This monster soup is dreadfully delicious! A vibrant vegetarian meal for Hallowe’en night or an autumnal dinner party.

Inspired by the monster soup from Zelda Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, this dish is filled to the brim with nutritious veggies – how monstrous! We’re serving this vibrant soup with a drizzle of coconut milk, topped with curried peas for extra fun flavour.

Monster Soup in Zelda Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom: butter, milk, wheat + monster extract

Well, cooking monster soup made me wonder all kinds of things about the concept of monster extract in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom that I had never thought about before.

Is monster extract a purée of bokoblins and such? Did Kilton throw some monster bits together in a pot and boil it down into a sort of jelly? Did a bunch of monsters simply scream in his direction and he captured their breath in a jar? I have a lot of questions about this. In the description, it’s referred to as a “suspicious spice.” Yes, I agree; it’s very suspicious! Does anybody have any theories about this?

Also what are the origins of the monster species in Breath of the Wild? The only information really given that I could find about their origins is that they are ancient races, and connected with dark forces. But before “ancient times” were they more like the main races across Hyrule? Are they corrupt ancient Hylians or Gerudo? Or are they more akin to deer and bears? I want answers, Nintendo.

NOTE: Since Tears of the Kingdom, I have a lot of new thoughts about all of this…

This led me to think about a few more things, if Hylians and monsters do have any type of genetic relation. It is no secret that our own human existence has quite a disturbing history, when our ancestors were neanderthals, and even more recently into the mid-1700’s certain groups of people across the world used the substance of their enemies in ….medicine (I’m trying to word this in a non-graphic way).

This apparently was common, for instance, in many parts of Europe in ages past, and there is quite a lot of gruesome information that has been uncovered through archeological excavations about these situations. Globally speaking, it is how we came to have our stories of Dracula, werewolves, tales of zombies and many more.

So yeah, this soup made me think about some rather disturbing things. The Smithsonian Magazine has a bunch of articles on this stuff if you want to know more, but it might not be appropriate for young readers.

So… immediately I knew I wanted monster soup to be a vegetarian dish. I won’t be able to do that with the monster stew though (recipe coming up in a while). Since monster stew requires meat, fish and monster extract, but I have ideas about that and will cross that personal hurdle when I get to it. If you haven’t guessed already, I don’t eat a ton of meat. It’s kind of funny because Breath of the Wild contains SO MANY MEAT RECIPES. But, on we go…

I first thought about the colour of the monster soup in Breath of the Wild. It’s a very vibrant colour and immediately reminded me of borsch. It would be very fun to make a super purple-red soup, a soup similar to borsch, but with a Zelda touch.

Also, I thought it would be a fun idea to make the soup with vegetables that I found “monstrous” as a child but now enjoy as an adult – potatoes, peas, beets, cabbage, onions. An introspective sort of soup!

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Monster Soup

This colourful purple soup took 2 hours to make and made about 6 servings.

Ingredients

Soup

• 3-4 cups chopped red cabbage
• 4-5 medium-sized beets
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 2-4 tbsp minced garlic
• ½ cup diced sweet onion
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp flour
• 1 1/2 cups coconut milk
• 4 cups reserved beet/cabbage juice (from Step #1)
• 1 1/2 cups strained tomatoes
• 3 cups potatoes, in chunks
• 1-2 bouillon cubes
• 2 tbsp dried dill (or 1/4 cup fresh)
• 2 tbsp dried thyme (or 1/4 cup fresh)
• 2 tbsp dried parsley (or 1/4 cup fresh)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp white ground pepper
• juice of 1 lemon (2-3 tbsp)

Curried Peas

• 2 tbsp butter or oil
• 2 cups peas
• 2-4 tsp curry powder
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• grated zest of one lemon
• salt and pepper to taste

Tools

• large soup pot
• frying pan
• medium and large bowl (for cooling off the beets and cabbage)
• ice cubes
• cooking spoon
• chopping knife
• cutting board
• measuring cup
• measuring spoons
• hand juicer (a fork also works)
• zester or fine grater
• food processor
• can opener
• optional: bowl for pre-measuring the spices

Instructions

1. Chop, peel, and cut the beets into chunks. Chop the cabbage. Put the beets and cabbage a large pot, cover with water and bring to a boil. Simmer for 1 hour. 

4. Sauté the onion with 2 tbsp oil in the bottom of the large pot over medium-high heat for 2 minutes. 

5. Add butter into the soup pot. Once melted, add the flour. Stir for 30 seconds until a paste forms, then add 1 1/4 cups of coconut milk. Stir until well combined with the butter and flour.

6. Add the reserved liquid from the boiled the beets and cabbage, plus the garlic, salt, pepper, tomatoes, bouillon, and herbs. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

7. Add the puréed cabbage and beets, then stir. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5-8 minutes.

8. Cook the peas while the soup is simmering. Melt 2 tbsp butter or oil in a frying pan over med-high heat. Add the peas, spices, salt and pepper, and lemon rind. Sauté for 5 minutes, then set aside.

9. Take the soup off the heat and stir in the lemon juice. Ladle the soup into serving bowls. Stain the soup with a few dots of the remaining coconut milk in a circular motion. Top with curried peas and enjoy!

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A Monster Soup Fit For A Feast

A few tips about making monster soup:

• Also if you do oil your cutting board, be careful with the slicing, as things might be a bit more slippery from the oil. Please don’t cut yourself.
• You might also want to wear gloves when chopping and peeling beets to avoid having stained pink fingers for a day or two.

My partner enjoyed eating the monster soup plain, but the peas really made the dish for me. Having spicy sour peas on top just made my day. Writing that sentence, maybe I need to get outside a bit more.

Anyways, this monster soup contains a lot of nutritious vegetables, but it is deceptively tasty. Might be a fun way to trick a few gremlins into eating veggies before they dig into their Hallowe’en treats?