The first spoonful of this beetroot soup stains everything a deep, glorious magenta, and I never get tired of it. There is something about that colour that makes you slow down at the table, and slowing down is half of why I keep coming back to it.
I make it most on the evenings when I have been running at full tilt and my body is quietly asking me to sit still. It is soft, earthy and just rich enough from the cashews and coconut milk to feel like a proper meal, without leaving you heavy before bed.
Beetroot is packed with antioxidants and nutrients such as beta-carotene, folate, potassium, vitamin C, iron and fibre. The purple pigment carries antioxidants that help protect your cells, and the fibre is the sort of thing your gut genuinely appreciates over time.
Ingredients
- 4 extra large roasted beetroot
- 3 cloves of roasted garlic
- 150 grams of organic raw cashews
- ¼ of a bunch of Fresh Dill
- 1 litre Vegetable stock
- 200mls Coconut milk
- Season with Maldon sea salt and cracked black pepper to taste
Method
- Roast beetroot in their skin until cooked. Peel and roughly chop when cool. Blend all ingredients except for the coconut milk in a blender until smooth.
- Add the coconut milk last.
Serves 4.
This recipe comes from Golden Door Executive Chef David Hunter, and the beauty of it is how forgiving it is. Roasting the beetroot whole, in their skins, is the step I would never skip. It concentrates the sweetness and pulls out that mellow, almost caramelised flavour that boiling simply cannot give you. The raw cashews do quiet, clever work here, giving the soup a velvety body so you do not need cream to feel like you are having something a little luxurious.
Serving, make-ahead and gentle variations
Enjoy this soup hot in the winter and at room temperature in the summer, which makes it a rare thing that earns a place on the menu all year round. I like a swirl of the reserved coconut milk on top and a few extra fronds of dill for colour and a bit of freshness against the earthiness.
It keeps beautifully. Make a double batch, cool it fully, and it will sit happily in the fridge for three or four days, or in the freezer for a couple of months. The flavour deepens overnight, so leftovers are honestly no hardship. If you want a lighter lunch version, loosen it with a splash more stock and serve it with a slice of grainy sourdough. For a heartier dinner, I sometimes pair it with our feta, sweet potato and eggplant frittata alongside.
Cashews not to hand? A handful of blanched almonds will do a similar job for the creaminess. Prefer a bit of warmth? A small knob of grated ginger blended in gives the soup a lovely low hum. For more on why colourful vegetables are worth building your week around, the folks at Better Health Channel lay it out simply, and Nutrition Australia is my other steady reference.
If soups are becoming your thing, this sits nicely beside the warming end of our golden coconut chicken curry and the quieter comfort of a bowl of brown rice porridge on a slow morning. You will find more like it over in our recipe collection, along with the reflective pieces I write on calming foods when I want dinner to help me wind down rather than rev me up.
— Tanya Pryce, Golden Door Living
