Soup in the summertime seems like a ridiculous idea. It’s already hot out; you don’t need your dinner to warm you up even more. A chilled soup on the other hand, can end up being exactly what you might be looking for. Last summer I had my first experience with chilled soups one Saturday afternoon while perusing the farmers market. A woman was giving samples of her homemade cold soups, and after trying one I promptly bought 3 containers, it was that good. The best one that I had was by far her chilled beet soup. Beets are one of my favorite vegetables, I eat them hot AND cold so it makes perfect sense that a chilled beet soup would be a home run. I wanted to see if I could do it.
Luckily, I got beets in my CSA this week! How convenient. What makes this even better is that I have also been getting the most delicious Napoli carrots for the past few weeks too. They are just the right amount of sweet with a clean crisp finish to them. I can almost eat the whole pound raw in one sitting. Good thing I refrained this week, because into my soup they will go!
As with almost everything I make, I pretty much made it up as I went along. I immediately knew the flavor profile that I wanted. A bright note of citrus and a zip of ginger would definitely compliment the sweet carrots and earthy beets. I thought back to my basic soup making knowledge and went at it.
Ingredients:
4 medium sized beets – cut into small chunks (the smaller the pieces the faster it cooks!)
About ½ pound of carrots (I just couldn’t part with them all!) – also cut into small chunks
About 4 ½ cups of organic vegetable stock – low sodium
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 spring onion bulb, diced – I also received these in my CSA, they have a light, sweet, onion flavor that I knew wouldn’t be too overpowering. If you can’t find them, try using a shallot.
1 TBS olive oil
Juice of ½ lemon
Juice of ½ orange
1 TBS grated ginger – As I’ve noted in other recipes, a good tip is to keep your ginger in the freezer. It stays fresh longer and you don’t have to worry about peeling it, you just use a microplane and grate what you need!
Making this was pretty simple, here’s what I did:
- Sautee the garlic and onion in the olive oil (you want to cook out the raw flavor)
- Add the stock and bring to a boil
- Add the beets and carrots and cook until they are fork tender
- Add the lemon juice, orange juice, and the grated ginger to the pot, stir, and take it off of the heat. *The last thing you want to be doing is adding a hot liquid to your blender, so make sure you let it cool down!!*
- Once it’s cool, pour it all into the blender and blend!
- Chill in the fridge for about an hour and EAT!!
I garnished mine with some pepitas (pumpkin seeds) and it tasted great!!
You can definitely eat this soup hot too, so keep it in mind during the fall and winter months. Just reheat it on the stove after you blend it and enjoy.
DontForgetChristine 