Cold Beet Soup With Avocado, Cucumber and Greek Yogurt
1295 days ago
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Beets weren’t a popular vegetable on our table growing up – likely because we didn’t know what to do with them. I vaguely recall having beets out of the can, but I also recall not liking them in that form. Not a surprise seeing as I didn’t really like anything out of a can. Now, beets are one of my favorite vegetables to experiment with and this Cold Beet Soup with Avocado, Cucumber and Greek Yogurt was really a nice surprise.
I hadn’t really thought about making a beet soup but why not? Beets have a really nice flavor and are a vegetable that will hold their flavor, even when served cold. Additionally, the color of cooked beets is amazing. I didn’t know this until I started cooking with beets more, but the key to keeping that intense red color is to not slice or cut them before cooking. Cooking them whole and then removing the skin retains the color. Although I advise using gloves, so your hands don’t end up dyed red.
Preparing the Beets and Vegetables
The hardest part about this dish is cooking the beets – seriously! Everything goes into a blender at the end to create the smooth soup so it’s more about patience while the beets cook. The first thing you’ll want to do is trim the beets, removing the stem and leaves, using a Hardy Slicer.
Place your cleaned beets into a saucepan, covering them with water and simmer until the beets are fork tender. Quick tip– reserve the beet liquid as you will use this in the soup, which is why it’s important that you clean the beets before cooking them. The cooking liquid will add additional color to the finished soup.
While the beets are cooking is the perfect time to cut up the onion, garlic, cucumber and ginger. I used the 7-5/8" Petite Chef knife to prep all of my vegetables, although you can use the Traditional Cheese Knife to cut your cucumbers.
How to Make the Cold Soup
Once the beets are cooled, set aside the cooking liquid (you’ll need this later) and start removing the beet skins. Make sure to use gloves as your hands will easily stain from the beet juice. The skins should peel off easily after cooking. Just use your index finger to get under the skin and the skin should just slip off.
Using the Hardy Slicer, slice your beets and add them to the blender along with your other cut up vegetables and seasonings.
This is where we added 1 1/2 cup of the reserved cooking liquid (which is why it must be cool) along with some vegetable broth to thin out the soup. You can add more or less of the liquid depending on how thick you want the soup to be. Blend the ingredients until smooth, making sure to taste and see if additional seasoning is needed.
The soup should then be chilled, and this is the perfect time to prepare your garnishes. While you could serve the soup as is, we found adding some additional color really made the presentation pop. We added some diced avocado, micro greens, and then Greek yogurt that was swirled into the final dish. Of course, we couldn’t leave out beets as a garnish so we diced the set-aside cooked beet and some other beets for additional flavor and color. Check out our How to Cut Beets tutorial for some additional tips on working with beets.
Cold Beet Soup with Avocado, Cucumber and Greek Yogurt was a bit of a revelation in our kitchen. We were pleasantly surprised by all of the flavors and the final presentation of the soup was over-the-top. This is a dish I will definitely make again, especially if I have guests coming over or if I just want to spoil myself.
Ingredients
- 1 pound beets, cleaned and stems cut off
- 1/4 cup sweet onion, finely diced, divided
- 2 small garlic cloves, sliced
- 3 Persian cucumbers, diced and divided
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, more to taste
- 1/8 teaspoon fresh pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon minced ginger
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, additional to taste
- 4 tablespoons red port wine
- 1/2 cup vegetable broth
- 1 avocado, diced
- 1 cup Greek yogurt
- Microgreens
Directions
- In a medium saucepan, add beets and cover them with water. Over medium-high heat, bring the water to a boil. Then turn the heat to low and simmer until the beets are cooked (fork tender), approximately 50 minutes. Allow the beets and the cooking liquid to completely cool (place in the refrigerator once partially cooled).
- When the beets are cold, wearing gloves, slip off the skins of the beets using your hands. Set aside one beet.
- Slice the remaining beets and put them into a blender along with 1-1/2 cups of the cold cooking liquid. Add half the diced onion, the sliced garlic cloves, 2 of the diced Persian cucumbers, salt, pepper, ginger, red wine vinegar, port wine and vegetable broth.
- Blend on high until mixture is completely smooth. Taste and add additional seasoning if necessary. If you want the soup to be thinner, add more of the reserved cooking liquid until you achieve your desired consistency.
- Refrigerate the soup until it’s ready to serve.
- Finely dice the remaining beet and add to the remaining ingredients (onion, cucumbers, and avocado). Fill 4 bowls with the chilled beet soup and sprinkle the diced vegetables on top along with the microgreens. Drizzle with some Greek yogurt and serve.
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