Red beetroot soup

When I got home, I decided to start cooking the red beetroots from my friends' vegetable garden, right away. I still had some leftover vegetables so I combined everything in a soup.


3 small onions, peeled and chopped
6 small carrots, peeled and chopped
1 red pepper, washed and chopped
1 courgette, washed and chopped
3 red beetroots, peeled and chopped
a bit of celery, washed and chopped
chopped parsley
olive oil
2 cloves
2-3 bay leaves
vegetable stock

Fry onions and celery stalks for a few min in olive oil on low heat.
Add red beetroots, carrots and pepper, raise the heat a little and fry for some more min.
Add courgette and celery leaves and fry for some more min.
Add boiling water, lots of salt, pepper, cloves, bay leaves and vegetable stock.
Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and let the soup simmer for 30-45 min until the vegetables are cooked.
Serve with chopped parsley.

Note
The original recipe (from the cook of Lukemieke, a vegetarian restaurant which existed in Leuven when I was studying there) uses these vegetables: 300 g red beetroot, 2 carrots, 1 onion, 1/2 white or green cabbage and 2 leeks. It also suggests serving the soup with sourcream. I added a tbsp of extra virgin olive oil.
After tasting the soup I decided that in future I would leave out the red pepper (too tangy) and courgette (got too soft) and add leek and potato in stead.