Borscht is a Ukrainian beet and cabbage soup that's probably as emblematic of that nation as my hat is of Vietnam. If you like beets and dill, you'll love having this soup warm you up in the colder months of the year, and if you're silly and crude like me you'll enjoy how the beets dye turn your pee rose-colored. I've been messing around with a recipe for borscht off and on for years, since I took Russian at Portland Community College, and I'm coming pretty close to a perfected vegetarian recipe for it. The below recipe
Today's Specimen
For this attempt I worked with two recipes, one a survivor of when I lived in the Groove House and the other a recipe from a Ukrainian, which means it should be authentic. For the sake of space and in the interest of minimizing the inevitable carpal tunnel syndrome I won't include my recipe, which isn't very authentic anyway because it's a modified version a Turkish recipe.
Ingredients
- 1 (16 oz.) package pork sausage
- 3 medium beets, peeled and shredded
- 3 carrots, peeled and shredded
- 3 medium baking potatoes, peeled and cubed
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 (6 oz.) can tomato paste
- ¾ cup water
- ½ medium head cabbage, cored and shredded
- 1 (8 oz.) can diced tomatoes, drained
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 teaspoon white sugar, or to taste
- ½ cup sour cream, for topping
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley for garnish
Directions
- Crumble the sausage into a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook and stir until no longer pink. Remove from the heat and set aside.
- Fill a large pot halfway with water(about 2 quarts), and bring to a boil. Add the sausage, and cover the pot. Return to a boil. Add the beets, and cook until they have lost their color. Add the carrots and potatoes, and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Add the cabbage, and the can of diced tomatoes.
- Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, and cook until tender. Stir in the tomato paste and water until well blended. Transfer to the pot. Add the raw garlic to the soup, cover and turn off the heat. Let stand for 5 minutes. Taste, and season with salt, pepper and sugar.
- Ladle into serving bowls, and garnish with sour cream and fresh parsley.
Time to Experiment
A couple things bothered me about this recipe, but other than that I decided to leave it largely intact. beets are already sweet, so I saw no need to add any sugar to it, and the lack of any spices bothered me. Here's what I did differently:
- Scaled the recipe down to roughly half, or five servings. It ended up being about six servings, though.
- Substituted a can of red kidney beans for the meat, adding the juice from the can to the soup, adding the beans when I added the potatoes and carrots.
- Used two beets (instead of 1½) and didn't add any more water.
- Sliced the beets (alumette) and carrots (julienne) and chopped the potatoes (large dice) and cabbage
- Used more like ⅓ of a head of cabbage.
- Cooked the onion and garlic together without the tomato paste and water, using two cloves of garlic (instead of 1½).
- Added the tomato paste with the cabbage, onion, and garlic.
- Added two tablespoons of unsalted butter, two teaspoons of apple cider vinegar, and a quarter cup of chopped fresh dill at the end.
Next Time in the Lab
- Use a five-quart pot! I had this soup simmering up to the brim of a 2½-quart pot, and anyone who's ever handled beets before knows how messy they can get.
- Peel and dice two medium tomatoes from a garden or local farm.
- Try using two cans of red kidney beans for the extra protein, since this is often a main dish.
- Try using an entire small green cabbage head instead.
- Use a whole small yellow onion.
- Add a teaspoon of concentrated vegetable base and a couple teaspoons of peppercorns.
- Shred the beets and carrots like in the original recipe, chop the cabbage into small strips, and keep the large dice for the potatoes and onions.
- Add another clove of garlic and try small, thin slices instead.
- Use ⅓ of a cup of fresh, chopped dill and a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar.
