Roasted Beet Soup with Carrots, Onion and Garlic

Roasted beet soup - perfect for lunch or anytime!

My friend Marianne surprised me with beet soup last week.  I tried it and loved it and set out to come up with a recipe.  Marianne boiled her beets and added sautéed onions and fat free yogurt.  It was a beautiful color and really tasted great.



Beets, onions, baby carrots, onion and garlic

I got all the ingredients together and was getting ready to get out the big colander to boil the water when lazyness set in - I didn't want to wait for the water to boil and I didn't want to sauté the onions because I thought it would splatter all over the kitchen and the cleaning lady had just been there and the kitchen was really clean. 

Peel the beets

 I have a really great peeler and it took no time to get them ready to roast.  Marianne said that by boiling them you don't have to worry about peeling - but this peeler is so handy it took no time at all.  The baby carrots were already peeled and I quickly peeled and chopped the onion and garlic.  Marianne's recipe didn't call for the carrots and garlic but it sounded good to me so I included them. 

Line pan with parchment paper and add chopped veggies

I bought the beets loose at the market - they're much cheaper without the greens.  I love the greens but I wasn't using them in this recipe so I saved a few bucks and got the loose ones.  I chopped the beets and vidalia onion. Just chop them and try to get the beets roughly the same size.  It would take forever to roast them whole - and they go into the blender at the end so no need to add to the cooking time.

Chop the beets and onions - the carrots and garlic can go in as is

I put the mixture into an oven-safe frying pan (have you noticed I always use frying pans in the oven?).  Line the pan with parchment paper first for easier cleanup.  I put in a pre-heated 450 degree oven.  I thought it would take about 45 minutes - but it took much longer.  I was cooking dinner at the same time and after an hour I reduced the heat to 350 degrees - I took tongs and flipped around the mixture every hour or so.  It ended up taking 2 hours to cook the beets.  You  know they're done when they are fork-tender.

I had some left over jarred pearl onions - I tossed them in as well

I noticed that I had some jarred pearl onions in the fridge and added them at the one  hour point - juice and all.

Finally done - it took about 2 hours to roast

I made the soup on a "school night" - had I known it would take so long I would have made it a weekend afternoon project.  It worked out fine, though, and the apartment smelled amazing - it was a autumn-y aroma.

Double duty - cooking dinner and the soup at the same time

Bonus round

I though I'd make short order of the beet soup and then cook dinner.  But when it took longer and longer I started to cook dinner.  I served the beet mixture with it - before putting in the blender.  This is a great side-dish on its own. 



Nice side dish!

Let mixture cool and put in blender

Add non-fat Greek yogurt

Blend with vegetable broth

Pretty as a picture

You will probably have to do a few batches.  Add vegetable broth until you get the desired consistency. I used four large beets and it took quite a bit of liquid to get the soup-y texture that I wanted.  I used an entire small can and then added water.  This was for half of the mixture.  I put the remainder in a container and put in the freezer for later use.

Lemon goes with everything

At the end I added a nice quality, fat-free Greek yogurt.  I only used two tablespoons for this batch.  And, of course, I love lemon and added fresh juice along with salt and pepper.

My first batch - delicious!

Ingredients

4 large beets - peeled and diced
2 large vidalia onions - peeled and chopped into quarters
3 cloves garlic - peeled and smashed
2 tbspns extra virgin olive oil
2 cups baby carrots
2 cans vegetable stock
Water to taste
2 tbspns fat free Greek yogurt

Method

Note: This is a dish that requires some eye-balling.  You can make as big or small a batch as you desire.  It's a matter of roasting the beets until they're fork tender, so check them every half hour or so, tossing them with tongs each time.

Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees
Line pan with parchment paper
Add the beets, carrots, onion and garlic
Add olive oil and salt and pepper and mix well
Roast in oven for one hour - but toss the mixture at 30 minutes so all sides cook evenly
Reduce heat to 350 degrees after one hour and cook until fork-tender; checking every 20 minutes or so and tossing using tongs
When mixture is fork-tender remove from oven and set aside to cook for at least 30 minutes
Put the mixture in the blender in batches.  I used 2 tablespoons of the yogurt per batch
Add the vegetable stock and blend until you get the desired consistency (you can use water if you wish - I used both)
I only used half of the mixture and froze the remainder in two separate tupperware containers for future used. I didn't add stock or water to the batch that I froze
I let the batch stand in the fridge overnight
When you're ready to serve heat up in the microwave for about 3 1/2 minutes
It's also delicious cold