This Beetroot Soup with Coconut Hearts and Seeded Soda Bread is too good not to share with your vegan valentine!
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 was 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?!’
I scrubbed my organic beetroot and roasted them whole for about 2 hours in a baking dish covered with tin foil. I poked them with a skewer to see if they were tender and then left them to cool completely in the tin, under the foil, before slipping off their skins and chopping them into chunks. 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 also made this beautiful soda bread to dip into our soup and mop up the last of its loveliness. I am now using baking powder instead of bicarbonate of soda thanks to advice from Lydia at Demuths Cookery School last month and it makes such a difference to the flavour of this simple bread.
A super simple soup all prettied up for your beloved vegan valentine, served with easy soda bread. This soup can be ready in under 20 minutes and the bread takes half an hour leaving you more time for gazing into each other's eyes.
- 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
- 1/8 - 1/4 tsp Chipotle Chilli Flakes, to taste (optional)
- 300 ml Vegetable Stock
- Salt and Black Pepper to taste
- 250 g Wholemeal Spelt Flour
- 250 g Wholemeal Rye Flour
- 2 tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 350 ml Almond Milk
- 75 ml Coconut Yoghurt
- 1 tbsp Sesame Seeds
- 1 tbsp Pumpkin Seeds
- 1 tbsp Sunflower Seeds
- 2 tbsp thick coconut milk yoghurt
- 1-2 tbsp almond milk
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Mix the two flours together with the salt, baking powder and seeds.
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Whisk the milk and yoghurt together and pour into your flour mixture.
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Mix roughly together until you have a sticky dough, tip it out onto a floured surface, shape into a rough round loaf and cut it into 8 triangles.
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Transfer to a baking sheet, brush with a little dairy free milk and sprinkle with more seeds. Cook in a hot oven at 200C for about 25 minutes. Your bread is cooked when it is browned on top and sounds hollow when you knock on its bottom.
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While your bread is baking gently heat a tablespoonful of sunflower oil in a small frying pan, add the onion and fry until soft.
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Add the garlic, caraway seeds and chilli seeds to taste and fry for a further minute.
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Put the cooked beetroot, onion mixture and vegetable stock into a high speed blender (I used my Optimum G2.3 Induction Blender) and blend until really smooth. Add a little more water if it's too thick and salt and pepper to taste.
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My blender has a soup function which means that, at this point, it is piping hot and ready to eat! If yours hasn't, you are using a food processor or stick blender, pour your soup into a saucepan and heat through gently.
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Pour into warmed soup bowls.
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Whisk the coconut yoghurt with a little almond 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.
I’m pretty sure you will have won the heart of your Vegan Valentine with this soup and bread combination – just imagine if someone had created it for you!
Soda bread is best eaten warm from the oven but If you don’t eat it all with your soup, pop it into a bag and freeze it for another day.
If you are a cards and gifts Valentine, why not make your own? These little Fingerprint Love Hearts are simple and oh so pretty!
If you like my Beetroot Soup for your Vegan Valentine, why not Pin It For Later?
Disclaimer: I am a brand ambassador for Froothie. Any links in this post or others which mention Froothie or their products are affiliate links, if you purchase through my link it won’t cost you anymore but it will earn me a small commission. I only support and endorse products I am happy to use myself.
I’m sharing this post with Meat Free Mondays over at Tinned Tomatoes which is packed full of veggie and vegan ideas every week!
Hello! I'm Chris, vegan lover of life, wordsmith, storyteller, picture taker, mum to four. Welcome to Thinly Spread where I share recipes, kitchen stories, travels, adventures and family warmth from our home in deepest Somerset and our boat in Poole.
You’re not kidding on how fabulous those cute little yoghurty hearts look, properly amazing!
I was so pleased with them, I was like a Cheshire cat!
I bet roasting the beetroot really add to the flavour. Elinor x
It did, I always roast my beetroot if I’m not using them raw, the flavour is so much better.
Ahhh so pretty and beetroot soup is delicious. I love this 🙂
I love it to bits, it’s fab as a chilled soup too but it’s far too cold outside today for that nonsense!
I absolutely love beetroot for the flavour and that fabulous colour that it gives everything.
The colour is divine! I’ve been a bit addicted to it lately 🙂
What a beautiful soup and design for Valentine’s Day. The soda bread is a perfect match!
Thank you! I love the simplicity of soda bread – it makes warm, fresh bread a possibility at the end of a busy day!
Your soup has such a gorgeous color! I’m intrigued by the coconut milk yogurt thinned with almond milk as a substitute for sour cream. I’ll have to give that a try.
I love anything with beets! What a gorgeous looking soup, perfect for Vday!
Looks so vibrant and healthy! Never had beetroots.. can’t wait to try this
OMG… this beetroot soups looks soooo cute. Honestly, it melts my heart. Love the gorgeous red colour, love the coconut hearts. And those fingerprint hearts?! Oh my… cuteness overload 🙂 Great recipe. I’m sharing this!
Those little hearts are so sweet! What a lovely idea.
Hello Chris!
I am honestly curious: Are you vegan or vegetarian? You call yourself a vegan lover of the world in your description but post vegetarian recipes too. So, which one is it?
Nevertheless, a lovely soup recipe. I don’t think coconut matches the beetroot flavour, but that’s just personal preference.
Have a lovely day!
Hi Cindy, I’ve been vegan for just over a year. Before that I was vegetarian for 30 years. This blog is a record of my personal journey since 2010 so my older vegetarian recipes are still there. I also cook for all my family, not all of whom are vegan. You can see my post about this here http://thinlyspread.co.uk/turning-50/
I think coconut is a perfect match for the beetroot here but, as you say, we all have different tastes.