I was about to cook something my husband wouldn't like, I bundled up and walked through the [extremely beautiful] snow to Whole Foods to stock up on beets, carrots, dill and bay leaves.

I changed Chef Christy's recipe only slightly by adding extra vinegar, extra lemon juice, and also some grated ginger. I think it was my attempt to mask the taste of beets so Ed would eat the soup, but they were good additions. Also, I saved all the beet greens so I can juice them for breakfast. There are so many important nutrients in the beet greens so please don't throw them out! You can put them into smoothies, on salads, or sautee them with your eggs in the morning.

Recipe

1 tbsp olive oil

2 carrots, chopped

2 red beets, peeled and chopped (I used red and golden beets)

6 cups water

1 cup red lentils, washed and drained

3 bay leaves

Juice of 1 lemon (I used 2)

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Dash of pepper and sea salt

Sour cream or yogurt and chopped dill for garnish

Heat oil in large soup pan over medium flame. Add carrots and beets and a pinch of sea salt and saute for 3 minutes. Add water, lentils, bay leaves, and another pinch of sea salt. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer, partially covered, 25-30 minutes.

Remove bay leaves. Puree in small batches in blender and return to pot. Stir in vinegar, lemon and pepper.

Serve warm or cold, garnished with sour cream or yogurt and chopped dill.

Note: Take the instruction to "puree in small batches in blender" very literally. My first "batch" was too large, and let's just say I am still finding red speckles on my kitchen walls, and our kitchen rug may or may not be on its way to the cleaners... (luckily it's an oriental rug, so the red blends right in!).

I served the soup warm, with plain low fat yogurt and dill. We ate it with the shitake, cremini and oyster mushrooms we got Saturday morning at Denver's indoor farmer's market (delicious!). Ed thought the soup was okay, not great. But, he doesn't love beets. I love beets and loved the soup. And I found it very satisfying to have a dinner that consisted of three different veggies - carrots, beets and mushrooms. I was completely full and satisfied for the rest of the night! If you like beets, I definitely recommend the recipe.

Thanks Christy for providing such a nutritional recipe!