Hotroot soup is a very spicy dish favored by otters - however, many other creatures enjoy it, too.
The main components of the soup are river or pond shrimp, bulrush, leek, onion, lots of garlic, horseradish, and a fiery spice known as "hotroot pepper". Hotroot pepper or ditchnettle pepper gives the dish its spicy kick. Additional ingredients and spices include: reed mace, starwort, mare's tail, and burr reed. Another version of hotroot pepper called Red Firebrand Pepper, appears in Triss, and was said to come from lands far across the sea. It is much spicier than the regular type of hotroot pepper.
In Salamandastron there was a hotroot soup-eating contest between Thrugg and his sister Thrugann. After a very “heated" contest, a tie was declared by Abbess Vale.
A concentrated version of the soup, called hotroot sauce, is also used to enliven other dishes.
A producible recipe for hotroot soup is published in Tribes of Redwall Otters and The Redwall Cookbook. An alternate, fictional version appears in The Great Redwall Feast.
