Tag archives: beetroot

Borscht – Beetroot soup with feta recipe

A friend gave me some home grown beetroot so I decided to make a bit of Borscht, or beetroot soup!

Ingredients – Makes enough for 3-4

600g (3-4 large beets), peeled and grated coarsely

500g (around 5-6) of ripe tomatoes, halved (I suppose if you’re really lazy you could use a tin of chopped tomatoes)

2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped

1 medium onion, peeled and chopped

A bit of olive oil

500ml of vegetable stock (I used 2 ‘Knorr Stock Pots’)

Freshly ground black pepper

Some feta cheese

Method

Place the halved tomatoes in an oven dish, pour a little olive oil over the top of them and throw on the chopped garlic.

Place in the oven at 190C (I’ve got a fan oven) until they’re soft, it took me about 30 minutes.

Place the tomatoes in a sieve and rub through into a bowl to remove the skins and pips.

Put a little more oil in a pan and sweat the onion with a twist of black pepper.

Add the stock and beetroot, give it all a stir and bring to the boil for about 10 minutes or until the beetroot is tender.

Stir in the tomato purée.

Using either a stick blender or a normal blender process the soup until completely smooth. If you’ve got white walls take care, it’s easy to spray the soup all over if you’re using a stick blender!

Transfer the soup to warmed bowls and crumble a little of the feta cheese on top.

Serve with crusty bread!

You might also want to…

  • Add a shot of vodka
  • Chill in the fridge and serve cold

Vegetable and lentil stew recipe

Probably better on a cold, winter night, but it was delicious in July anyway!

Ingredients – Makes enough for 4-5

Olive oil

750ml of vegetable stock

2 onions, peeled and chopped

2 carrots, peeled and diced

2 parsnips, peeled and diced

2 beetroot, peeled and diced

1 sweet potato, as big as your fist, peeled and diced

1 leek, sliced

2 sticks of celery, sliced

180g of red split lentils

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

227g tin of chopped tomatoes

Freshly ground black pepper

1 heaped teaspoon of ground coriander

1 heaped teaspoon of ground cumin

Juice of half a lemon

Method

Add a little oil to a big pan over a medium heat

Add half of the onion, all of the carrot, parsnip, beetroot, sweet potato, leek and celery.

Keep stirring and fry for about 5 minutes.

Add the garlic and the lentils, stir and cook for another 5 minutes.

Add the chopped tomatoes and stock, give it a stir and put a lid on the pan.

Let it simmer for about half an hour, until the veg is just about cooked.

In another pan, over a medium heat add a little more oil and add the remaining onion.

Add the ground coriander and cumin and fry for 10 minutes, don’t let the onion brown you just want to flavour it with the spices.

When soft, add the fried onion to the stew with the lemon juice, season with ground black pepper and give it a final stir.

Serve and nom!