Meatless Monday: Simple Beet and Spinach Soup

I know I said I would be posting my Meatless Monday recipes on Sundays, but with the holiday weekend I did not find time to do that. So, here’s a meatless recipe on Monday…

It’s another soup, yes, and another one with beets, yes, but I chose this one because I made it recently and it’s very quick and easy with only a few ingredients so it could be made on short notice if you do want to stick to the Meatless Monday initiative. I hope you like- this is an original recipe by me!

Simple Beet and Spinach Soup

8 cups of water

4 beets peeled and diced

2 handfuls of fresh baby spinach or frozen chopped spinach

½ cup diced onion

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tbsp butter

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp dried thyme or 4 sprigs fresh thyme

Sauté the onion in the butter for about 3-5 minutes then stir in the beets and sauté for another 5 minutes. Add the water and bring to a boil then cook over medium-high heat for about 30 minutes or until water is deep red and beets are tender. Add the lemon, salt, pepper and thyme and add more to taste if desired. Once it tastes to your liking, add the spinach and remove from heat, stirring the soup until spinach is wilted. Garnish with a dollop of sour cream or plain yogurt if desired.

This is a very sweet and light-tasting soup and excellent served hot or cold. Great for spring and summer and great to dip whole grain bread into. Enjoy!

Babies and tots love beets too! They’re sweet and healthy and colorful and when pureed they make great baby food! If you cook the beets soft enough using the recipe above, you can serve them right up to your finger food-eater with some spinach and a squirt of lemon, or for baby puree a couple of spoon-fulls of the beets and spinach (without seasoning if they are under 9 months, if over 9 months then salt, pepper, thyme and lemon are fine unless deemed otherwise by you) and serve. Yum!!!

Beets are loaded with vitamin C, vitamin A and folates, while spinach is a very well-known superfood for its large sources of iron and vitamin K. And thanks to Popeye, your kid might actually want to eat it! Thyme is also loaded with vitamin K and the lemon with C, so this soup will help strengthen your bones, your immune system, and help fight free-radicals with strong anti-oxidant power!