The Beet Leaves
With beetroots like these who needs spinach?! Or something like that anyway. With a regular supply of these beauties almost year-round you can expect alot more beetroot dishes on the BHK! Really though, it is my favourite veg. I know that is a bold statement for a veggie lover. The ‘root is such a magnificent purple thing, but the leaves are just as good and this soup recipe puts them to good use. We normally chop them up and put them into salads, so this is a nice change.
Now, the vast majority of Beach House readers are from over the pond, that is to say the USA. We love you guys and must translate a little here, you may know these leaves as beet greens and beetroots are of course beets. I like the name beets and beet leaf has a much better ring than beetroot leaf, but I must stay true my small island roots.
The beetroots we are buying at the moment from the farm all come with at least five crisp leaves and beautiful crimson roots. You can really see the similarity with chard, especially swiss chard, they are all one big happy family. As with most plants, the leaves contain more nutrients than the roots, one more reason to never, ever throw them away (I hear of people doing this). What a waste!
This is a basic soup recipe and the beetroot leaves can be substituted for beetroots themselves, or most other veg. This is a classic soup base that allows you to use up any veggies that you have hanging around.
As with most soups, its better the day after. The flavours really come together and the piquant tomato flavour really comes through with the balsamic adding a lovely sweetness.
I decided on oregano here, because it is blooming at the minute in the herb garden. You may prefer to use thyme or even rosemary would go nicely.
We made a big vat of soup here, feel free to half the quantities for a more modest pan full.
Makes one big pan full (eight bowls)
The Bits
1 tbs veg oil
2 sticks celery (chopped)
1 carrot (chopped)
4 cloves garlic (minced)
1 big white onion (chopped)
2 teas ground cumin
Leaves of 12 beetroots (well washed and roughly chopped)
2 tbs balsamic vinegar
2 stems of fresh oregano (leaves only, 2 teas dried oregano otherwise)
1.5ltr veg stock
5 ripe tomatoes (roughly chopped)
2 tbs organic tom puree
sea salt and cracked black pepper
Do It
Heat veg oil on medium in a suitably large pan, add onions and soften for a couple of minutes, add celery and carrot and continue cooking and stirring for a couple more minutes. Then add cumin, garlic and balsamic, allow the vinegar to evaporate (getting rid of most of the acidity) then add you beetroot leaves and season with salt and pepper, stir in well.
Beet leaves wilting
Cook for a few minutes and when the leaves are wilting add the tomatoes, the oregano leaves and the puree, stir in and heat through, then add your stock and bring it all to the boil. Lower heat and cover, cook for 20 minutes, until all veg is tender. Then blend together using a hand blender or in batches in a food processor. The soup should be smooth, no lumps, check seasoning.
Blitz it up!
Serve
In warm bowls, topped with some oregano leaves and fresh cracked black pepper.
Beetroot Leaf Soup
We Love It!
A great summer warmer (needed in these climes), we love the combination of balsamic and beetroot, sweet and tangy coming together nicely with the deep and hearty tomatoes. A lively, zingy soup, jam packed full of flavour and goodness.
Having a good slurp. YUM!
Foodie Facts
Beetroot leaves are full of fibre, protien and vitamin C, which we need constant supplies of because our bodies cannot store it. One cup of beetroot leaves gives you 60% of your daily dose of C. The best news is the vitamin A content, one cup contains 220% of your daily intake. Cor! They also contain alot of calcium, most people think that calcium comes from cows, but there are so many other ways of getting your calcium.
beach house kitchen 
soup season is around the corner for me, so I’ll be keeping this in the back of my mind 🙂
Give it a whirl Jocellyn and let us know. It really is a tasty little number. Have fine times, lee
Do you also use the stems? Is that where the color comes from? I always use my beet leaves, yum–but not always the stems. I wonder how beet-stem soup would be? 🙂
The stems taste just like swiss chard, but more intense (and beetrooty!) I think it would be a wonder soup. Happy day to your
i love beet root. After cucumber, it is my favorite veggie.
Cucumber! That is a first. Most people don’t have much love for the cucumber. Well done! I have a massive cucumber here from the farm and was going to make a cucumber water with it, like I used to drink in Mexico. Any ideas for a cucumber recipe? Peace and light, leex
YES! I had a recipe for a cucumber and watermelon salad! I will need to look for it, i just got it about a month ago too. I will have to get back to you on that!
I made a cucumber summer juice about 2 years ago. Water, cucumber, lime, cane sugar and a dash of ginger. was very refreshing!
I like the sound of this cooler. We just the sun and we are set!
Great Recipe! This looks so good I had to make it for dinner! I added a dash of tumeric, and a dash of smoked spicy paprika. Cooked all the ingredients until tender then place in blender, blend under smooth. Serve in a bowl & garnished with a scoop of Greek light yogurt & a few leaves of parsley. Yum! Thanks Beach House Kitchen 😉
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Now this one I have to try 🙂 so I can slurp away! 🙂
Its a beauty, we have been using the smaller beetroots for their leaves and they have provided a few very tasty salads. To throw them away is complete nonsense! Happy slurping, lee
I have eaten my share of vegan soups and I can say without reservation that this is the best one I have ever had. Really fantastic recipe. I made the first batch with beet greens, and now am brewing up my second using spinach. Thanks for a new dinner staple!
Brilliant news Masha! Thanks for trying the recipe, Beet Greens rule!!!!!
thanks for the tips! For meat eaters this was a great recipe to add lamb shanks or diced lamb too.
Glad you enjoyed!
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Hello, I found your recipe by accident while looking up something else and I’m so glad I did!! I grow lots of veg in my garden and have just picked my first few beet roots, and so used the leaves for this soup. I’m not a vegetarian so I used chicken stock in mine and wow what a yummy soup!! I will be making lots this summer. I will be checking out your other recipes too
Thanks guys
This makes us so happy Sarah! Beetroot leaves are amazing and too often end up in the compost bin. We’ll hopefully have some beetroots to celebrate soon and will be making this soup again for sure! Enjoy all:)
I’m not a vegetarian but if you need to serve vegetarian you can use the vegetarian chicken consume.
Thanks or the tip Jill!
tried it….in a haphazard way…pretty good….my vegan daughter ate it anyway…thanks …Paul from Fremantle, Western Australia
Cheers Paul! Nice to hear the little one enjoyed:)
Can you freeze the soup?
Omg,it came out sooooo good.Thanks .
Excellent!!:)
Can not believe I would normally throw the stems away, brilliant soup I will be doing this recipe again a big hit with everyone
That’s great to hear Denise! We love the beet leaves nearly as much as the root. Happy cooking!!:)
Hi! I have someone at home that is not supposed to eat tomatoes. If I left out the tomato how would you substitute? I’d love any ideas?
I think it would be nice without tomatoes. Add more beetroot as a sub. I haven’t tried it, but it should be nice:) Good luck and happy cooking, L
Great recipe! I didn’t think of combining these ingredients. Thanks!
Thanks!! Hope you get to try it out! Happy cooking:)
Made this soup today with leaves and stems of beetroot I harvested from my vegetable garden. Absolutely loved the flavours and thank you for the food facts. Who would know beetroot leaves are so good for you
That’s amazing to hear Susan! You can beat homegrown that’s for sure. I haven’t made this soup for a while, I will have to get a pan on soon. Beetroot is one of our very special favs. Happy cooking, L+J:)
Delicious! Had a stack load of beetroot leaves left at my work place veg. Garden today. Just didn’t want to waste them.
Loved the recipe part where you said ‘do it’
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Kim!! I love cooking with beetroot leaves. One of my favourite ‘greens’/ a bit purples. Great that you liked the recipe. Happy cooking!!:)
I recently made this with homegrown Leaf Beet leaves, by that I mean a plant called Leaf Beet (available from Tamar seeds) that grows just the leaves of the beetroot – the root doesn’t develop into an edible root – it has been bred to grow just leaves, and does really well all through winter in the UK, I really recommend you try growing some – it’s very easy.
I really enjoyed your recipe, I thought it tasted a bit like oxtail soup
thanks, bye
Adam
I like the sound of these leaves Adam, I’ll have to check them out. Thanks for getting in touch, glad you enjoyed the soup. Happy cooking!!:)