Anne Morgan Deep crimson and earthy, Delia Smith’s beetroot soup is a Polish recipe built on a quick, dark pork stock. The whole beetroot simmer while pork, carrot and onion brown hard for the stock, then it’s blended with a butter and flour paste, soured cream and lemon. A pot for 4 to 6 takes about an hour and 40 minutes, with black rye croutons on top.
This is the bigger, later version, from the winter pages of The Delia Collection: Soup (2003). An earlier one is in her Winter Collection (1995), in the soup chapter beside her spiced parsnip soup.
In the vegetable guide of How to Cook Book Two, she blames malt vinegar and the pickle jar for beetroot’s poor name in Britain. Cooked as a vegetable, she rates its deep, earthy flavour and its colour highly.
The soured cream and lemon cut through the sweetness of the beetroot here, while the pork stock gives it a savoury depth you wouldn’t guess from the colour. The rye croutons add a slightly sour crunch.
Delia Smith’s Polish Beetroot Soup with Black Rye Croutons
Course: SoupsCuisine: PolishDifficulty: Easy4
servings20
minutes1
hour20
minutes395
kcalSmooth, sweet and earthy, with a swirl of soured cream, grated beetroot and dark rye croutons on every bowl.
Ingredients
- For the stock:
1 dessertspoon groundnut or other flavourless oil
250g (9oz) belly or shoulder of pork, cut into cubes
2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
1 large onion, roughly chopped
1.75 litres (3 pints) water
1 bay leaf
a handful of parsley stalks
salt and freshly milled black pepper
- For the soup:
1kg (2lb 4oz) uncooked beetroot, whole, with the stalks removed
1 rounded tablespoon plain flour, mixed to a paste with 40g (1½oz) softened butter
150ml (5fl oz) soured cream
3 tablespoons lemon juice
- For the croutons:
110g (4oz) black rye (pumpernickel) bread, cut into small cubes
1 dessertspoon olive oil
Directions
- Stock: Heat the oil in a large saucepan of about 3.5 litres until really hot. Brown the pork, carrot and onion in batches over a high heat for about 6 minutes, until the edges turn brownish-black.
- Simmer: Pour in the water, add the bay leaf, parsley stalks and a good seasoning, and bring to a simmer. Turn the heat right down and cook very gently, without a lid, for 40 minutes, then strain it into a bowl, discard the solids and rinse the pan.
- Beetroot: Meanwhile, put the beetroot in another pan, just cover with boiling water and add a pinch of salt. Cover and simmer for 40 minutes, until a skewer slides in easily, then drain and cover with cold water. Wear gloves to rub off the skins once they’re cool enough.
- Cook: Keep one beetroot, about 110g, for the garnish and cube the rest. Put the cubes in the rinsed pan with the stock, bring to a simmer, cover and cook gently for 20 minutes.
- Croutons: While it cooks, heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan), gas mark 4. Toss the rye cubes with the olive oil, spread them on a baking tray and bake on a high shelf for 10 minutes, with a timer on, then leave to cool.
- Blend: Lift half the beetroot into a blender with the flour and butter paste and, with the motor running, pour in the stock from the pan. Tip it into a bowl, then blend the rest of the beetroot with 75ml of the soured cream.
- Serve: Return both to the pan, add the lemon juice, check the seasoning and reheat gently. Grate the saved beetroot, then ladle into warm bowls, swirl in the rest of the soured cream and scatter over the croutons and grated beetroot.
Notes
- The pork and vegetables only flavour the stock and are strained out, so the soup itself is smooth, with no meat in it.
- Beetroot juice stains, so I'd cover your chopping board with baking paper while you cube it, which is my own habit.
FAQs
What changed from the Winter Collection version?
It grew. The 1995 printing serves 4 with 700g of beetroot, a 175g piece of belly pork and 1.2 litres of water, thickened with a level tablespoon of flour and 25g of butter, and finished with 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.
All the beetroot was blended in one go there, and the rye croutons were only suggested for entertaining. In the 2003 version they’re part of the recipe.
Is there a vegetarian beetroot soup?
Yes. Her beetroot soup with orange and mint in Delia’s Vegetarian Collection (2002) serves 6, and she calls it the best beetroot soup she has ever tasted, a recipe given to her by a London restaurant chef.
There’s 900g of fresh beetroot softened in 50g of butter with a red onion, then simmered for 25 to 30 minutes in 1.2 litres of cold water and puréed. Only the grated zest of 2 oranges goes in, not the juice, and chopped mint waits in the bottom of each bowl. In summer it can be served chilled.
Does she have a chilled beetroot soup?
Yes, a clear one. The chilled beetroot consommé in her Complete Cookery Course serves 6 and uses no fat at all: 700g of raw beetroot simmered uncovered for about an hour with spring onions, herbs, garlic and a strip of orange rind, then a diced cucumber for 10 minutes.
It’s strained through a sieve, sharpened with red wine vinegar and lemon juice and chilled well. She marbles natural yoghurt through each bowl and adds snipped chives.
Can I use ready-cooked beetroot?
You can, as long as it’s plain and not pickled, which is my own shortcut. Vacuum-packed cooked beetroot lets you skip the 40-minute boil, and you’d simmer the cubes in the stock for about 10 minutes instead.
Avoid anything in vinegar, though. Her guide blames malt vinegar for killing beetroot’s flavour, and it would clash with the cream and the lemon juice.
What can I do the day before?
The stock and the beetroot. I’d make the stock and boil the beetroot a day early and chill them separately, which is my own way. Then the blending, lemon and soured cream take only 15 minutes on the day.
Reheat the soup gently once the soured cream is in, as it can split if it boils. Her Soup book says croutons can be made a day ahead and kept in an airtight container, so those can be done early too.
