CHILLED BEET SOUP (BORSCHT)

If you don't know what borscht is, let me enlighten you. I'm sure you like beet juice; well, it's that, minus the sweet apple juice, carrots and ginger. A traditional Polish and Russian soup, borscht is really one of my favorite dishes. It reminds me of my childhood as my mother used to make it, and when I lived in Poland, I ate it all the time. Beets are definitely one of my favorite root vegetables, raw, cooked, steamed, roasted, any way. 

The past few days in Geneva have been some of the hottest days this beautiful city has had in the past 20 years. Food sounded awful, and cold, raw vegetables and juices was pretty much all I craved or could handle. I bought beets a few days ago, and didn't really know what to do with them, and then I realized, I have always wanted to make beet soup myself! Now, the tradition version calls for cream, sour cream, dumplings and dill, but I wanted to healthify this a bit. Borscht is served both hot and chilled. Today was the day for the chilled version. This is a very simple and delicious recipe, and I decided to roast beet chips as a topping instead of using croutons or dumplings. So here you will get two recipes in one!

Husband approved.

Ingredients:

4 large beets

2 cups coconut milk

1 cup water or vegetable stock

1 tbsp sea salt

Juice of 2 lemons

1 onion

1 garlic clove

2 tbsp extra virgin oil or coconut oil

1 tsp ground ginger

Directions:

In a large soup pot, heat oil over medium heat. Sautee onion and garlic for 5 minutes. Add beets, water and coconut milk, sea salt, lemon juice, ground ginger, and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and let simmer for about 20 minutes. Cool. Place soup in a blender or using an immersion blender puree the soup and place in the fridge if serving chilled. Serve and top with beet chip.

Beet Chips

Ingredients:

2 beets, sliced 1/16" pieces

2 tbsp olive oil

Pinch of sea salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Slice beets using mandoline, toss in a bowl with olive oil and sea salt and arrange on the baking sheet. Bake until crisp, about 30 minutes.