Low Fat Beetroot Soup

I’ve only embraced the beetroot in the past year or so, and now I simply cannot get enough of it. It’s a shame really as it was everywhere when I was in Russia, with Borscht (Russian soup with Beets) featuring on every single menu we encountered. I’ve decided to do my own twist on Borscht, without the fat.

This is a really vibrant pink soup. It’s just so so pretty that it looks like a soup that Elle woods in Legally Blonde would be proud of. My pink soup packs a punch though with some red chilli adding a fiery punch. The great thing about this soup is that it’s completely fat free and the only remote bit of fat with it is if you were to add crème fraiche, yogurt or a soft cheese to the centre for serving. I’ve compromised a little and added a teaspoon of low fat natural yogurt, to give the fiery soup a great refreshing tangy flavour. Also right at the end, might I suggest a squeeze of lemon juice to give the soup an instant burst of freshness.

This is a real time saver soup, using a food processor to do all the chopping and using pre-cooked beetroot. If you make a large batch freeze in individual containers once completely cooled.

Serves 6

Ingredients

Basic Soup Base

·         1 cooking onion

·         1 clove of garlic

·         1 leek
·         1 carrot

·         700 mls of vegetable stock

·         Salt & pepper

·         4 precooked beetroots, finely chopped

·         ½ red chilli, deseeded and chopped

·         6 tsp of low fat yogurt (one tsp per bowl)

·         6 sprigs of flat leaf parsley.

·         Low fat cooking spray

Method

1.       Roughly chop the onion, garlic, leek, carrot, and chilli.Then add to a food processor and pulse a few times.

2.       Spray a saucepan on medium heat with low fat cooking spray.

3.       Sauté the pulsed vegetables for 5 minutes until soft.

4.       Add the beetroot and vegetable stock. Bring to boil and then down to a simmer for 10 minutes.

5.       Season well and blitz with a hand held blender. If it’s too thick add more boiling water and stir through.

6.       To serve place in soup bowls and pour over some yogurt and garnish with flat leaf parsley.

Soup Tip

When making soup, I nearly always use the same soup base.

Basic Soup Base

·         1 cooking onion

·         1 clove of garlic

·         1 leek
·         1 carrot

·         700 mls of vegetable stock

·         Salt & pepper

Different ingredients can be added to make all types of soups using this soup base. Whizz the ingredients , sauté in a pan and then add you preferred vegetable (e.g. carrots, parsnips, broccoli, tomatoes, potatoes – to name a few soups) and finally add stock and boil, simmer and whizz. I’m always trying new soups, but usually stick to this base recipe.