Roasted Beet Soup with Creme Fraiche Recipe

The colors are beautiful, taste is excellent, and this Roasted Beet Soup with Creme Fraiche is so easy to make and so delicious.  What more could you want to please your valentine and yourself?

It is easy to love fresh beets, and not just for their outstanding nutritional advantages.  Oven roasting beets seems to enhance their sweet nature plus it is the easiest way to cook beets.

 

Beet Soup with Creme Fraiche

 

This delicious Roasted Beet soup recipe and dinner menu were generously shared with my by Linda Sandberg of Newberg, OR.  Linda belongs to a Gourmet Dinner Group that delights in making wonderful foods that they share together.  Please check out An Evening for Valentines which includes this recipe.

 

Roasted Beet Soup with Creme Fraiche Recipe:
Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
45 mins
Total Time
1 hr 15 mins
 
Course: Soup
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Roasted Beet Soup with Creme Fraiche Recipe
Servings: 2 servings
Ingredients
  • 1/2 pound red beets (about 3 medium)*
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons butter
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon olive oil
  • 1 leek (white and pale green parts only), chopped
  • 1 small onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 celery stalk, chopped
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 small bay leaf
  • 1 fresh thyme sprig
  • 1 fresh parsley sprig
  • 1/4 cup heavy cream or whipping cream
  • Salt and freshly-ground pepper to taste
  • 2 tablespoons creme fraiche (for garnish)**
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

  2. Wrap beets in aluminum foil and roast until tender when pierced with a fork, approximately 1 hour.  Remove from oven and let cool.  Peel beets.  If desired, cut 1/4 of one (1) beet into 1/4-inch cubes; reserve for garnish.  Cut remaining beets into 1/2-inch pieces.  Check out my tutorial on Oven-Roasted Fresh Beets.

    Refrigerator Pickled Beets
  3. In a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat, warm the butter and olive oil.  Add the leek, onion, and celery; cook approximately 13 minutes, stirring frequently, until just beginning to brown.  Stir in ginger, allspice, white pepper, and beet pieces.  Cook until the vegetables just begin to stick to the bottom of the pot, stirring frequently, approximately 7 minutes.

  4. Add 2 cups water, bay leaf, thyme sprig, and parsley sprig.  Bring just to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until vegetables are very tender, approximately 25 minutes.  Remove bay leaf, thyme sprig, and parsley sprig and discard.  Remove soup from heat and let cool slightly.

  5. Working in batches, puree the slightly cooled beet soup in the blender or food processor with the cream.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Can be made one (1) day ahead.  Cool slightly, cover, and refrigerate.

  6. To serve, gently warm the soup (do not boil).

  7. Divide soup between two (2) bowls.  To garnish soup, spoon the creme fraiche into one corner of a resealable plastic bag.  Cut tip off corner and pipe heart atop each serving of soup.

  8. Makes 2 servings.

Recipe Notes

* Please don't throw away those fresh beet greens when cooking fresh beets.  Cook the beet greens and enjoy a delicious and nutritious dish just like your grandparents grew up with.  Learn Beet How To Cook Fresh Beet Greens.

** Sour cream may be substituted.

 

Source:

This fantastic Roasted Beet Soup with Creme Fraiche recipe is by Sondra Bernstein.  Recipe slightly adapted from Bon Appetit magazine, February 2005 and the Epicurious.com website.  Photo by Pornchai Mittongtare.

 

Categories:

Beets    Leeks    Valentine's Day    Vegetable Soups    Vegetarian Recipe Collection   

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