Roasted Garlic and Beet Soup: Rosy-Red & Healthy for Souper (Soup, Salad and Sammie) Sundays

I must confess that I was a beet hater until very recently. I'm not sure why--maybe it was the canned beets that made up my beet experience that made me place them firmly in the dislike column of my veggie list. Slowly, through trail and experimentation (and plenty of goat cheese at first), roasted beets moved their way over into the like column. Beet juice followed. Finally I found I don't even mind the canned ones--in small doses, mixed in a salad.

I saw this recipe in the February 2012 Whole Living Magazine. (You can also find it on the magazine's website here). The combination of the roasted beets, roasted garlic and leeks sounded good. To make it fit the 28 Day--Engine 2 Challenge I am doing, I roasted the beets and garlic without oil and cooked the leeks in a bit of veggie stock. I also bumped up the lemon juice--I like how much it brightens the earthy sweetness of the beets in this simple soup.

Roasted Garlic and Beet Soup
Adapted From Whole Living, February 2012
(Serves 4--Makes 4 Cups)

3 medium beets (I used 6 small beets)
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for drizzling (omitted)
6 unpeeled garlic cloves (I used 8 cloves)
1 large leek, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1 bay leaf
coarse salt and pepper
2 tablespoons lemon juice (I used abut 3 Tbsp)

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Drizzle beets with olive oil and roast in parchment-lined foil until tender, about 1 hour. Meanwhile, drizzle garlic cloves with oil and roast in separate foil packet, about 30 minutes. Unwrap beets, let cool, peel, and quarter. Squeeze garlic from skin. Set aside.

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a pot over medium heat. Add leek and cook, stirring, until tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Add beets and garlic, thyme, bay leaf, and 3 cups water. Season with salt and pepper.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, 5 minutes. Discard bay leaf. Let cool slightly, then puree in a blender until smooth. Stir in lemon juice and adjust seasoning to taste.

Nutritional Information: Per Serving: 130 calories, 9g fat, (1 g sat fat), 2 g protein, 3 g fiber. Note: Taking out the oil brings the calories down to about 70 and the fat to .2 g just in case you were wondering)


Notes/Results: Rosy-red, thick and full of flavor. This is a fairly low-effort soup--once the beets and garlic are roasted, it goes together quickly. I needed a bit more lemon than the recipe called for to make it to my liking, so I added another tablespoon and it was perfect. I enjoyed this soup warm, garnished with a few slices of beet, but I liked it even better cold for lunch the next day when the flavors really popped. I would make this one again.


It's a soupy Superbowl weekend here at Souper Sundays. We have a few soup-loving friends waiting, so let's take a look.

Tigerfish from Teczcape - An Escape to Food starts us off with this comforting Fresh Herbs Chicken Macaroni Soup. She says, "With homemade chicken stock, I find myself indulging in soups more than ever. Freshening soups with generous amounts of finely chopped cilantro and green onions, plus that little fresh chili for extra kick has become the magical fresh touch to the last, that awakens the soup seconds before serving (and slurping!). Oh this is comfort and instant satisfaction!"

We have two new faces to welcome to Souper Sundays this week. First up is Jill~a SaucyCook from SaucyCooks.com who is blogging from Denver, Colorado. She's here with a No Cream Creamy Butternut Squash Soup with a Kick and says, "A quick inventory of the vegetable bin determined that I would be making yet another Butternut Squash Soup, but certainly not the same one already published here! No, this one would be more savory than sweet and bite you back upon closing your mouth on the spoon." Welcome Jill!

Our second newbie is Torwen from Torwen's Blog, joining us from the United Kingdom with this Vegan Singaporean Laksa. Torwen says, "This recipe is a mix from different sources and I adjusted it to my own preferences of course. The spice past is more or less based on Ottolenghi's recipe and I also referred heavily on this nice vegan recipe from Hunger Pangs. But there are endlessly more good Laksa recipes out there in the web. A colourful novelty I introduced was however, the use of black rice noodles. The end result is a beautiful, spicy, and warming vegan Laksa (you can see the black rice noodles at about 5 o'clock on the picture below)." Welcome Torwen!

Janet from The Taste Space has a hearty Martinique Sweet Potato Coconut Curry with Eggplant and Pineapple to share this week and says, "...this curry originates from Martinique, an Eastern Caribbean island, that has elements from Africa, France, the Caribbean and South Asia in its cuisine. The distinctive flavours come from the Colombo spice mix that includes cumin, coriander, mustard, fenugreek, black peppercorns, cloves and turmeric. The curry gets its heft from starchy sweet potatoes, but butternut squash could equally be used. The eggplant melts into the coconut-curry broth, tangy from the tamarind and lime juice."

Finally we have Joanne from Eats Well With Others, who made this healthy Quinoa Chowder with Sweet Potatoes, Spinach, Feta, and Scallions while saving her kitchen from her pancake-making roommate and her boyfriend. Joanne says, "After they were safely tucked away in Anu's room. Eating. Happily. I got to dig into my chowder. And maybe it was the fact that by this point, I was hungry enough to eat my own hand...but it was all the comfort I needed after that trying kitchen experience. There are no crazy innovative flavor combinations in here, just tried and true favorites that you can depend on to taste good."

Thanks to the friends--both old and new who joined in with their soups this week. If you have a soup, salad or sandwich that you would like to share, just click on the Souper Sundays logo on the side bar for all of the details.

Have a happy, healthy week!