Since Winter’s been making a comeback around here, with snow in place of flowers budding everywhere and the whirring sound of the wind instead of birds chirping, I felt an undeniable yearning for soup. And to take things up a notch in the comfort-food-for-cold-days department, I decided to make use of a root vegetable, namely beetroot.

I love beets, but I almost never use them anyway else than roasted and sliced, accompanied by goat cheese and arugula for a nice salad. So this time, I made a twist and blitzed the roasted beets into a velvety, sweet and delicious soup.

This soup is quite easy to make. All you need is time for roasting the beets and a blender to whizz them when they’re done. A nice home-made chicken or vegetable stock would also be nice to have on hand, but organic instant cubes also work nicely.

I made this soup as a quick dinner fix, but it would make a more than suitable entrée for a more elaborate dinner. You could skip the horseradish cream altogether, even though it does constitute a nice element of surprise for the palate. Either way, enjoy!

Beetroot Soup with Horseradish Cream

1kg/2 pounds beetroot, washed and scrubbed

4 garlic cloves

A couple of sprigs of thyme

1 bay leaf

3 Tbsp olive oil

250ml/1 1/4 cups water

1L/30 oz chicken or vegetable stock

Salt and pepper, to taste

4cm/1,5 in piece of horseradish, peeled and grated

200ml/1 cup & 2Tbsp sour cream

Preheat your oven to 200C/390F. Place the beets in an oven-proof baking dish, together with the garlic cloves, thyme and bay leaf.  Pour the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Give everything a nice toss, so that the beets are well coated. Add the water and cover tightly with tin foil. Roast for about an hour, until the beetroot are tender. Remove the foil and leave to cool until they are ok to be handled. Trim the tops and the ends and peel off the skins. Chop the beetroot, then squeeze the garlic out of their skins and place everything in a blender. Blitz everything well, until a smooth purée is obtained. Transfer to a saucepan and add the stock a little at a time, mixing until you get the desired texture for your soup. Heat the soup until hot, but not quite boiling and season with salt and pepper.

To make the horseradish cream, mix the grated horseradish with the sour cream. To serve, ladle the soup into serving bowl and place a dollop of horseradish cream on top. Bon appétit!

The best way to store bay leaves here