Recipes

4 person meal

Soup:
6 large beetroots
1 L aronia juice
½ L water
100 ml milk
1 yellow onion
3 garlic cloves
½ bunch thyme
50 g butter
8 black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
Salt
Red wine vinegar
Served with 1 tub of smetana

Peel the beetroot, onion and garlic.  Cut the beetroot, onion and garlic in small pieces. Heat and brown the butter in a pot, add the beetroot, onion and garlic.  Pan fry these for approximately 5 minutes whilst stirring, add bay leaves, peppercorns and thyme and stir through.  Add the aronia juice and water and allow to cook until the beetroots are soft, approximately 30 minutes.  Add milk and mix the soup with a blender until smooth.  Strain the soup through a sieve, taste and add salt and red vinegar to taste.  Add a proper dollop of smetana in bowl and pour over the soup.

Seeds and croutons
50 ml sunflower seeds
50 ml pumpkin seeds
1 teaspoon salt
4 slices of white bread
50 g butter

Heat a frying pan until it starts to smoke.  Add the seeds and salt and toast these whilst stirring until the seeds become light brown.  Remove the pan from heat and pour the seeds into a bowl.  Add a sprinkling of toasted seeds to the soup.
Cut away the crusts of the bread and cut the bread into 1cm x 1cm cubes.
Brown the butter in a frying pan and add the bread and pan fry the bread until it is golden brown on all sides.  Serve the croutons on the soup.

Good luck in the kitchen!

Mattias Åhman / Chef of the Year 2017