Summer Beet Soup Recipes

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.

COLD BEET SOUP - SUMMER BORSCHT

Steps:

• In a pot, add the beets, cucumbers, kefir and water. Add the dill, and stir. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Add a splash of vinegar or lemon juice if required. Refrigerate for few hours.
• Serve the soup in a bowl with some quartered or chopped boiled egg. Don't add eggs to the pot, because they will soak up the pink color. Sprinkle the scallions on top. Enjoy!

BEET GAZPACHO

Steps:

• Place beets in a medium pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Turn heat down to low and simmer until fork tender all the way through, about 60-90 minutes. Rinse with cold water.
• Once beets are cold, slip off their skins using your hands. Slice and place 3 of the 4 beets (saving one) in a blender with 2 cups cold water, or cold veggie stock). Add half of the chopped onion (about ⅛ cup) , 2 garlic cloves, 2 sliced Turkish cucumbers (saving one) salt, pepper, vinegar and about ⅔ of the fresh dill ( saving some for garnish). Blend until very smooth. Taste and adjust salt and vinegar. Place in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
• Prep the garnishes. Finely dice the remaining beet, cucumber, avocado and chop the remaining dill. Pour chilled beet soup (the colder it is, the better) into bowls. Top with the garnishes. Drizzle with a little olive oil or a swirl of yogurt or sour cream if you like. Serve immediately!

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.

SUMMER BEET BORSCHT (COLD SOUP)

Steps:

• 1. Preheat oven to 375. Line sheet pan with aluminum foil. Leave skin on beets lightly coat with olive oil. Roast for 30 minutes or longer until tender. After roasting, pull foil around beets to enclose, sit out to cool completely.
• 2. In large bowl whisk sour creams, yogurt, sugar, lemon juice, vinegar, salt and pepper. Peel cooled beets by rubbing the skins off or using paring knife(hint, use gloves for rubbing skins off to prevent staining of your hands.) Dice beets to 1/2 to 1 inch cubes. Add beets, cucumber, scallion and dill to soup mixture.
• 3. Cover with plastic wrap and chill at least 4 hours, overnight is better. Season with salt again if needed and serve cold with a dollop of sour cream and dill sprig.

COLD BEET SOUP FOR SUMMER

Steps:

• Drain beets, reserving liquid.If using whole or sliced beets, slice into matchstick pieces.Peel and dice cucumber. (I like fairly large dice.).
• Hold back about 3/4 cup of julianned beets in a seperate bowl.Add remaining beets and chopped cucumber to a large bowl. Add reserved beet juice,14 oz. of water and 2 tablespoons vinegar.
• Stir about 1/2 cup of sour cream into the beets you held in the seperate bowl.(this process keeps the sour cream from "breaking up" in the soup and making lumps.)Stir until the sour cream/beet mixture is smooth. Add another 1/2 cup of sour cream. Stir until smooth. Add 1/4 cup of the beet juice from the large bowl and stir until smooth.Stir in the last 1/2 cup of sour cream. Mixture should be without lumps (sour cream should be liqified.)This seems complicated, but once you get the hang of it, it goes quite quickly.
• Add the beet/sourcream mix to the large bowl and stir to combine. At this point, taste to see if the level of vinegar is to your liking, if not add a little more.
• Add the dried dill. The 2 tsp is a good place to start, but I usually add more.
• Cover and chill at least 2 hours.Serve in chilled bowls. My mom adds chopped hard boiled eggs to this soup, so if you want to give that a try it's up to you,.