Image: Michael Caplan
I ring my mother. She is 92.
“Do you use beef stock to make beetroot soup?” I ask.
“No,” Fay says, “we never used beef stock. This is how we did it,” said my mother. “This is my mother’s recipe.”
Sarah’s beetroot soup
Slice the beetroots.
Cover with water. Simmer for about half an hour until tender.
Drain the sliced beetroot and keep the beetroot stock.
(You don’t use the sliced beetroot for the soup. My mum says: use them in a salad with sour cream with sliced onions).
Beat 2 eggs with the juice of one lemon.
Add carefully- or eggs will curdle – to some of the warmed beetroot stock.
Once the beaten eggs are incorporated into this small amount, tip it into the main soup.
Reheat carefully – very carefully – so the eggs don’t curdle.
Add sour cream if desired.
Thanks, mum.
This purple-looking healing soup, which I make with organic ingredients for extra quality, health and taste, enables nourishment to slip-in unsuspected via its beetroot-sweet, lemony lightness.
My grandmother Sarah died when I was 16. She was warm, earthy and wise, with fierce opinions I did not always agree with. Born in 1899 in London, her parents were migrants from anti-semitic Tsarist Belarus and Lithuania. I think of her so much in my heart.
My mother says the older she gets, the more she thinks of her grandmother, Jesse, (Sarah’s mother). Jesse died when my mother was ten years old. My mother says: “I talk to her every day. I call to her by her Yiddish name, Yeshki. She used to read the Yiddish translation of Shakespeare’s plays.”
(I only learned that bit yesterday when reading out this blog to my mum – see pic above).
My mother repeats stories endlessly so we remember them. My mother’s recollection of her grandmother are imprinted on my DNA since childhood so I have absorbed Jess’s “live each day as if it were your last” philosophy.
My mum again: “Jesse used to say: ‘I am not frightened of death,’ and pointing over to the window, she would say: ‘It’s as if I’m passing to the other side of that net curtain.'”
So, eat beet soup, and enjoy this precious life!
Real Food Lover 
I cried reading this! ❤
LikeLike
I’m equally interested in the salad 🙂
LikeLike
Ah, thanks, Annie. And thank you for encouraging me to write the sequel to beef broth!
LikeLike
Wouldn’t it be fun to compile all the different variations in East European and Jewish soups…. that’s what I was trying to get at with the Schav. Meanwhile, I wish I could deliver some Beetroot Kimchi to you LOL.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Beetroot kimchi? O yes!
Good idea about soup compilation!
LikeLike
Sounds totally delicious – and a beautiful story x
LikeLike
Beetroot is incredibly good for the digestion. It was a key ingredient to getting rid of inflammation of the digestive tract I had last year. So basically, it’s an anti inflammatory and may also lower blood pressure. But watch for pink colored human waste if eaten too much! Thanks for this reminder and the recipe..Just one question, should one use the egg yolk, and discard the white?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi – that is so interesting that beetroot has anti-inflammatory properties. That increases my love of beetroot!
Yes, the whole egg is used.
(Thanks, I will make that clearer in the recipe later).
LikeLike
Thanks for another great recipe and sharing of your family history…makes me feel like home!
LikeLike
Thanks, Jody!
LikeLike
Thank you Elisabeth.
Very simple recipe for my allotment jewels plus a heartwarming and simple philosophy which remains true across geographical boundaries and through generations.
Just what I needed to read this morning 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah that is lovely to read, my allotment queen.
LikeLike
Gorgeous mmmmm will make
LikeLike
Lovely, Miriyam, thanks!
LikeLike