Lilly's Beet Soup

A few years ago, when I was doing my Masters in MTL, I lived in graduate residence. It was apartment style, and I was lucky enough to have two amazing roommates. On top of being wonderful people, fun to  chat and hangout, they were both great in the kitchen. I definitely learned a lot. Lilly is a great cook, always making tasty and delicious meals with healthy ingredients, and Linda is an amazing baker! She makes the prettiest looking desserts. She also makes the best dumplings! One of my favourite parts of my time in mtl, was cooking and eating with these two wonderful ladies :) I miss you both!!



One of Lilly's staples, is this delicious soup filled with garlic and ginger and made quite spicy. It's great to ward off any impeding colds or flu. Last year, I was feeling sick and asked Lilly to please send me the recipe. I never got around to making it. Then, the other day I had a sore throat, so I dug up the recipe, hit the grocery store and made it. I've been eating it for lunch and dinner and my throat is much better now.

Growing up, I had an aversion to beets. My dad used to say how it was the only thing he really didn't like. My mom didn't like them either, and so by association, neither did I. But, after years of not wanting anything to do with them, this soup put an end to my unjustified hatred of beets. This was my first time cooking with them, and it was pretty easy.

Ingredients:
-garlic
-ginger
-knor beef or chicken soup cube
-bay leaf
-vegetables: grated carrot, cut up beets, onion, fennel, cilantro, spinach, potato
- beans: white, black or red, or a mixture of the three
- tumeric, ground flaxseed, chilli flakes

Directions:
1) Use about 1 garlic clove per person and as much ginger as you'd like, and blend in a food processor or magic bullet, until it almost pasty
2) fill a medium sized pot with water. Add beans (rinsed and drained), bay leaf, soup cube, garlic ginger paste and bring to a boil.
3) reduce to simmer and add vegetables. As some veggies take longer to cook, put potatoes first, and add green veggies (spinach, swiss chard) towards the end)
4) add spices: 1 tsp tumeric per person, 1 tsp flaxseed per person- mix and make sure it doesnt clump together
5) add chili flakes to taste. The spicier, the better if you have a cold.

Serve with multigrain bread. ( I used flaxseed bread, as i didn't have any flax to add to the soup)

enjoy!