Beetroot Soup decorated with Coconut Hearts – 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?!’
How to Make Beetroot Soup
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.
Time Saver: 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?
The inspiration for my beetroot soup came from the beautiful traditional Eastern European borscht but I made a much lighter dish by leaving out the potatoes, carrots and celery you would typically find and allowing the beetroot to take centre stage. My blended beetroot soup is delicately flavoured with garlic, caraway seeds and chipotle chilli and it is is subtly smoky and very moreish.
Bread to Go with Beetroot Soup
I also made a loaf of simply seeded soda bread to dip into our soup and mop up the last of its loveliness. You could also try my vegan soda bread with herbs (add some dill to complement the beetroot soup beautifully!) 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.
Toppings for 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 does 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 would be brilliant here, in fact, I’m off to try it immediately!
Beetroot Soup with Coconut Cream Hearts
Beetroot Soup for your Vegan Valentine
Ingredients
For the Soup
- 200 g (1 cup) 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 (1.2 cups) Vegetable Stock
- Salt and Black Pepper to taste
To Serve
- 2 tbsp thick coconut milk yoghurt
- 1-2 tbsp almond milk
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 (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.
- 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.
- Pour into warmed soup bowls.
- 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.
Notes
Nutrition
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!
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!
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.