Even when we were off on our most recent trip, we were busy searching out the best recipes we could find, all just for you, dear reader. Over in Silver City, NM, we stopped in at Revel one night for drinks and dinner. We loved it, and we think it’s probably the best place to eat in Silver right now. The people working there are friendly, and, we have to say, they’re making up some really tasty food. We started with vegetable fritters as an appetizer, and they were very good, but the soup of the day was perfect. We had to try to replicate it at home.
Now, taste is a funny thing, so we’re not sure how close we came, but we still think our version is good enough to make some of you beet-haters out there think twice about this delicious root vegetable. While we give credit to Revel for the idea of this soup, the recipe is original to us.
Beet Soup with Fennel and Coriander Seeds
Ingredients
- 1 bunch beets about 1 pound
- 2 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil
- 3/4 tsp coriander seeds
- 2 tsp fennel seeds
- 1/2 cup diced white onion
- 1 clove garlic minced
- Kosher salt
- Pinch red pepper flake
- Pinch cayenne pepper
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 1 1/2 tsp red wine vinegar
- Freshly ground black pepper
- A few fennel seeds for garnish
Instructions
- Place beets in a large saucepan and cover with water. Place over medium-high heat, bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat, and simmer until beets are tender and easily pierced with a sharp knife, about 30-40 minutes.
- Drain beets and cool by running cold water over them. Use your hands to slide the skin off the beets and set them aside.
- Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add coriander and fennel and cook until a few pop. Immediately add onion and garlic, sprinkle with salt, and stir in. Add red pepper flake and cayenne.
- Continue cooking, stirring often, until onions are tender, about 5 minutes. Cut beets into chunks and add along with vegetable broth.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
- Transfer soup to a blender and blend very smooth. Add vinegar and blend in. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed, blending well between additions.
- Strain soup into a clean saucepan and rewarm, if needed, before serving sprinkle a few fennel seeds on top for garnish.
Ingredient discussion:
We always make our own vegetable broth. This time, it was made mainly from leftover corn cobs which was perfect, since corn is slightly sweet, and beets are slightly sweet. While the coriander works in this soup, we think you’d have a very good soup using just fennel, and, of course, a fresh fennel bulb would work in place of the seeds.
Procedure in detail:
Cook and peel beets. Most times we roast beets in the oven, but this time of year, well, the oven stays off as much as possible. So, place the beets in a large saucepan and cover with water. Place the pan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until the beets are tender and can be pierced easily with a sharp knife, about 20-40 minutes, depending of the size of the beets. Once cooked, drain, and cover with cold water, repeating until the beets are cool. Now, simply pick them up and slide the skins right off. Rinse to get any small bits of skin that stick, then set the beets aside.
Cook aromatics. Heat the oil in a large saucepan until very hot. Add the coriander and fennel and cook, stirring briskly, until a few pop. Yes, they’ll pop just like popcorn. But, be careful, as they can pop right out of the pan and splatter hot oil. After a couple of seeds pop, add the onion and garlic, sprinkle with a pinch of salt, and stir in. Add the red pepper flake and cayenne and cook, stirring often, until the onions are tender, about 5 minutes.
Add beets and broth. If needed, cut the beets into chunks and add to the pan along with the broth, stir, and let the mixture come to a boil.
Simmer. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 15-20 minutes to extract flavors and ensure the beets are cooked all the way through.
Add vinegar and blend. Transfer the soup mixture to a blender, and blend very smooth. It doesn’t matter when you add the vinegar; we added it after we blended the soup, and that’s what shows in our photo.
Season. Taste the soup and add salt and pepper as needed. And, of course, if you need a bit more spice, add a small shake of cayenne pepper. Don’t forget about a bit more vinegar, if needed. Between additions, make sure to blend thoroughly to incorporate the spices, then taste again, adjusting as needed.
Strain. For smooth soup, we always take the time to strain. It might not be necessary, since we have a high-powered blender, but we’d rather spend the extra five minutes straining the soup than biting down on a small piece of fennel seed while eating. Simply pour the soup through a fine-mesh strainer into a clean saucepan (we wash out ours while the soup is blending), tapping the strainer on the edge of the pan to encourage the liquid to move through.
Serve. If need be, rewarm the soup, ladle into bowls, and garnish. We had this soup over two days. The first day, we garnished with a few fennel seeds; the second day, it was a drizzle of olive oil on top. Both are good, so whichever appeals more is the right way to go.
We like the slight spiciness of this soup; it’s hot and spicy, but not so hot that you struggle to eat it, and, of course, there’s that deep red color from the beets. When you scoop it into the bowls, it looks somewhat like ketchup, both in thickness and color — wait, maybe that’s an idea for a future post: beet ketchup. While this is a delicious soup, you do need to cook and peel the beets beforehand, making this soup a bit more involved than most, and it does take more time. For those reasons, four stars.
