Pink soup with roasted onions and broccoli

I’m all about soup all the time. To me, it’s the ultimate comfort food, as easy and satisfying as can be. As much as I love smooth, creamy ones, I often crave a chunky texture in my soups, thinking back to the ones I ate for lunch every day of my childhood. To most Russians, soup is a mandatory part of lunch – it’s served first, followed by a main. My mother never had a shortage of soup ideas, and things like borsht, green borsht, solyanka, mushroom soup, and sturgeon uha were on the lunch table on any given day. This soup is an interesting step away from the classic autumn squash soup – brilliant pink in colour with plenty of textures and flavours to warm the soul and nourish the body. I adapted the recipe from Salatshop, a Russian wellness blog written by Olya Malysheva out of Moscow.

Credit: Masha Davydova

• serves

  4

• prep

  20 minutes

• cook

  35 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 2-3 small to medium beetroot, peeled and cubed
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
• sea salt
• 2 small to medium red onions, peeled and quartered or cut into eighths, depending on size
• grapeseed oil
• 1 head of broccoli, cut into bite-sized florets
• 2 tins (about 800 ml) coconut milk
• pinch of chilli powder or a dash of cayenne or hot chilli sauce
• juice of ½ lemon
• 1-2 ripe but firm avocados
• freshly ground black pepper
• rocket leaves for garnish

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180ºC.

Add beets to a medium saucepan along with the garlic and a pinch of salt and barely cover with water. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer until beets are tender. 

Meanwhile, brush onions and a baking sheet with a little grapeseed oil. Place onions on the baking sheet and roast until golden, about 20 minutes. 

While waiting for the beets and onions to cook, bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil and blanch the broccoli for 3 minutes. Immediately transfer into an ice-water bath to stop the cooking process.

When the beets are tender, add in coconut milk and a pinch of salt, bring to a gentle boil and simmer for 3 minutes. Add in the broccoli, stir to heat it through and then remove from the heat. Squeeze lemon juice over the soup and adjust salt if needed.  

Cube the avocado. Ladle the soup into bowls and top with roasted onion wedges, avocado cubes and rocket leaves. Serve with sourdough or sprouted bread avocado toasts. Enjoy!

Recipe from Golubka Kitchen by Anya Kassoff, with photographs by Masha Davydova.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.