Suddenly it’s fall and my produce bin looks like it exploded with root vegetables, hearty greens, legumes and grains. What am I going to do with this bounty of vegetables and heart healthy grains?
Make a hearty vegetable soup!
Heck yes! I love soup weather! It means I get to wear sweaters, boots and light jackets. The smell of crisp leaves on the sidewalk and our neighbors enjoying fires. It is my favorite time of year! I also love root vegetables. However, I haven’t always loved beets and suddenly they are sexy and tasting better than ever. Beets are popping up on menus everywhere and I decided to tackle these beasts at home. Not only did I tackle them, I decided to use the entire thing!
Who knew you could use the entire beet!?
This vegetable soup recipe uses the beet greens. They are extremely nutrient dense. In one cup of beet greens you get 220% vitamin A, 4 grams of protein, 15% iron which is more than spinach (sorry Popeye). There are just 39 calories and 4 grams fiber.
Wait, what about the beetroot? You don’t think I just wasted that do you? Nope. I popped those little suckers in foil, splashed a few drizzles of olive oil on them and into a preheated 400 degree oven they went (along with sweet potatoes for my sweet potato casserole (recipe coming soon)). After the beets roasted for about 45 minutes I removed them from the oven, let them cool and used them in salads and on grains.
Boom. 2 meals with one vegetable. That’s how I roll.
Hearty Fall Vegetable Soup Recipe with Beet Greens
Yield: 15 cups
Ingredients
- Beet greens with stems, one bunch (it’s the leaves on top of the beetroot)
- ¼ cup olive oil + 2 TB reserved
- 1 cup vegetable stock +1 ½ cups reserved
- ½ cup white wine
- 4 large carrots
- 2 cloves garlic, pressed
- 2 tsp Harissa Spice
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 cup chopped sweet white onion
- ¼ cup finely chopped jalapeno (omit if you do not like medium spicy heat!)
- 1.5 T salt
- Few dashes cracked black pepper
- 2 cups water
Directions
- Coarsely chop beet greens and stems
- Coarsely chop carrots
- Bring large stock pot to med heat with ¼ cup oil
- Add beet greens & stalks,carrots and veggie stock
- Stir
- Add white wine and garlic
- Cover and cook on medium heat for 5-7 minutes
- Add in onion, jalapeno and corn and ½ cup reserved stock + 2 T olive oil, salt and pepper
- Cover and let cook on medium high heat for 10 minutes or until all vegetables are tender
- Add 2 cups of water + 1 cup reserved veggie stock
- Let simmer for 10 minutes
- Remove from heat and serve with garnishes of your choice. I like Avocado, cilantro, giardiniera and croutons
Chefs Tip: f you want to puree this soup, just let cool for 10-15 minutes and puree in blender or large food processor! If you leave chunky feel free to add some ancient grains and beans for extra protein ( like I did above).
Have questions? Just shoot me an email or leave a comment on my Facebook page!
