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:

Wishing you a happy new year filled with all good things–including great gastronomical delights.

As for me, I’m looking for comfort food as we ease into 2022 and this New York Times soup recipe (Cauliflower, Potato and White Bean Soup) has “comfort” written all over it.

Enjoy and stay safe.

Every month, Blue Cayenne features one post from our archive of more than 350 recipes. Here is a great soup recipe for a healthy winter soup. Enjoy!

Want to dive deeper into our recipe archive?  Just click one of the categories at the top of our page or use the category search drop down menu on the right side of the page.

Here’s that soup recipe:

Provincial Greens Soup