Beet And Ginger Soup With Cucumber Recipes

GINGERY BEET SOUP

Steps:

• In a medium saucepan, heat oil over medium-high. Add onion, chopped ginger, garlic, and a pinch of salt; cook until softened, 4 to 5 minutes. Add beets, potato, and 4 cups water. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook until vegetables are tender, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool slightly; transfer to a blender. Blend until smooth, adding 1/4 to 1/2 cup water for desired consistency.
• Stir together yogurt and grated ginger. Ladle soup into bowls; swirl in yogurt. Top with thyme (if desired), a drizzle of olive oil, and more pepper.

SUMMER BORSCHT

Steps:

• Place the beets in a large pot of boiling salted water and cook uncovered until the beets are tender, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove the beets to a bowl with a slotted spoon and set aside to cool. Strain the cooking liquid through a fine sieve and also set aside to cool.
• In a large bowl, whisk together 1 1/2 cups of the beet cooking liquid, the chicken stock, sour cream, yogurt, sugar, lemon juice, vinegar, 1 tablespoon salt, and the pepper. Peel the cooled beets with a small paring knife or rub the skins off with your hands. Cut the beets in small to medium dice. Add the beets, cucumber, scallions, and dill to the soup. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 4 hours or overnight. Season, to taste, and serve cold with a dollop of sour cream and an extra sprig of fresh dill.

BEET-AND-GINGER SOUP WITH CUCUMBER

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Place the beets in a bowl and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of oil and season with salt. Toss to coat. Place the beets on half of a large sheet of aluminum foil and fold over to make a pouch. Seal tightly. Place in the oven and roast until a fork easily pierces the beets, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool. Peel off skin and cut beets in quarters.
• In a soup pot, warm the remaining olive oil over medium heat. Add the leek and cook until it begins to soften, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger; cook 2 minutes more. Season lightly with salt. Add the beets, chicken broth and 3 cups of water. Bring to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes.
• Transfer the soup in batches to a food processor and process until smooth. Then return the soup to the pot and place over medium heat. Taste and adjust seasoning, adding more salt, the lemon juice to taste and more ginger if you wish. Just before serving (the soup should not be served too hot; it could even be served chilled or at room temperature), add the cucumber to the soup and stir. Then ladle into bowls and serve immediately. You may serve this with a dollop of crème fraîche.

COLD BEET AND CUCUMBER SOUP

Steps:

• Cook beets in large pot of boiling water until very tender and knife pierces through to the center easily, about 50 minutes. Drain beets; cool slightly. Peel and coarsely chop.
• Transfer beets, scallions, cucumbers, horseradish, and wine vinegar to food processor. Add some of the liquids to blend. Puree, but not too fine. Thin to desired consistency with beet juice and broth. Transfer to bowl, season, and chill several hours. Check seasoning before serving. Pour into individual bowls and garnish with spoonful of sour cream and sprinkling of dill. Can be made up to 3 days in advance, covered, chilled.

BEET, GINGER AND RED CABBAGE SOUP

Steps:

• Heat the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the potato, ginger, thyme, rosemary, 1/2 teaspoon salt and a few grinds of pepper and cook, stirring, until the potatoes are well coated, 2 to 3 minutes. Pour in the broth and bring to a simmer.
• Add the beets and cabbage and simmer until the potatoes and vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes, adjusting the heat as needed to maintain a simmer. Remove from the heat, discard the herbs and let cool at least 5 minutes. Carefully puree until smooth with a handheld immersion blender or in 2 to 3 batches in a blender (do not fill the blender more than halfway full).
• Reheat the soup if necessary and adjust the consistency with water and seasoning with salt and pepper as needed
• Serve hot with a dollop of sour cream and toasted chopped walnuts sprinkled on top.

ROASTED BEETS WITH GINGER

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Carefully scrub the beets clean trimming off the leaves and the long root tip. Tightly wrap beets in aluminnum foil and place in oven for 40-50 minutes or until the beets are tender and the skin is loose. Remove from oven and cut a slit in the foil to allow the steam to escape.
• Allow the beets to cool enough so that you can handle them. Trim the ends and peel the skin. The skin should slip of quite easily. If not then perhaps the beets need a bit more cooking. Cut the peeled beets into sixths or eighths - depending on the size of your beets.
• Heat oil under medium low heat. Add ginger and cook one or two minutes. Keep the heat low as you are looking to release the flavor. If your ginger sizzles or browns, then your heat is too high. Add the beets and cook two or three minutes. Add balsamic vinegar and cook another minute or so. The oil, vinegar and ginger should create nice glaze covering the beets.
• Serve and enjoy.

BEET, GINGER, AND COCONUT MILK SOUP

Steps:

• In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Sauté onion, 5 minutes. Add garlic and ginger; cook, stirring often, 5 minutes. Add beets and 4 cups stock; bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until beets are fork-tender, 20 minutes. With an immersion or regular blender, puree soup, adding remaining 1 cup stock as needed to reach desired consistency. Stir in milk, salt and pepper. Garnish with parsley and julienned beets and serve with bread, if desired.

BEET, RHUBARB, AND GINGER SOUP

Steps:

• Break or cut each rhubarb stalk into 2 or 3 pieces, just so they fit in the saucepan, and set aside. Wash the beets, remove the stalks and leaves (see p.199 for what to do with them), and trim each beet, cutting away the barnacly bits; there's no need to peel. Roughly chop into ¾-inch chunks. Peel the onion and roughly chop it.
• Warm the oil in a decent-sized saucepan or Dutch oven that comes with a tightly fitting lid-I use one of 10 inches diameter-and cook the onion for about 10 minutes over medium-low heat, stirring frequently. It won't soften much in that time, but enough for now.
• Peel and roughly chop the garlic, and stir it into the pan of onions. Cook for about 2 minutes, then stir in the cumin and tumble in the rhubarb and beets. Add the water and salt, turn the heat to high and bring to a boil. Once it's bubbling, turn the heat down, clamp on the lid, and let it all cook at a robust simmer until the beets are utterly, utterly soft. This always takes more time than you'd think: I'd reckon on 1½ hours, though it easily could take longer.
• With a stick blender (and if yours comes with a soup-blending attachment, so much the better), blitz until you have a smooth and velvety ruby soup.
• If the skin's tough, peel the ginger with the tip of a teaspoon, then coarsely grate it onto a plate. Moving fast, get out a piece of paper towel and spoon half the grated ginger into the center, then bring together the edges of the paper and twist. Holding this little swag bag over the soup, press on it to squeeze out the intense juice. Now get another square of paper towel, and do the same with the remaining half of grated ginger. Taste for seasoning, ladle out into waiting bowls, and drizzle over each a little horseradish cream or green tahini sauce as you wish.

CHILLED BEET SOUP WITH BUTTERMILK, CUCUMBERS, AND DILL (CHLODNIK)

Steps:

• Using a large knife, separate greens and stems from beets. Thoroughly wash greens and stems; set aside. Scrub beets, transfer to a medium pot, and cover with 1" water. Cover pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium, uncover, and cook until beets are tender when pierced with a knife, about 10 minutes. Drain beets; discard cooking liquid. Let cool.
• Meanwhile, chop beet greens and stems. Transfer to a large pot and add 1/2 tsp. salt and 4 cups water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and simmer, without boiling, until greens are tender, about 5 minutes. Let cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.
• Peel and coarsely grate beets, preferably wearing gloves. Add to pot with cooled greens. Gently stir in cucumbers, pickle, pickle brine, buttermilk, sour cream, and scallions. Season with salt and pepper.
• Cover pot and chill soup at least 30 minutes. Adjust seasonings, if desired. Divide soup among bowls; top with eggs and dill.
• Do Ahead
• Soup can be made 2 days ahead; cover and chill.

BEET AND GINGER SOUP

Steps:

• Chop cooked beets roughly, and put into a blender with ginger, hot broth and lemon juice. Purée to make a smooth soup. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
• Pour into a soup bowl, and serve immediately at room temperature, or heat and serve piping hot.