Hello everyone,
… “Borscht in the early nineteenth century, made for the Russian tsar, consisted of three stocks blended together—one of veal, another of morel mushrooms, and a third of goose and dried prune, with sour cherries used for acidity instead of tomatoes, which were not yet common in Russian cooking. This sounded like the most luxurious foundation of borscht I could imagine—both worlds apart from my family’s version…”
Hope you enjoyed this unexpected twist in the borscht history.
How about some Ukrainian borscht? The best borscht in the world according to my family quality assurance team 🙂
Although my number one favorite borsht in the world is the one that my mother makes which is meat based and has no beets in it (this borsht version is common in east part of Ukraine), I learned how to cook fabulous vegetarian borscht which comes pretty handy during Lenten season and I want to share this secret family recipe with you guys!
This West Ukrainian version of lenten borscht, which is vegetable-based brothy soup with beets, slightly crunchy cabbage, mouthwatering garlic zing, and plenty of fresh dill has a neat secret trick to avoid potatoes being colored by beets. Intrigued?
Let’s do this!
After eating this incredible meal, you will become a pinch happier, I promise!
Bon Appétit!
p.s. I usually try to cover some objections to the recipe you guys might have, but I am NOT going to do this now.
Why? Because the tradition of cooking borscht and eating it in a family circle is such a sacred ritual for me, that I don’t want even to think about the objections in this case.
If you don’t like borscht shoot me an email, I invite you over for a dinner and you will be converted 😉
Borsht
Ingredients
- 1 quart pot
- 2 big potatoes
- 1 big yellow onion
- 1 big carrot
- 1 big beetroot
- 1 tin tomatoes
Instructions
- Prepare your ingredients
- Peel and dice onions. Peel and grate carrots. Peel and dice potatoes. Peel and julienne beetroot. Put diced potatoes to the pot cover with water bring to boil. When comes to boil take off the foam.
- Meanwhile, add 2 tbsp of olive oil to the pan add onions and fry on medium heat for 10 min or until soft and translucent. Add grated carrots and cook for 5 more min.
- Add 1 tbsp of olive oil to another pan and add julienned beetroots. Add 1 tbsp of lemon juice*, mix well and cook on medium heat for 5 min.
- Add tomatoes in their juices to the onion-carrots mix. Crush whole tomatoes to make the sauce even. Cook on medium heat for 15 min.
- Add tomato sauce, beetroots, bay leaf, dried herbs and salt to the pot with potatoes. Mix well. Cook for 15 min. Meanwhile, Grate cabbage on a mandolin or use your fine knife skills and dice it thinly. Wash and dice dill. Peel the garlic. After 15 min, add cabbage, dill, and squeezed garlic to borsht bring to boil. Cook for 1 min and take off the heat.
- Let stand for at least 15 min to let the ingredients mingle. Bon Appétit!
