Beetroot cold soup

Beat the heat with beet soup!

Cold soup for a hot day! It is getting warmer and this is a quick cooler to keep the heat down! It is easy and if taken outdoor to the deck or patio it would be fun! You would have noticed when it comes to colours I go wild and unrestrained. I love to watch cooked rice changing colour gradually when mixed with stir-fried beet pieces. Think I am cuckoo? No… it is an artistic expression and a love of colours.

After this cooking session, I have planned to buy a velvet cushion in deep beet red.

Beetroot bleeds and takes over any preparation by its dominating colour. So it has to go solo. We know it is filled with nutrients, antioxidants and fiber. It is heart healthy as it controls blood pressure, cholesterol and stabilizes blood sugar.  Whenever my mother mentioned that beetroot is good for health, as a kid I literally thought that its juice is blood in disguise. But I ate it just for its pleasant sweetness.

I remember when I was a school girl, my mother had to go to her parents’ house once leaving the household chores to me. Being a novice experimenting in the kitchen, I made sambar, the one versatile curry that can accompany any main dish I could imagine. Confident that it was no wizardry as I have watched my mother cook, I got the dhal ready and all vegetables I could find to punctuate the gravy. I made it successfully. The result was hilarious and my brother laughed for a long, long time…up until now! I had included one beetroot and the whole concoction turned blood red and scary. I don’t remember if it was tasty because all I remember was the little imp laughing his head off.

When I moved out of the country and was cooking in my own kitchen he used to poke fun at me, “Still making beet sambar?” Younger brothers are little rascals at any age! I would like to dedicate this soup to him for he used to makes good desserts for me.

Ingredients

• 2 medium sized beetroots
• 1 potato
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 cup chopped onions
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup vegetable stock or water
• plain yogurt
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• salt & pepper
• few sprigs of dill to garnish

1. Peel skin of the beets and potato with a peeler and slice the veggies.
2. Boil or microwave potato and mash it.
3. In a heavy bottom pan sauté chopped onion, garlic and beet slices in butter.
4. Add stock and cook until tender.
5. Cool it and transfer it to a blender with the mashed potato and puree it.
6. Add a dash of lemon juice, salt and pepper.
7. Garnish it with dill and unflavoured yogurt.
8. Serve chilled.

For a variation add yogurt (curd) and blend to make it creamier. It becomes a smooth, creamy pink soup. Garnish it with walnuts, pumpkin seeds and dill. Serve it chilled with toasted crusty bread. This is a soup that is appealing to the eyes as well as to the taste buds. After a bowl of cold beet soup, I am sure you will feel pretty robust.