This easy Beetroot Soup is flavoured with caraway and spiked with chilli. It is smooth, light and such a beautiful colour. It’s a feast for your tummy and for your eyes!

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I don’t really ‘do’ Valentine’s Day – there is no card swapping or gift giving – but I do like an excuse to pretty up food and remind Mr TS just how much I love him.

This beetroot soup is delicious but plain without those cute little hearts sashaying around on its surface.

Now it cries out ‘Ooh, look at me, aren’t I FABULOUS?! See how much she adores you?!’

Beetroot Soup and Borscht

The inspiration for this beetroot soup recipe came from the beautiful traditional Eastern European borscht.

Borscht is a substantial dish, full of savoury flavours which usually sees beetroot paired with potatoes, carrots and cabbage.

This easy beetroot soup is a much lighter dish, leaving out the potatoes, carrots and celery and allowing the beetroot to take centre stage.

It is perfect as starter or served up with some chunky bread rolls if you want a more substantial meal.

Delicately flavoured with garlic, caraway seeds and chipotle chilli, this blended beetroot soup is subtly smoky and very moreish. 

How To Make Beetroot Soup

For a full recipe card see the end of this post but read on for a few extra tips and tricks to help you on your way to beetroot heaven!

• I buy fresh beetroot in season and roast them whole for about 2 hours in a baking dish covered with tin foil. Any I don’t use immediately are frozen to use in soups and curries.
• If you want to skip this stage you can use ready cooked vacuum packed beetroot but NOT pickled beetroot or your Valentine will run a mile and who could blame them?
• I’ve used red onion as my base for this soup, mainly because the colour is a good match! Feel free to use a brown or white onion in its place.
• Caraway provides the earthy, sweetly savoury flavour profile for this soup but you could replace it with cumin seeds or black onion seeds.
• Chipotle chilli flakes give a smoky heat which I love. If you aren’t so keen on heat use smoked paprika instead.

Toppings for Beetroot Soup

You don’t have to make little coconut hearts of course, you can swish the yoghurt through in swirls or leave it out completely. Some alternative toppings for beetroot soup could be:

• Chopped fresh herbs – dill goes particularly well with beetroot but you could also try flat leaf parsley, coriander leaf, mint or oregano.
• Fresh croutons – fry bite sized cubes of yesterday’s bread in a little olive oil with garlic until brown and crisp.
• A spoonful of fresh pesto – the pepperiness of my nasturtium pesto or the texture of my sundried tomato pesto would be brilliant here.
• Homemade vegetable crisps – parsnip, beetroot or potato would be perfect! 

Storing and Freezing Beetroot Soup

This soup keeps well, covered, in the fridge for up to four days. Reheat to piping hot when you are ready to eat it. 

Freezing beetroot soup is easy. Allow it to cool completely, transfer it to a suitable container and freeze. It will last for up to three months. Defrost completely before reheating. 

Looking for More Root Vegetable Soups? Try…

• Sweet Potato and Red Lentil
• Slow Cooker Swede Soup
• Celeriac with Apple
• Winter Vegetable Soup
• Curried Parsnip Soup

Beetroot Soup

A super simple beetroot soup all prettied up for your beloved vegan valentine. This soup can be ready in under 20 minutes leaving you more time for gazing into each other's eyes. 

5 from 5 votes

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Course: Lunch, Soup, Starter

Cuisine: Easter European, English

Keyword: beetroot recipes, Valentine's Recipes

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Servings: 2

Calories: 155kcal

Author: Chris Mosler | Thinly Spread

Ingredients

For the Soup

• 200 g Cooked Beetroot roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp Sunflower Oil
• 1 small Red Onion peeled and chopped
• 2 cloves Garlic peeled and chopped
• 1/2 tsp Caraway Seeds
• 1/4 tsp Chipotle Chilli Flakes, to taste (optional)
• 300 ml Vegetable Stock
• Salt and Black Pepper to taste

To Serve

• 2 tbsp thick coconut milk yoghurt
• 1-2 tbsp your favourite plant milk I used oat

UK Measurements - US Measurements

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

• Gently heat a tablespoonful of sunflower oil in a small frying pan, add the onion and fry until soft.
• Add the garlic, caraway seeds and chilli seeds to taste and fry for a further minute.
• Put the cooked beetroot, onion mixture and vegetable stock into a high speed blender or food processor and blend until really smooth. Add a little more water if it's too thick and salt and pepper to taste.
• Return your soup to your saucepan and heat through gently.
• Pour into warmed soup bowls.
• Whisk the coconut yoghurt with a little plant milk to thin it - you want a dropping consistency like thick cream. Dot spots of the mixture around your beloved's bowl of soup. Drag the tip of a skewer or a cocktail stick through each creamy spot to make little hearts.  

Notes

If you want to roast your beetroot for extra flavour you will need to scrub them and then bake them in a foil covered baking dish in a hot oven for about 2 hours until tender. 

Nutritional information is only an approximate guideline. Calculations will vary according to the ingredients you use and your cooking methods.

Nutrition

Calories: 155kcal | Carbohydrates: 20g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 690mg | Potassium: 405mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 12g | Vitamin A: 427IU | Vitamin C: 12mg | Calcium: 64mg | Iron: 1mg

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