Hay-roasted Beetroot Soup

This recipe for a hay-roasted beetroot soup with fermented black peppered honeycomb might might be just the challenge your looking for when wanting to impress guests around the dinner table. It serves six as a starter portion.

For the soup:

Ingredients

• 900 g Red beets, trimmed and washed
• Maldon salt
• Olive oil
• Clean hay

Instructions

1. Place clean hay in roasting tray, place a roasting rack over and put the beetroot onto the roasting rack.
2. Season with Maldon salt, drizzle with good quality olive oil and cover with foil, roast for plus minus 1 hour until beetroot is cooked through and a knife passes through easily.

Peel and dice

• 1 Cup Sundried tomatoes, finely chopped 
• 1 Medium white onion, finely diced 
• 1 Red chili, deseeded and finely sliced 
• 4 Tblsp Honey (fermented honey)
• 1 tsp Caraway seed
• 1 tsp Fennel seed
• 1 tsp Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tsp Smoked paprika
• 1 L Standard Vegetable stock
• 100 ml Sherry vinegar
• 50 ml Soy sauce
• Grapeseed oil or olive oil for frying

Instructions

1. Fry onion, caraway seed, fennel seed, black pepper, chili and paprika to release flavours.
2. Add Sundried tomatoes, and diced beetroot.
3. Add honey and caramelize.
4. Add vinegar and soy sauce and then top up with vegetable stock.
5. Leave to simmer for 20 min.
6. Season to taste with Maldon salt.
7. Blend until very smooth and pass through a fine sieve.