The following was given to us by a Ukrainian neighbor we had once upon a time.
It was savory and delicious. Not at all what I’d expected. (See author’s comment #8) :)
Ukrainian Borsh
Ingredients
2 lb. (1 kg) meat (beef) or 1/2 Chicken
2~3 medium beets
2 Potatoes
1 head cabbage (small) or 1/2 ~ 2/3 large
2 onions
1 ~ 2 carrots
2 caps tomato juice (2~3 tbsp tomato paste) [NOTE: I believe caps meant cups]
1/4 cap chopped parsley (2 tbs dry parsley)
Salt
Sugar
Black pepper
3 garlic cloves
Broth preparation
Cut the meat in 1 in. cubes. Slightly broil 10 min. to push the fat out.
Place the meat, 1 small onion (whole cleaned but uncut), 1/2 carrot (whole)(and 1/2 parsley root optional) in a pot. Add water and 1 tea spoon of salt, boil the broth during 1.5 hours. In the end remove vegetables and roots from broth. (You can do broth evening day before the Borsh cooking)
Use large pot, prepare broth for little more than 1/2 pot. (You will have a large amount of vegetables, so give them enough space).
Borsh
Chop onions, put it in deep skillet and slightly brown. (Use cooking spry to minimize amount of fat during the frying) add chopped carrot, fry additional 5 min. Add chopped beets, fry 10 min. more until the vegetables become tender. Add tomato pasta or juice, little bit of sugar and stew additional 10 min.
Shred the cabbage.
If you use day before cooked broth, bring it to boil. Cut potatoes in cubes and put them in boiling broth, boil it 10~15 min. Add fried onion, carrot and beets and boil 10 min. Add shredded cabbage and boil 5~10 min.
In the end add 2 bay leaves, chopped garlic, dill, parsley and salt to taste. At this point you can try to balance taste adding a little more tomato juice (or paste), sugar (if borsch has too acid taste) or salt. Real Borscht must be sour, not sweet. Stir. Adjust for salt and pepper and add some cayenne to give borscht just a hint of spice. The borscht should be very thick (the expression goes that a large spoon should remain upright when inserted into the pot), and rich red in color.
Boil 3~5 min more. Try cabbage, it should be tender. Be sure potatoes are ready.
Turn off heat; Let the borsch to brew for half an hour.
Serve with dark rye bread and sour cream.
Comments.
1. You can use instead of meat, haricot beans, just 2/3 lb. (300 g).
2. As well you can add 1 tsp chopped paprika or Creole seasoning, bring it together with fried onion and carrot.
3. If you can’t eat fry food, stew vegetables.
4. Borsh can stay in refrigerator up to 4~5 days. On the 3rd day bring borsh to boil. When cooling it will stay 1~2 days more.
5. Do not warm up whole large pot. Just enough in small pot for next day serving. Leave large pot in refrigerator, until it will be not time for for 3rd day boiling.
6. DO NOT, under any circumstances, add sour cream to the borscht as part of the cooking process. Sour cream is always served on the side and added by individual diners.
7. Some people just add lemon juice or even vinegar during the cooking. DO NOT DO IT, it ruins color and taste.
8. Real Borsh is Ukrainian Borsh, Russia is the home of shit. There is no such things exist as “Russian Borsh”.
9. Although it is possible to make borscht with just vegetables, this is not the traditional way. Borscht by definition is made with beef (at least the Russian, more eastern, version). Borscht is also — again by definition — a hearty dish, often served as an entre, not as a small appetizer-style soup course more customary in the West. However, if you are a vegetarian, or just want to make a low calorie version of borscht, simply skip the meat step in my recipe and use fat-free veggie broth.
Thanx!
Oooooh, thanks for the authentic recipe!
Borsht is beet soup, simply.
Cook beets in meat broth and add anything you have in house, vegies, leftovers, sausage, stuff, anything!
Adding sour cream or heavy cream ( after cooking) makes a White Borscht.
There is also a Polish Borsht, which is just a clear beet soup with nothing (or almost nothing) in it. This can be bought in Jewish food sections of many grocery shops in the USA.
Quite different from Ukrainian Borsht, which is very hearty, full of stuff!
Great food!