Easy & Nourishing Ginger Beet Soup

Marge (00:00:06) - Welcome back, Ganja gang. This week we're doing a gingery beet soup that you're going to love. Welcome to Bite Me, the show about edibles where I help you take control of your high life. I'm your host and certified Ganjier. Marge and I love helping cooks make safe and effective edibles at home. I'm so glad you're here. And thank you for joining me today. And we're back. Thank you for being here today. I'm glad you decided to join us for this ginger beet soup recipe, because I think if you're like me, it's January, it's cold, it's shitty out and something to nourish the soul is really appreciated. And I got to thank Martha Stewart for this one. Martha, if you're listening, come on my show. Let's talk about weed and cooking, as I'm sure you have done many times before with Snoop Dogg, if you want to bring him along too, I wouldn't say no. So if you're listening, like I said, please. But in any case, all my other listeners, the ones who really matter to me, that show up every single week.

Marge (00:01:07) - Thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate your support. And if you're new to the show, welcome! I hope you enjoy this episode and it gives you some inspiration for something different in the kitchen, because we often like to think that cannabis edibles means pot brownies. That's the first thing that comes to most people's minds. And of course, with good reason, because that's what kind of got the ball rolling as far as modern day edibles go. But there is so much more to making edibles than just brownies. And if you stick around for a while, you'll find out how versatile the edible really can be, as evidenced by this ginger beet soup that we're going to be talking about today. But before we get into it, let's do a little stoner trivia. Now, if you're following along, I started this in last week's episode. I think I did one and another one, and I can't remember exactly what happened with the answer for that, but I decided to change things up because I said in the last episode in the newsletter, you know, you could, uh, if you had a strong opinion about where I put the answer, then let me know.

Marge (00:02:10) - But clearly, nobody has strong opinions about it, I guess. I guess you have more important things to do, unsurprisingly. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to read out this week's donut trivia question, and you have to wait till the very end of the episode to see if you were correct. I'm not going to put it in the newsletter because it's too easy to forget. I mean, maybe I could include it, but anyway, I'll worry about that later. For now, this is a culture question, and if you're keeping track, it's worth 50 points. Remember, you're trying to get to 420 points. What country produces the most hemp in the world? Is it China, the USA, Mexico or Sweden? I'm surprised to see Canada not on this list. We do seem to produce a ton of cannabis that, uh, we have a huge stockpile of now, so that's good. But China, USA, Mexico or Sweden? Stay tuned until the end of the episode to find out if you are correct and don't Google it.

Marge (00:03:14) - I know you're on your phone listening to this episode, but don't Google it. So let's get into this week's episode, shall we? Now, last week was the last week's episode. I did a lemon ginger soda, which I'm having a sip of right now. It's actually quite nice. And the reason I liked that recipe is because it made a mixed base or drink mixed base that you could use for making multiple drinks, and I've been enjoying a little bit of it every single day. I infused wine with CBD, so I'm free to enjoy it at any point that I feel like it and not worry about the psychoactive effects, so I can keep going with what I need to do. And of course, the ginger and the lemon and the honey makes me feel like I'm warding off. Warding off viruses and all the sickness that seems to be going around right now, which there is so much I know, so many people who have not been feeling well. And of course, because I bought the ginger for that recipe, I was like, I need to do something else with it.

Marge (00:04:15) - That last one came from Martha Stewart as well, and if you haven't checked it out, it's so simple it's worth trying out. You could probably also make it into a warm drink as well, if you weren't feeling like something icy cold, although I guess it wouldn't have the sparkling soda effect to it. But whatever. You got to take care of yourself this time of year, am I right? So I was looking for more recipes, and I came across this ginger beet soup from Martha's website as well. And it looks simple to make, and I've made many borscht style soups in the past, and it's a soup that I really love because it's healthy, hearty, nourishing, and it's an excuse to use a combination of cabbage, potato, and beets. But this soup isn't quite like that. You're skipping the cabbage and you're including ginger instead. And if you've made the ginger soda that I was just talking about, you probably have a bunch of ginger still on hand. Because you can't just buy a little knob of ginger.

Marge (00:05:07) - You have to buy a whole bag of it and you need to do something with it. So this recipe is perfect because it's quick and it's easy, and you can serve it with a little or a little toast or a sandwich, offering more ways to infuse and get high. Of course, because I had a I had a actually the soup. When I made it, I was I ate it over a couple of days because it makes, you know, a larger serving. And I had a soup and a sandwich for lunch one day and was fantastic. And if you're sitting down with toast and sandwich, you could always put infused butter on both of those things and amp up the infusion ratio. But the beauty of it is that this recipe specifically says to drizzle olive oil on the soup when you're serving it, which means that you can infuse each bowl to your preference or not at all. If you're in a house like mine, we're not. Everybody consumes cannabis, and that way you can also, depending on what you have on hand, if you're feeling like you need a little THC or you prefer just CBD or you want a ratio, it's all available to you depending on what you've got in your cupboard or in your refrigerator at that point.

Marge (00:06:11) - So to make this soup, you're going to need a little extra virgin olive oil, plus more for serving and the plus more for serving is where you're going to infuse it. You need a yellow onion, your chopped, peeled ginger, garlic, salt and pepper. Uh, beets, potato, plain yogurt, and fresh thyme leaves. The last one is optional, so if you do forget to pick them up at the store, no worries. But it is nice to finish it off and it makes it look a little prettier. And the only thing that I might change in this recipe is the inclusion of a broth base instead of water, to add a little complexity, and also some health qualities or nourishment to the soup that you get with a good quality broth. You can keep it vegetarian with the vegetable broth, or use a chicken or beef broth. Making your own broth, of course, is super easy, especially if you're doing a veggie broth because you're just like boiling down vegetable scraps. And if you're so inclined, you can take that and freeze it for when you do need it in the appropriate sized containers.

Marge (00:07:15) - Because I don't know about you, but I find I'll open a can or, sorry, a carton. I'm usually using buying my broth in cartons. I'll use half of it because the rest it'll be a liter sized carton and the recipe will call for two cups. I use the half of the carton, and then I put the rest in the fridge, only to have to pour it out when I forget about it a month later in the back. And I know I'm not the only one. Sometimes I wish they would put the cartons like in smaller sizes, and I have seen them sometimes, but then they just go up in price. And this is one of those examples where I should probably be getting more organized and making my own broth, because it is pretty easy to make, and it just takes a little bit of time in the kitchen. But I've had other things on my mind lately. You know what else I haven't been doing? I haven't been making bread this winter, and my poor sourdough starter has been in the back of my fridge now for a very long time, and I'm afraid to pull it out and look at it.

Marge (00:08:05) - Maybe I can revive it. Those things are pretty hearty, but I do miss the smell of baking bread and the excitement of when I pull out a loaf and it's turned out the way I was hoping it would, because that's not always the case. I was still perfecting my sourdough when I put the starter in the fridge over the summer, because I figured I wouldn't be doing too much baking when it was hot, although we didn't even end up having a super hot summer, but I digress. This soup cooks up pretty fast. As I said, I would have added the broth, but I had my daughter over when we made the soup. We were making a few different things together and she's vegetarian, so all I had on hand at that time was chicken broth, and I didn't have anything that I'd made myself in the freezer, and we'd been cooking up other things, like I said. So we just didn't have the time to make a veggie broth, because if I had the time in the inclination, I know my daughter would have been totally into that because she when she was running the restaurant, she's not running the restaurant anymore.

Marge (00:09:03) - But when she was running the restaurant, they made soups all the time. It always had homemade vegetable broth that they would make while they were in the kitchen. And it's just one of those things. You put it on the stove and you let it cook away, and it doesn't even have to take that long. But that would have really added, added a little something extra to the soup. Otherwise it's great. You don't have to use the broth, but that would be my big recommendation. I'm surprised that Martha Stewart missed this, to be honest. So as I said, the soup cooks up pretty fast. And I guess basically I shouldn't say. I guess essentially you're going to put it really right out the instructions here, put in the instructions, but I'll link to it on the show notes, of course. But you put all of the ingredients, you cook them all up. Basically in your pot, and then you pour it into a blender and you blend it because this is a smooth soup, it's not chunky and un blended.

Marge (00:09:58) - And then you put some of the yogurt on top the plain yogurt, which is a healthier alternative, maybe a lower fat alternative to the sour cream which is commonly used in beet borscht soups. And then you put the little time leaves on it and you drizzle it with the olive oil again to your preference. And there you go. That's essentially it. Like I said, it cooks up very quickly and. It's a good way to use up ingredients like the ginger. Or if you have beets in your fridge, you're like, what do I do with them? Or potato? And I have in the past frozen soups like this. So if you make a big batch and you decide you want to keep some for a day when you're like, I don't feel like cooking, then this would be one of those. And honestly, I know we're supposed to eat the rainbow and eat vegetables that come from a range of colors, but it's sometimes it's really hard to get outside the dichotomy of like. Broccoli and peppers if you will, like red peppers and trying to incorporate root vegetables like beets into your diet.

Marge (00:11:04) - It's just smart, I think. So the soup is very customizable. We're in the heart of wintertime in Canada. As I mentioned, Ginger's a great ingredient to help ward off the evil viruses that are everywhere. And if you try it, I would love to hear how you find it, how you made it your own. What was your favorite part about it? And of course, I haven't forgotten about the trivia question, but as always, if you would please share the episode with somebody you think would enjoy it. I would appreciate it. And word of mouth is the best way to spread awareness about the show. And this podcast is podcast. Discoverability is still always an issue for independent podcasters like myself. You can always reach out to me via email or the podcast hotline or a DM over on Instagram. That's a social platform that I'm most active on. You can stay up to date with the newsletter, and I don't know if you knew, but I have a Bite Me cannabis cookbook. And if you sign up for the newsletter, you can download that for free over there.

Marge (00:12:09) - And there's some great recipes in there, some I've covered on the show, one that I'm going to be covering soon, and some classics that are new that I would love to hear if you try them out. Of course, consider using the products and services on the Marge Recommends page. As always, there's show notes over on the website. They'll have the recipe, and if you need recipe inspiration, there's tons of stuff. Lots of things you can try as far as edibles go, either by searching the site or on the recipes page. I'm always trying to add recipes to the recipes page, because I'll do an episode and I'll write the show notes, and then I'll have the recipe built in or embedded into the show notes for that episode, and then I forget to put them on the recipes page. So I'm always having to go through and find those and add them. But I'm getting a large collection and it's a great way to get a little edibles inspo, if you will. Now. As for the stoner trivia, what country produces the most hemp in the world? China, the USA, Mexico or Sweden? If you answered China, then you are correct.

Marge (00:13:22) - Who knew? That's pretty interesting. Again, Canada wasn't on the list. China? I didn't know they were growing that much hemp.