There is probably not much better during cold winter months than soups, stews and casserole dishes. They’re stupidly easy to make, can be made in massive batches and their flavour gets better and keeps maturing the longer they are left in the fridge.
This particular soup is not a “traditional” recipe, but it’s something I whipped up to be stupidly high in potassium and other key nutrients I was finding hard to hit each day. Beetroot is one of my favorite veggies, so any opportunity I can get to drink a bowl of borscht – I will take it.
This will be about a 20m prep time, not including the 90m of simmering. You don’t really need to do much for that though, as you’ll see, so you have plenty of time to go off and do other things.
To make this vegan, just switch out the beef stock or bone broth for veggie stock.
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- 2 tablespoons of minced or chopped garlic
- 4 large beetroot, diced (skin on but cleaned)
- 1 medium white onion, diced
- 1 medium red onion, diced
- 1 leek, diced
- 1 whole head of purple cauliflower (white is ok but purple adds to the color)
- 1 small tin of tomato paste
- 350mls of bone broth or beef stock
- 1 tablespoon caraway seeds
- 2 cloves
Method:
Add the oil to a stock pot and then cook through the onions, leeks and garlic until tender, adding the caraway seeds and cloves so it becomes fragrant. At this point, you can also add a bit of ground black pepper to taste.
Once tender, add in the other vegetables and keep moving them around the pan until they are slightly soft, then pour in the bone broth or stock, tomato paste and 1-2 cups of water. Stir everything well and then leave to simmer for 90-120 minutes on the lowest heat setting.
Take off the heat and then leave to cool slightly before blending until all chunks are removed. Serve with your choice of protein and carbs or fats as needed – I’d highly recommend a couple of slices of toast with this, especially if that toast has hummus and smoked salmon on it….
Nutritional info per serve:
(Makes 6)
Calories: 90
Fat: 3g
Protein: 6g
Carbs: 16g
Fibre: 4.3g
Key micronutrients / minerals:
28% RDI folate
76% RDI Vitamin C
25% RDI Vitamin K, B6 & potassium