We love beets! They are colorful, delicious and just make eating the rainbow so much more fun! But that’s not all that’s to love -Beets are a superfood. They are high in many vitamins like Zinc, Vitamin C and A, Copper, Iron and Fiber - just to name a few!
I’d like to introduce you to my Baba’s Beet Soup, also known as Borscht. Borscht is a staple in most Russian and Ukrainian homes and mine was no exception. I’m sharing this delicious, Vegan, and antioxidant packed recipe so you can enjoy the immune boosting benefits of this power veggie in the form of a traditional soup from my childhood!
Ingredients
- 3 Beets, peeled and chopped into bite size pieces
- 6 cups Vegetable broth (should fill up about a half of a good size pot - you can also add several cups of water)
- 1/2 Purple Cabbage, shredded
- 2 Parsnips (1 cut up in bite size pieces the 1 cut in half)
- 1 Tomato
- 3 Potatoes peeled and sliced into bite-sized pieces
- 4 Carrots peeled (3 sliced & 1 halved)
- 3 Celery ribs trimmed(2 chopped up, 1 cut in half)
- 2 Bell Peppers (any color), 1 chopped the other quartered
- 1 Onion, finely chopped
- 4 Tbsp Ketchup
- 2 Tbsps Olive oil
- 2 Tbsps Dill (fresh or dried)
- 6 cloves of Garlic
- 1 to 2 Bay leaves
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- 1/4 Jalapeño
- Optional: 1 can of Great Northern Beans
Instructions
- Heat a large soup pot with Broth (and water), 3:2 ratio respectively. Pot should be 1/2 full at least.
- Bring liquids to boil, then add 1 whole tomato, quartered bell pepper, halved parsnip, bay leaf, halved celery stem, halved carrot, half of chopped onion, 1 whole garlic clove, salt and pepper. (If your veggie broth is high in sodium, make sure to taste it before adding salt)
- Cook until all vegetables are super soft. Strain through fine mesh sieve into another pot. Mash the vegetables really well with a fork through the strainer (get all the juices out)and save the juices!
- Return broth to a boil and add the chopped beets and rest of onions & parsnip.
- Bring to a boil and cook about 5 min, then add celery & bell pepper. Cook on medium heat to near boil.
- Meanwhile heat olive oil in a skillet then add the juices of vegetables that were strained and cook well. Add ketchup. Heat through and add to soup.
- When the soup boils again add the potatoes and shredded cabbage and cook for another 10 min or so until the potatoes are semi soft.
- OPTIONAL: Add in one can of beans with its juices.
- Chop up 4 to 5 cloves of garlic & jalapeño and add to soup.
- Taste! Add salt and pepper if needed,
- Remove from heat and keep covered and potatoes will finish cooking.
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Add dill when serving along with vegan sour cream
Na zdorovya!
