Beetroot coconut soup with Thai pesto

The best of all is when you make a recipe out of a small inconspicuous cookbook that lolls forever on the soon-to-be-read pile, which spontaneously turns out to be a total blast. Beets and coconuts - that sounds somehow very exciting. But who knows that a small spoon of the Thai pesto all the time just gives a rocket-like flavor boost? This combination is as extraordinary as it is great. By the way, I would not have come up with the idea of ​​cooking the soup if the man had not arranged to meet Aunt Tzatziki on Saturday night. The man is self-confessed beetroot haters. It tastes the tiniest little thing out of it all (like algae like that) - try it a thousand times, no chance.

So I and the little aroma bomb just spent a very comfortable evening together on the couch. Later, Ms. Marple joined the group, and she wanted to quickly clear up a murder in the library. Saturday evenings can sometimes be awesome ...

By the way, the soup base is finished in three steps. If you want to use fresh beetroot, the cooking time is extended by about 15 minutes. I've already taken precooked beetroot out of the vacuum bag, reducing the cooking time to a quarter of an hour.

While the soup is cooking, you have plenty of time to make the pesto. All ingredients are coarsely crushed and then pounded in a mortar to a smooth paste. This is the elaborate part of the recipe, but ultimately it goes faster than you think. If you do not have a mortar, you can cut the ingredients for the pesto very finely and then crush it with a broad knife set aside.

When the soup is ready, part of the pesto is infused and the remainder served separately.

And so it goes for 4 as an appetizer:

1 onion peel and chop. Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in a saucepan and fry the onions in a glassy saucepan.

Cut 300 g red beets (pre-cooked from the vacuum bag) (put on disposable gloves! ) with 1 teaspoon cumin seed in the pot. Fry for 2 minutes, then pour 400 ml coconut milk and 500 ml chicken or vegetable broth . Simmer for 15 minutes.

In the meantime Peel 2-3 cloves of garlic and 5 cm of fresh ginger and grate. 2 small chili peppers 1 stalk of lemongrass, 5 stalks of cilantro and 3 stalks of mint chop finely. Rub off the skin of 1 untreated lime . Press out the lime juice and put aside. Process all ingredients (except lime juice) in a mortar into a smooth paste. Stir in the lime juice.

Puree the soup and season with 1 teaspoon salt and 1 tbsp palm sugar or brown sugar . Add half of the Thai pesto to the soup. Serve the other half in small dip bowls to the soup.