Look at the beautiful color of this soup! I’d venture to guess that you are thinking that this is a tomato-based soup. But, no. This is a Lentil and Beet Soup and it is downright delicious.
This soup is cooked from a recipe in Naz Deravian’s cookbook, Bottom of the Pot: Persian Recipes and Stories. (Deravian’s cookbook can be purchased at your local bookstore or on Amazon here.)The Persian name for this soup is Aash-e Shooli.
Apparently, beets are a beloved ingredient in Persian cooking–seen as a healthy ingredient in the diet. According to Deravian, beets are such an integral part of Persian cooking/eating culture that beet juice is a popular street food offering. (Somehow I can’t see that happening here with beet juice. Imagine your neighborhood children hawking beet juice this summer instead of lemonade. Not going to happen.)
Beets are a healthy food, though. Food author Harold McGee (On Food and Cooking), points out that beets have been considered a part of a healthy diet for a very long time. He quotes Theophrastus in 300 BCE on the subject of eating beets raw and points out that red beets were mentioned in 16th century literature. The long-held belief that beets are a healthy food has been borne out by modern science. Half a cup of beets has only 37 calories, 0 grams of fat, and 0 cholesterol. The betalain compounds in beets have been shown to protect against inflammation. The nitrates in beets are helpful in maintaining heart health and consuming beets improves energy reserves to the extent that competitive athletes sometimes consume beet juice before competitions.
Another Persian cookbook author, Najmieh Batmanglij (author of Food For Life: Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremonies), writes of street food she enjoyed in her youth in Iran :
“Popular winter street foods were hot roasted beets and steamed fava beans. Iranian beets (labu) are much larger and flatter than those found in the U.S. They are also sweeter. Traditionally, they are roasted in bread ovens (tanur), then kept on a steamer in the street vendors’ carts. The beets are peeled and sliced just before serving. In my childhood, vendors would wrap them in newspapers, but now they use plastic containers.”
This, by the way, isn’t Blue Cayenne’s first rodeo with beets. You’ll find some other great beet recipes here. For example, these Smashed and Seared Beets are a beauty to behold and feature both red and golden beets.
Here is the way I prepared this Persian Lentil Beet Soup in my kitchen:
Persian Lentil Beet Soup
Ingredients
- 1/4 C. olive oil
- 1 medium red onion (diced)
- 2 T. unsalted butter
- 4 cloves garlic (chopped)
- 1 leek (white and light green parts only and chopped) or an equivalent amount of green onion
- Kosher salt
- 1/4 C. jasmine rice (uncooked)
- 1/2 t. ground turmeric
- 1/2 t. ground cumin
- 1/2 t. ground coriander
- 3/4 C. green lentils
- 2 medium beets (peeled and grated)
- 7 C. vegetable stock
- Ground black pepper
- A large bunch baby spinach or beet greens (chopped)
- 1 bunch dill (finely chopped)
- 1 T. balsamic vinegar (or more to taste)
- Yogurt for garnish
Directions
- Step 1 Use a large soup pot or Dutch oven. Heat olive oil over medium high heat and sauté onion until it is a light golden brown. Stir the onion frequently while you cook it to be sure the onion doesn’t burn. This will take about 10 minutes.
- Step 2 Add butter, garlic, leek, and a large pinch of salt to the onion mixture. Lower heat to medium low and cook until the ingredients are softened. This will take about 5 minutes. Stir in rice, turmeric, cumin, coriander. Cook for a few minutes until the spices are fragrant.
- Step 3 Add lentils, grated beets, broth, 2 t. salt (or more to your taste), and 1/4 t. black pepper. Bring the soup mixture to a boil and simmer for approximately 30 minutes with a lid partially covering the pot. Stir the soup occasionally to be sure you don’t have the heavy ingredients like the lentils sticking to the bottom of the pot.
- Step 4 Add the chopped spinach (or beet greens) and the dill. Cover the soup and continue to cook for about 15 minutes until the lentils are soft. You can add more water to your soup if you want a more liquid soup.
- Step 5 When the soup is fully cooked, stir in balsamic vinegar and serve. Top the soup with a generous dollop of plain yogurt and a drizzle of quality olive oil.
