Vegetable Borscht (Beets in Soup)

Brightly coloured, super delicious and comforting vegetable borscht. This is a vegan, oil-free and gluten-free soup. Packed with vegetables and chickpeas, this beets soup is nutrient-dense. 

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Jump to:

• 😋Why you’ll love this recipe
• ✔️What You’ll Need
• 🥘Ingredient Notes
• 🔪Step-By-Step
• 💭Pro Tips
• ✔️Variations
• ❓FAQ
• 🍴Serving Suggestion
• 🥘Related recipes
• 📖 Recipe

A few weeks back, a couple of girlfriends and I were doing cooking video calls every weekend. It was a great way to share recipes and cook together.

One of my friends graciously shared her Chinese Russian family’s recipe for borscht. Now, we all have different dietary requirements, so naturally, I made mine into vegan borscht. 

Previous to this recipe, I had never had good borscht, I always found them too oily. I made my borscht oil-free. I couldn’t be happier with the way this borscht tastes, it has so much flavour!

😋Why you’ll love this recipe

• Packed with vegetables
• The colour is stunningly vibrant and it’s got loads of flavour
• Vegan, gluten free, oil free and corn free
• Easy preparation, one pot only
• Store wells, both fridge and frozen

✔️What You’ll Need

🥘Ingredient Notes

Below are some points on this beets in soup recipe;

Beetroot grab yourself fresh and good quality beetroot. Pick a bunch of beetroot with good leaves. I like to chop up the beetroot leaves, stems and bulbs to use in my vegan borscht, however, you can only use the bulb.

Beets in soup gives the most magnificent colour. Chop up into small bite-sized pieces.

You can also make oil-free braised beetroot leaves if you opt to not include them in this vegan soup.

Carrots, potatoes and onions, again fresh produce here is best. Chop these all up into small bite-sized pieces. The great thing about making this beets soup is you don’t have to make the pieces accurate, just similar in size so they cook evenly.

Green cabbage - select a small-to-medium size cannonball cabbage head. Slice up into bite-sized pieces.

Chickpeas (garbanzo beans*) should be cooked prior to adding to this soup. The easiest option is to use organic canned chickpeas. Don’t forget to save the aquafaba to make some vegan meringues. Chickpeas in soup is a great source of plant protein.

Bay leaves and cloves add flavouring to this soup, I don’t recommend skimping on these. You can add these directly to the soup and fish them out when serving, or place them into an empty tea bag beforehand to make it easier to find them.

Tomato paste* and soy sauce* are also key flavouring in this soup. I don’t recommend skipping on these. Make sure both are gluten-free if needed.

Vegetable stock, my go-to is Massel*. This is a plant-based and gluten-free vegetable stock. I don’t recommend skipping on this ingredient. Use use your preferred veggie stock.

Note - generally store-bought vegetable stocks contain enough sodium, however always do a taste test when cooking and decide if you’d like to add salt.

Freshly squeezed lemon is added at the end, this heightens the flavour of this vegetable borscht.

The beetroot is such a vibrant colour, this is what it looks like when you sweat it with the potato, onions and carrot. Speaking of onion and carrot, check out my popular basic celery and carrot soup.

🔪Step-By-Step

Let’s get to how to make vegetable borscht;

Step 1 - In a stockpot, over medium-high heat, sweat onions and carrots in 3 tablespoons of vegetable stock until the onions have turned translucent and the carrots have released their colour. 

Step 2 - Add beetroot, potato and 5 more tablespoons of vegetable stock, stir until the beetroot has released colour and both the potatoes and beetroot have softened. 

Step 3 - Add tomato paste. Stir and ensure all is coated. Add the remaining vegetable stock, bay leaves and cloves. Bring it to a boil, then turn the heat down to low-medium. Allow simmering for about 10 minutes. 

Step 4 - Add cooked chickpeas, cabbage and soy sauce. Simmer for another 10 minutes. Turn heat off and stir through the lemon. Serve warm with some roasted chickpeas as croutons.

💭Pro Tips

Continuous stirring is needed during the sweating process in steps 1 & 2. This is because we aren’t using oil, if more spoonfuls of vegetable stock are needed, feel free to add spoonfuls at a time to stop any sticking.

Got excess fresh beetroot? Try making beetroot salad.

Got excess potato? Try making my vegan potato and leek soup.

Use roasted chickpeas as croutons, they add a nice crunch.

✔️Variations

Cannon ball cabbage can be swapped with red cabbage, Chinese cabbage or savoy cabbage.

Soy sauce can be swapped out with tamari sauce*, to make this a soy-free soup.

Chickpeas (garbanzo beans) can be swapped with any type of white bean. Vegan borscht with beans is a great meatless option.

❓FAQ

🍴Serving Suggestion

This vegan borsch is great on it’s own or with bread, try either my vegan dinner rolls or my vegan damper recipe. I also like to add roasted chickpeas as croutons.

🥘Related recipes

Did you enjoy making this vegan vegetable borscht? I would love to hear from you, leave me a comment below and give me a rating. This will help me sustain Plant Based Folk. 

Alternatively, did you happen to take a photo of your beets in soup? Tag me @plantbasedfolk on Instagram to be featured via stories. If you love sharing your vegan food pics, join the PBF community group.

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Janelle x

📖 Recipe