Beet Greens Soup (Polish Botwinka Soup)

This beet greens soup is quick, easy, and very flavorful. We’re using beets, their stems, and leaves to make it! It’s a great way to utilize all parts of a beet, especially if you grow your own beets or have found a beautiful bunch of beets at the farmer’s market. I often serve this soup with hard-boiled eggs and sometimes feta cheese. It’s one of my favorite spring recipes, and I always think about it when spring comes.

Ingredients:

The most important ingredient of this soup are young beets with their stems and leaves attached. The stems and leaves are called ‘botwinka’ in the Polish language hence the name of the soup (it’s called either botwinka or zupa botwinkowa (‘zupa’ means soup)).

If you can’t find the beets with stems and leaves in a supermarket, try searching for them at a farmer’s market. Botwinka is not really known in Austria where I live, but I often see it at farmer’s markets as the sellers think that the beets with their leaves just look nicer. Last time they tried to remove them before selling the beets to me, and didn’t really understand my excitement about the leaves!

If you’re growing your own beets this soup is the best possible way to use them up!

If you’ve found the beet leaves and stems with teeny tiny beets attached, this is also ok, as the leaves and stems are the main focus of this soup, just buy 2 bunches.

If you look at the photos, this soup looks similar to Polish beet soup (barszcz) or this simple beet soup, but it’s not the same. As written previously, the main focus of this soup are young beets and their leaves. You can check out my recipe for Polish beet soup for Christmas Eve (barszcz wigilijny). If you want to learn more about Polish soups, check out this recipe: Polish soup recipes.

The rest of the ingredients are very simple. The main ingredients are beets, potatoes, broth, and cream. I seasoned this soup with garlic, dill, and lemon juice, which is very important – it balances the sweetness of the beets and cream. Hard-boiled eggs are often served with this soup (but not always). I like to add them as their flavor works brilliantly with the soup but they also make the soup very filling, so when it’s warm I often eat it for dinner as a main dish (I’m sure my grandma wouldn’t approve of 1-course dinner though!). Instead of lemon juice you can use apple cider vinegar.

How many eggs do you need: it depends on your preferences, I like a lot, so for a 1 bowl of soup, like shown on the photos I would add 2 eggs.

Step-by-step instructions:

These are complete instructions with step by step photos showing how to make this soup. Scroll down for printable recipe card.

STEP 1: Start with preparing the ingredients: peel and cut 1.5 lbs (750g) potatoes into 1-inch (2.5cm) cubes, cut 3 large cloves garlic into thin slices, chop 1 small handful dill finely. 1 big bunch of the beets: roughly cut the leaves, cut the stems into thin slices, peel the beetroots (use gloves!), and cut into thin slices (larger beets need to be cut into four parts and then into slices).

STEP 2: Heat 2 Tbsp of oil in a large pot over high heat, when it’s hot add the potatoes. Cook over high heat for about 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally (do not stir for the first minute), until the potatoes brown a little.

STEP 3: Add the garlic and cook for another 30 seconds.

STEP 4: Add the 5 cups of broth (1.3 l) and chopped beets (don’t add the stems and leaves just yet). Bring to a boil, scrape all the browned bits and pieces of potatoes from the bottom of the pot with a spatula, and cook over low heat for about 5 minutes.

STEP 5: Add the chopped stems, stir, bring to a boil, cook for another 5 minutes.

STEP 6: Add the beetroot leaves and cook the soup briefly, for about 1-2 minutes, just until the leaves are wilted.

STEP 7: Temper the cream: add 1/2 cup of cream (120ml) to a cup together with a few tablespoons of the soup, stir and add back to the pot.

STEP 8: Take the pot off the heat, add the chopped dill and season the soup with salt, pepper and 2 Tbsp of lemon juice (or more or less, to your taste).

Serve with hard-boiled eggs.

Enjoy!

Storage and freezing:

• The soup can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 days, it can be warmed up, but it should not boil intensively (cream can curdle).
• This soup can be frozen only before adding the cream.

Did you make this recipe? RATE THE RECIPE or tell me in the COMMENTS how you liked it! You can also add a photo of your dish. It would make me very happy and will help other readers. Thank you!!