This easy beetroot soup is my take on Polish borscht with a gentle hint of spice. It's vegan, tangy, filling, vibrant, nourishing & delicious and can be made on the hob or in your Instant Pot. Proper winter warmer-upper your whole family will enjoy!
Being Polish I grew up eating beetroot soup (borscht or barszcz) all the time.
This particular variation of my Polish vegan borscht is super easy to make and includes not only humble beetroot but also carrots, celery, leeks and potatoes to up that veg.
Despite all the veg, my easy beetroot soup is still very much about beetroot and you get all the lovely sweet and sour flavour as well as beautifully vibrant colour too.
If you'd like to learn more about beetroot and how to cook with it, check out my guide on How To Cook Beetroot (Roasting, Boiling, Steaming).
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✔️ Why you'll love this recipe
- Easy to make and packed full of veg.
- Great recipe for using up beetroot.
- Filling and comforting.
- Can be enjoyed smooth or chunky depending on your preference.
- Naturally vegan and gluten-free.
- Freezer friendly, perfect batch cooking recipe.
- Make it on the hob or in your Instant Pot.
📝 Ingredients
Here's what you will need to make my Easy Beetroot Soup:
Beetroot (Fresh Beets) - Our star of the show. You will need raw beetroot here, not the vacuum pack type.
Leeks - I used leeks here instead of onions but feel free to use regular onion instead or even a mix of both.
Carrots & Celery - Extra veg for added flavour, bulk and nutrition.
Potatoes - They add extra creaminess if you puree your soup and make the soup more filling too. You could use sweet potatoes here instead if you wanted to.
Fresh Garlic - Flavour, flavour and more flavour. Can be substituted with garlic powder.
Fresh Ginger - Although not authentic, I love adding fresh ginger to my vegan borscht. It provides just enough gentle heat for that extra oomph. It's a great addition in my opinion but you can always leave it out if you want.
Lemon Juice - You need the acidity from lemon juice for that tangy vibe Polish borscht is know for. If you're out of lemons feel free to use apple cider vinegar instead.
Fresh Dill - Beetroot and dill compliment each other so well. I would highly recommend going to the effort of buying dill for this recipe but if that's not an option, fresh parsley will do at a pinch.
Vegetable Stock - Either homemade, bouillon or from the cube is fine.
🔪 Instructions
Ingredient quantities & detailed instructions to be found in recipe card at the bottom of the post.
Cooking on the hob
Heat up couple of tablespoons of oil in a large pot with a lid or in a stockpot.
Add thinly sliced leek/onion, celery, garlic and ginger (if using) and sauté for a few minutes until soft and translucent but not coloured stirring often to prevent vegetables from colouring too much.
Feel free to add a splash of water to help veggies along.
Add chopped carrots, beetroot, potatoes and juice of half a lemon followed by vegetable stock.
Bring the soup to boil, cover, lower the heat to simmer and cook for 20-30 minutes until all the vegetables are tender.
Once veg is tender give the soup a taste and adjust seasoning (salt, pepper) as well as level of acidity by adding more lemon juice if required.
Add fresh dill and mix it in.
Using immersion blender, puree the soup to your preferred consistency adding a splash more stock if needed. Alternatively, feel free to enjoy your beetroot soup chunky.
Cooking in the Instant Pot
Heat up couple of tablespoons of oil in your Instant Pot using "Sauté" function (it should be set on High, 30min).
Add thinly sliced leek/onion, celery, garlic and ginger (if using) and sauté for a few minutes until soft and translucent but not coloured stirring often to prevent vegetables from colouring too much.
Feel free to add a splash of water to help veggies along.
Turn the pot off by pressing "Keep Warm/Cancel" button.
Add chopped carrots, beetroot, potatoes and juice of half a lemon followed by vegetable stock. The added liquids will deglaze the pot but you might want to help a bit using wooden spoon to make sure there are no little bits of leek burnt onto the bottom.
Put on the lid and lock it in place making sure that the black, steam releasing valve is pointing to "Sealing". Set your Instant Pot to "Soup" setting for 15 min.
When the time is up turn the pot off by pressing "Keep Warm/Cancel" button and let the pressure go down naturally for 10min (NPR - Natural Pressure Release).
Once the time is up move the steam releasing valve to "Venting" and quickly release remaining pressure.
Season soup to taste with salt and pepper, adjust acidity by adding more lemon juice if you wish and puree to desired consistency using immersion blender or enjoy it as is.
Serve with a dollop of vegan yogurt and a sprig of fresh dill.
🥡 Storing
Vegan Borscht will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days.
This soup is also great for freezing in the freezer friendly container or reusable freezer bag for up to 3 months.
Quick Tip: When freezing, make sure you allow for the slight liquid expansion and never fill your bag or container all the way to the top.
💭 Pro tips
Try and cut your veg into similar size chunks for even cooking.
Keep your peeled and cut potatoes in water until needed to prevent them from going brown.
Adding some type of acid (lemon juice or apple cider vinegar) to the pan together with beetroot, will preserve its gorgeous colour.
Always taste and adjust seasoning according with your preference. The amount of salt you add will depend on saltiness of your stock.
You might want to add more lemon juice once your soup finished cooking to adjust acidity.
This soup is great both pureed and chunky.
🍴 Serving suggestions
I like to top my vegan borscht with a nice dollop of vegan yogurt and some more fresh dill.
Freshly baked bread is also almost always a must when it comes to any soup. Try it with my no knead wholemeal, soft crust white, Irish or vegan soda bread.
❓ FAQs
You could make some ingredient swaps as suggested in Ingredients above.
Alternatively, swap lemon for lime, dill for fresh coriander (cilantro), add some coconut milk and you've got yourself beetroot soup with Asian vibe.
Yes I would recommend peeling beetroot.
Have you tried my Easy Beetroot Soup (Vegan Borscht)?
Please consider giving it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating in recipe card below and share your views or tips in the comments.
😋 More beetroot recipes
Baked Beetroot Falafel
Botwinka (Polish Beet Greens Soup)
Vegan Beetroot Brownies (Gluten-Free)
Vegan Beetroot Risotto (Gluten-Free)
Buckwheat & Beetroot Salad with Chickpeas
Beetroot Smoothie
📋 Recipe
Easy Beetroot Soup (Vegan Borscht)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 300 g raw beetroot (peeled weight) peeled and roughly chopped
- 150 g carrots peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 celery stick
- 10 g thumb size piece of ginger peeled and grated
- 2 garlic cloves peeled and finely chopped or grated
- 200 g potatoes peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 large leek or onion cleaned and thinly sliced
- 15-20 g fresh dill roughly chopped and more to garnish
- 2 tablespoon rapeseed/olive oil
- 1 ltr vegetable stock cube is fine
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice (half a lemon) or 2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar - see notes
- salt & pepper to taste
- vegan yogurt to serve
- more lemon juice to adjust acidity to taste
Instructions
Traditional "on the hob" cooking method
- Heat up couple of tablespoons of oil in a large pot with a lid or in a stockpot.2 tablespoon rapeseed/olive oil
- Add thinly sliced leek/onion, celery, garlic and ginger (if using) and sauté for a few minutes until soft and translucent but not coloured stirring often to prevent vegetables from colouring too much.1 celery stick, 10 g thumb size piece of ginger, 1 large leek or onion, 2 garlic cloves
- Feel free to add a splash of water to help veggies along.
- Add chopped carrots, beetroot, potatoes and juice of half a lemon followed by vegetable stock.300 g raw beetroot (peeled weight), 150 g carrots, 200 g potatoes, 1 ltr vegetable stock, 2 tablespoon lemon juice (half a lemon)
- Bring the soup to boil, cover, lower the heat to simmer and cook for 20-30 minutes until all the vegetables are tender.
- Once veg is tender give the soup a taste and adjust seasoning (salt, pepper) as well as level of acidity by adding more lemon juice if required.salt & pepper, more lemon juice to adjust acidity
- Add fresh dill and mix it in.15-20 g fresh dill
- Using immersion blender, puree the soup to your preferred consistency adding a splash more stock if needed. Alternatively, feel free to enjoy your beetroot soup chunky.
- Serve with a dollop of vegan yogurt and some more fresh dill.vegan yogurt
Instant Pot
- Heat up couple of tablespoons of oil in your Instant Pot using "Sauté" function (it should be set on High, 30min).
- Add thinly sliced leek/onion, celery, garlic and ginger (if using) and sauté for a few minutes until soft and translucent but not coloured stirring often to prevent vegetables from colouring too much.
- Feel free to add a splash of water to help veggies along.
- Turn the pot off by pressing "Keep Warm/Cancel" button.
- Add chopped carrots, beetroot, potatoes and juice of half a lemon followed by vegetable stock. The added liquids will deglaze the pot but you might want to help a bit using wooden spoon to make sure there are no little bits of leek burnt onto the bottom.
- Put on the lid and lock it in place making sure that the black, steam releasing valve is pointing to "Sealing". Set your Instant Pot to "Soup" setting for 15 min.
- When the time is up turn the pot off by pressing "Keep Warm/Cancel" button and let the pressure go down naturally for 10min (NPR - Natural Pressure Release).
- Once the time is up move the steam releasing valve to "Venting" and quickly release remaining pressure.
- Season soup to taste with salt and pepper, adjust acidity by adding more lemon juice if you wish and puree to desired consistency using immersion blender or enjoy it as is.
Notes
- Nutritional information is approximate, per serving (based on 4 serving), without vegan yogurt and should be treated as a rough guideline only.
- Beetroot soup will store in the fridge for up to 5 days.
- Freezer friendly.
- Use ½ lemon (roughly 2 Tbsp) to add together with beetroot to preserve its colour and add acidity which is synonymous with borscht. You can substitute it with 2 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar.
- For other ingredient substitutes see - Ingredients.
Annemarie says
Can you freeze for future use?
joskitchenlarder says
Hi, Yes, beetroot soup freezes really well. You can freeze it for up to 3 months.
choclette says
What gorgeous photos Jo. I'm partial to a good beetroot soup, but I don't think I've ever managed to make one look as good as this. Pinned.
joskitchenlarder says
Thank you so much Choclette! 🙂
Corina Blum says
This soup looks so tasty and sounds so warming! I keep thinking of getting an Instant Pot too but I keep wondering where I'd put it along with all the other kitchen gadgets I have. And I do use them all sometimes so I can't get rid of them! Thanks for sharing with #CookOnceEatTwice
joskitchenlarder says
Thank you Corina! I completely understand where you're coming from. First it took me ages to make up my mind due to the size of this beast plus wasn't sure I was going to use it enough. Bought it in the end and never looked back. I use it almost every day and even hubby who was really sceptical as to my new purchase (to say the least) had to eat his words 🙂 x
Monika Dabrowski says
I share your love of beetroot (if you have Polish blood you just have to love beetroot!) and could eat it every day. Your soup looks gorgeous, thank you for bringing it to #CookBlogShare:)
joskitchenlarder says
Thanks Monika! 🙂 You are so right, I always associate beetroot with Poland and might even have beetroot juice flowing in my veins instead of blood who knows lol. That's most certainly the case after eating this soup. 😉 As always, pleasure to link up! 🙂
jenny walters says
What a warming sounding soup Jo.Fab photos too.What wonderful colours.Perfect for this bloody freezing weather xx
joskitchenlarder says
Thanks Jenny! 🙂 Cannot beat the soup on a cold day and as this one got a bit of gentle heat from fresh ginger, it's a perfect warmer-upper. xx