Tomato Borscht

This is an old favourite, taken from the New Covent Garden Soup Company cookbook my stepsisters gave me for a long-ago birthday (1999, they wrote an inscription).  I love beetroot, and this recipe is quick, easy and cheap yet really exciting to eat.

1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
225g (8 oz) beetroot, peeled and grated
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 400g tin tomatoes
570ml (1 pint) veg stock
1 tbsp soy sauce
salt + pepper

Heat the oil and then add the onion, garlic and beetroot and cook gently in a covered med-large saucepan for 10 min, without colouring.  Add the cumin, cinnamon, tomatoes and stock.  Cover, bring to the boil and simmer gently for about 15 min until the veg are tender.  Add the soy sauce and taste for seasoning.  Cool a little, then puree in a liquidiser until very smooth.  Reheat gently.


We ate it with some gnocchi, and it was just as good as I remembered: a wonderful mix of sweet and earthy, and of course it is bright pink so lots of fun.  S loved it too.  It was really cold these last few days (-14C with windchill), and I had to bike around a lot, so soup was definitely on my mind.