Chilled Beet Soup with Kefir and Chives
May
18Posted in [Recipes] By LifeWayKefir LifeWayKefir
5/18/2010 12:01 PM
If you stop and really think about it, quite a few delicious foods come in pink:
Watermelon
Cotton candy
Birthday cake
Cosmopolitans
Juicy pink grapefruit
Strawberry kefir
Let’s add another to that hot Pink List: Beet soup! Beet season is nearly upon us, which means these gorgeous gems will be widely available and ready to be roasted, steamed, shredded, cubed or pureed. With their earthy flavor, beets are nutritional powerhouses, boasting high levels of folate, manganese and potassium – all important for cell production and maintenance. And for anyone watching their waistline, one beet only contains 44 calories, no fat or cholesterol, and a couple grams of fiber. (They are fairly high in sugar, though, which gives them their unmistakable sweetness.)
If you don’t love the fuschia mess that comes from cooking and handling red beets, you can substitute beautiful golden beets, but then you won’t be able to partake of the prettiest pink soup ever. Here’s the recipe, from Crumpets and Cakes:
Ingredients:
- 1 bunch baby beets with stems and leaves, peeled and finely chopped
- 3 large radishes or about 6 small, grated
- Lifeway kefir, plain
- 1 bunch of chives or about 6 green shallots, finely chopped
- Fresh dill - about 6-8 sprigs, chopped
- 1 English cucumber, grated
- Vegetable stock
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste, minced garlic(optional)
Directions:
Place chopped beets with their stems and leafs in a large pot, adding only enough stock to barley cover them and boil until tender, about 20 min, add salt to taste. Set aside and cool, reserve the stock.
In the meantime, mix all vegetables, finely chopped or grated, with dill and chives (or green shallots) in a large bowl. Add cooled beets and stock. In a final step, add kefir, about 12 oz. depending on what color and consistency you would like to achieve. There are no hard rules to follow. Add salt and ground pepper to taste. Serve chilled on a hot spring or summer day.
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