The Blissful Beet Soup: Vlog and Recipe!

Hello Hive community!

I'm coming at y'all with my first cooking vlog. Ever! Food is one of my love languages, and I'm excited to share one of my favorite soups to make for myself and my community: The Blissful Beet Soup!

This soup has earthy, rich, and sweet citrus undertones. It's a testament to how amazing things can taste without sugar and processed additives. Plus beets are incredible for our health in a multitude of ways.

We're social creatures. In food, we come together. Food is a longstanding social custom that invites the celebration of abundance, community, health, and nourishment. As food journalist Michael Pollan says, eating healthy isn't just about what you eat, like whole foods and nutrition. It's about how you eat: slowing down and eating with those you love. Finding things to consciously celebrate together over food. I greatly value the conscious living lifestyle, which is a lifelong journey of learning and listening to our bodies. And getting creative and leaning on community (like a local farmer's market) because it's totally possible to eat healthy in affordable ways! All that being said, I am incredibly thankful for the ability to honor health and quality living. I know that millions around the world don't have access to this, especially post-COVID.

Recipe and instructions are below. Yet if you want to vibe out with me and see how the process is done, check out this ~6 min video! I would've preferred to have this on Youtube, but it's blocked because of copyright issues with one of the songs.

When I cook, I pretty much operate intuitively and don't really rely on measurements and numbers. Here is my best shot at getting specific with how I make this.

Serving: about 6-8
Total time: 45 min - 1 hr

Ingredients:
4-5 medium/large size beets (diced)
4-5 carrots (diced)
1 medium sized zucchini or russet potato (diced)
1 green apple (diced)
1-2 yellow onions (diced)
5 cloves of garlic (minced)
2-4 cups of vegetable broth
1 can coconut milk
1-2 lemons
Fresh dill
Ground cumin + cumin seeds
Black pepper
Sea salt
Cooking oil (sunflower, avocado, safflower recommended)

Instructions:

1. Steam beets for about 10 minutes, then add in the carrots. Total steaming time = about 20 min, or at least until soft to touch
2. While the beets and carrots steaming, add oil to a pan on medium heat. Saute the garlic, onions, ground cumin, cumin seeds. Once the onions start to caramelize, toss in the zucchini (or potato) and cook until soft.
3. Add the steamed beets and carrots in the pan.
4. Add apples, dill, vegetable broth, lemon juice, sea salt, and pepper. Cover for 5-7 minutes to let ingredients melt and blend together.
5. Add the coconut milk, and simmer for another 5-7 minutes.
6. Put everything into a blender and voilà! You did it!

Some notes on the process:

• I highly encourage you to do your own thing with this recipe! There are so many possibilities...
• If it's too thick: add more vegetable broth or lemon juice and stir it around or add it back to the blender.
• If it's too thin: steam more beets and re-blend.
• I usually have to add salt and more lemon juice after blending. It's better to add it later than add too much in the beginning.
• This soup tastes amazing hot AND cold (especially during summertime!)
• If you're new to beets, you might notice color changes in your poop and pee. Don't worry, it's the beets doing their colorful thing. Also, beets are pretty powerful laxatives... I'll let you connect the dots with that one.

If you try it out, let me know what you think! Or if you have any questions :)

Songs from video:

1. I Miss U - Mtbrd
2. Didn't Cha Know - Erykah Badu
3. Everybody Everybody - Blackbox
4. Orange Moon - Erykah Badu
5. You're All I Need to Get By - Aretha Franklin