Festive Beetroot Soup

Recipe and photo Anne Faber - Anne's Kitchen

Peel and roughly chop the onion. Trim the fennel, remove the green stalks and roughly chop the bulb. Peel the beetroot and cut into 2 cm pieces. Peel, core and chop the apples into 2 cm pieces.

Heat olive oil in a large pot. Add onion, fennel, fennel seeds and salt, and sauté for 5 minutes. Peel and crush the garlic cloves, add to the pot and cook for another 5 minutes until the vegetables soften.

Add beetroot, apple, vegetable stock and chilli flakes. Cover, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 1 hour, until the beetroot is tender.

Remove from heat, add dill and blend until smooth. Season with pepper.

Prepare the croutons while the soup cooks.

Preheat the oven to 180°C fan. Trim crusts off the bread and roll the slices flat with a rolling pin. Cut out 16 large and 16 small stars.

Place the stars on a baking tray, brush with olive oil and sprinkle with fleur de sel.

Bake for 6 minutes until golden and crisp.

Fill the cream cheese into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle.

Just before serving, pipe small cream cheese dots onto the large stars and garnish with pink peppercorns and dill fronds.

Tipp: Add the croutons to the soup at the table so they don’t sink too quickly.