I've been browsing borscht recipes for awhile, not sure why. I had savoy cabbage to eat and I was at home sick. Nutritious soup was in order for lunch, but the preparation ended up tiring me right out. At least it tasted great. Or I think it did. Not sure if I've even HAD this kind of soup before. It's Ukranian apprearantly. I can only assume if I like it it turned out right, traditional or not! (It's a great way to use beets!)
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| A messy bowl, served with sour cream, YUM. |
My main inspirations are these pages here:
I also did some stuff from here and there but honestly, I don't remember what recipes the ideas came from.
Sarah's Basic Borscht!
INGREDIENTS:
1 lb beets*
1/2 lb carrots (about 3 medium)
1 small onion slivered 2 garlic cloves minced
4 C of savoy cabbage shredded
1c canned chopped tomatoes drained**
3 medium new potatoes, scrubbed, peeled, and cubed into approx 1.5cm pieces
1t dried dill
1/4t caraway seeds
2t balsamic vinegar
1T of vegetable oil
900ml carton of beef broth (or equivalent homemade stock)2+C of water (I say + because you may need a bit more than 2, depending on consistency)
salt and pepper to taste
Sour cream for serving Special Tools:Food Processor
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| A messy proccess... :) |
The preparation:- *Alright, I used pre-blanched beets I had already frozen and thawed out, there are many sites out there to teach you how to cook and blanch beets, use one of those and do that with 1lb of beets. Set aside to cool (or thaw in my case!)
- Chop all of your vegetables (onion, potato, cabbage, garlic) in advance and have them in bowls ready to go.
- For the carrots, run these through the food processor so they are shredded matchstick style.
- For the cooled beets, run these the food processor so they are shredded matchstick style.
- **I have a garden full of pasty roma tomatoes, i blanched and seeded and chopped them fresh, but honestly, unless you have tomatoes to use up, go for the can.
The cooking:- Heat oil in very large pot or dutch oven on medium heat. Add onion and garlic and stir around until translucent (7-8 minutes)
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| Purple haze of vegetables... |
- Meanwhile pour your broth or homemade stock in another pan and set to boil.
- Add all of the vegetables except the cabbage and tomatoes, stir around for approximately 10 minutes until the potatoes begin to soften, everything should look crazy purple!
- Add the dill and caraway and a good pinch of salt and a few grounds of pepper
- Add the cabbage, hot broth, and 2 C of water. Put the lid on and bring to boiling.
- Put your heat down to medium low and simmer the mixture with the lid on until the cabbage is cooked and potatoes are tender, another 15 minutes I'd say. - Add the tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, and taste the broth, if it doesn't have that sweet mildly salty punch add a touch more salt. Likewise if it seems too salty, add a bit more water.- Serve in big bowls with sour cream on top, pretty darn good!
Cooks notes:
- Fresh dill would do wonders here, use it if you have it. Wouldn't add it until closer to the end.
- Most recipes use chicken or veggie broth, but I opted for beef for a few reasons...mostly because allot of recipes I saw called for meat and I thought the beef broth would help add depth of flavour.
- Of course your normal green and red cabbage could be used.- If you have rye toast or buns, that would be an excellent accompaniment, or a sandwich made with that bread....
- There are a MILLION ways to make this soup, there are so many interpretations out there, so consider this an interpretation :) For a complete meal I would consider doing a meaty version or one with beans in it.
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