I was at the farmers market the other day and picked up a bag of big honkin’ beets.  I was so proud because a health foodarian friend of mine tells me that beets are ridiculously good for us.  They’re a good veggie to eat in the spring because they give our livers a kick start and that’s useful after a winter of eating heavy foods.

But I got home and wasn’t sure what to do with them.  Then I remembered looking through some of the 101 Healthy Soups on Cooking Light.  I looked through them again and sure enough there was a beet soup recipe lurking.  Beet soup seemed like the perfect thing.  It’s a good detox food because the soup is hearty and on a chilly spring day it nicer to eat than a ice cold salad.

Making a borsht soup would have been nice but i didn’t have the time.  This one recipe looked so darn easy that i thought i’d give it a shot.  The recipe provides proportions, but I actually used my whole bag of beets (5 or 6) and added more broth and water.  I also  modified it to make it detox friendly:

Ingredients:

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 chopped onion
  • 4 cups detox friendly chicken broth
  • 2 cups water
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • a bay leaf, and/or a good shake of thyme and dill
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 3 medium beets, peeled and chopped

Preparation

  1. Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté 3 minutes or until tender. Add broth and the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, 20 minutes or until beets are tender.
  2. Let it cool a bit.
  3. Fill your blender nearly to the top with soup and process until smooth. Pour it back into the pot and use a slotted spoon to remove more chunks, putting them in the blender.  Keep blending until the soup is pureed.
  4. Warm soup over low heat for 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Remove from heat and eat ‘er up.