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Roasted Beetroot Soup with Horseradish Cream
Created by Chef Thomas
Beetroot roasted until deeply sweet, blended into a soup the colour of a winter sunset, and finished with a spoonful of horseradish cream that cuts through the richness like cold air through an open door.
January. The garden is bare and the light goes early and there's a particular kind of cold that settles into the kitchen by four o'clock. This is a soup for that kind of evening. It asks for very little, a bag of beetroot, an onion, some stock, an hour, and it gives back a bowl of something so deeply coloured it stops you for a moment when you ladle it out.
Roasting is what makes this. Raw beetroot tastes of earth and not much else. Boiled beetroot tastes of the water it sat in. But beetroot roasted in foil until it's soft and concentrated and almost sticky, that tastes like something worth sitting down for. The sweetness deepens in the oven, and the colour holds. When you blend it with stock, the whole pan turns a crimson so vivid it looks theatrical. It isn't. It's just a beetroot being honest about what it is.
The horseradish cream is the thing that turns a good soup into the right soup. A spoonful of soured cream spiked with enough horseradish to make your nose tingle, dropped into the centre of each bowl. White on crimson. The sharpness cuts through the sweetness and neither wins. That's the balance you're after. I wrote it down in the notebook last winter: beetroot, horseradish, Tuesday, rain on the window. Right food, right evening.
There are few better feelings than putting a warm plate in front of someone on a cold night. This bowl does the work for you. The colour says everything before the first spoonful.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary AdvisorIngredients
beetroot
Quantity
6 medium (about 700g)
raw, unpeeled, scrubbed
olive oil
Quantity
2 tablespoons
onion
Quantity
1 medium
roughly chopped
garlic
Quantity
2 cloves
sliced
thyme
Quantity
a few sprigs
chicken or vegetable stock
Quantity
750ml
red wine vinegar
Quantity
a splash
fine sea salt
Quantity
to taste
black pepper
Quantity
to taste
soured cream
Quantity
150ml
fresh horseradish
Quantity
2-3 teaspoons
finely grated, or good jarred horseradish
lemon juice
Quantity
a squeeze
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| beetrootraw, unpeeled, scrubbed | 6 medium (about 700g) |
| olive oil | 2 tablespoons |
| onionroughly chopped | 1 medium |
| garlicsliced | 2 cloves |
| thyme | a few sprigs |
| chicken or vegetable stock | 750ml |
| red wine vinegar | a splash |
| fine sea salt | to taste |
| black pepper | to taste |
| soured cream | 150ml |
| fresh horseradishfinely grated, or good jarred horseradish | 2-3 teaspoons |
| lemon juice | a squeeze |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy-bottomed saucepan or stockpot
- •Stick blender or countertop blender
- •Foil for wrapping beetroot
- •Ladle
Instructions
- 1
Roast the beetroot
Set the oven to 200C/180C fan. Wash the beetroot and trim the stalks to a couple of centimetres but don't peel them. Wrap them loosely in foil, two or three to a parcel, with a drizzle of oil and a pinch of salt. Roast for fifty minutes to an hour, until a knife slides through the thickest one without resistance. They should smell earthy and sweet, and the skins will have wrinkled and loosened. Let them cool just enough to handle, then slip the skins off with your fingers. They'll come away easily. Your hands will be stained crimson. This is normal. It washes off. Eventually.
Roasting is what makes this soup. Boiled beetroot tastes of water. Roasted beetroot tastes of itself, concentrated and caramelised. Don't skip this step, even if it takes longer. - 2
Soften the onion
While the beetroot roasts, warm a good splash of olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pan over a gentle heat. Add the onion and a pinch of salt. Let it soften for ten minutes or so, stirring now and then, until it's translucent and sweet. Add the garlic and the thyme sprigs and cook for another minute, just until the garlic smells warm and fragrant. Pull out the thyme stalks when they've given up their leaves.
- 3
Simmer and blend
Roughly chop the roasted beetroot and add it to the pan. Pour in the stock. It should just cover everything. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for fifteen minutes, letting the flavours get to know one another. Take it off the heat and blend until very smooth. This is a soup that rewards patience with the blender. You want it velvety, almost glossy, with no trace of graininess. Add a splash of red wine vinegar. It won't taste of vinegar. It will taste of beetroot, sharper and more itself. Season and taste. Then taste again.
The vinegar is the quiet revelation here. Beetroot has a deep sweetness that can flatten without something to push back against it. A tablespoon of red wine vinegar lifts the whole bowl. Start with less. Add more if it needs it. - 4
Make the horseradish cream
Stir the grated horseradish into the soured cream with a squeeze of lemon and a pinch of salt. Taste it. You want it sharp enough to make your nose prickle, but not so fierce it overwhelms the soup. Fresh horseradish is best if you can get it, a gnarled root that looks like it's been dug up from someone's garden, grated finely. Jarred is fine if you choose one that tastes of horseradish and not of vinegar and stabilisers. You'll know the difference.
- 5
Serve the soup
Ladle the soup into warm bowls. Drop a generous spoonful of the horseradish cream into the centre of each. It will sit on the surface for a moment, white against crimson, before someone drags a spoon through it. That contrast is what makes the bowl. Serve with bread that can hold its own. Something dark and seeded, or a thick slice of sourdough, still warm if you can manage it.
Chef Tips
- •Buy beetroot with their leaves still on if you can. It means they're fresh. The leaves, incidentally, are good wilted in butter with a pinch of salt, like a rougher, earthier spinach. Don't throw them away.
- •The soup should be glossy and smooth enough to catch the light. If it feels grainy after blending, pass it through a sieve. It's an extra step, but the texture of a soup matters as much as the taste. You eat it with your whole mouth, not just your tongue.
- •If you can't find fresh horseradish, a good jarred one will do. Look for one where horseradish is the first ingredient, not vinegar or cream. The heat should come from the root, not from the label.
- •This soup is just as good cold. Poured into a glass on a warm day with the horseradish cream stirred through, it becomes something else entirely. But that's a different season and a different entry in the notebook.
Advance Preparation
- •The beetroot can be roasted up to two days ahead and kept refrigerated. This makes the soup a quick affair on the night.
- •The soup itself keeps well in the fridge for three days and freezes for up to three months. The colour holds beautifully. Make the horseradish cream fresh on the day of serving.
- •The horseradish cream can be made a few hours ahead and kept covered in the fridge. The heat mellows slightly as it sits, so make it a touch fiercer than you think you want.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 370g)
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