Borscht!

I basically swiped this recipe from elsewhere on the Web, but I did make modifications, so I feel OK sharing it.
Ukrainian borscht can have 20 or more ingredients. This has 16. I have no difficulty imagining another four or so!

There's a lot of chopping and grating and shredding involved, but other than that, it is easy. It is quite tasty.



Put a big pot of water on to boil. Yes, the stockpot. At least half-way full. It will take a while to come to a boil. The recipe that was our inspiration said 2 quarts of water. I probably used more like a gallon. I was really tempted to use at least partly vegetable or chicken stock, and probably will next time, although it might not matter much.

So, let's get chopping and shredding. I was lucky, because my niece and I did this as a tag-team. Put each ingredient in its own bowl or container, although the carrots and potato can go together in one because you will add them at the same time.


1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 head of cabbage, shredded (I used green, but because the beets are red anyway, you could use purple cabbage if that is what you have)
3 carrots (medium, although if they are large, I can't imagine that it would be a problem), grated
3 medium russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
3 cloves of garlic, minced
3 beets, peeled and shredded or sliced (julienned works for me). Save the tops for another time. Put plastic bags on your hands if you don't want to be caught red-handed! Rinse your cutting board as soon as you can.


Whew. That's the hard part. Really. And if you have a big food processor that shreds instead of pulverizing, well, that would be easy, too. Mine has a small work bowl and seems to think it is supposed to be an atom smasher. Besides, we kind of liked standing in the kitchen and chopping, shredding, grating and chatting. Food processors are noisy enough to make the chatting part difficult. And, frankly, it's easier to wash a cutting board and a couple of knives than the food processor. Your call.

You will also need:
1 pound of pork sausage
salt and pepper and oddly, a teaspoon or so of sugar
1 can of diced tomatoes (8 ounces)
1 small can of tomato paste (6 ounces)
sour cream and something green (fresh arugula!) for garnish

Brown the sausage. I used mild Italian. If you like things really spicy, feel free to use hot. Or you could use any other meat, but then you'd want to add more herbs and spices. You really only need to cook it until there's no pink left, but we all know a little caramelization makes it even better.

When the water is boiling, add the browned sausage and bring back to a boil. Add the beets and cook until they are tender and a lot of the red has come out of them. They will still be reddish, but so will the stock.

Add the carrots and potatoes and cook for 15 minutes or until the 'taters are tender. Add the cabbage and the diced tomatoes. The recipe said to drain the diced tomatoes, but, c'mon, we're making soup here. Dump the whole thing in.

Saute the onions in a skillet (same one the sausage was in, no need to wash first) with a little olive oil. Add the tomato paste and a little water -- or instead of water, a little of the broth -- and stir until mixed. Add to the soup pot. Add the minced garlic, turn the heat off and cover. Wait five minutes or so. Season with salt, pepper and a teaspoon or so of sugar, all to taste. You could add cayenne pepper or just more black pepper if you like things like that. I could easily see adding other herbs/spices to taste, such as paprika.

Serve it up and add a dollop of sour cream and the arugula. Or you could use parsley. You might want some crackers or toast with it, too. The sour cream does kind of melt into the soup, but it definitely adds a nice tang to it, too.

This makes a lot of borscht. It is tasty and it is filling. You could feed a lot of people for not a lot of money. The pork sausage and sour cream were the most expensive parts! And, as I said, you could probably use plain old ground pork or any other meat and just add oregano and more spices. And I know this will be a great thing to have in the freezer to take to work for a microwaved lunch.

When it is cool, I plan on hitting it some of it with a stick -- my immersion blender -- to make a more pureed form. For some reason, that's what I think of when I think of borscht.

But this was really good soup. All the flavors played well together, and the broth reminded both of us of the broth in French and Italian seafood soup, all carroty and tomato-y. The earthiness of the beets and cabbage is balanced with the acidity from the tomatoes. And then you get a bite of sausage and onion. Really good. I think all the shredding and grating helps the flavors get together, plus it cooks faster.

You could easily add mushrooms, just about any other veg, and probably any other leftover from the fridge that needed to go to a good home.

Now, is it authentic? We will find out in a few weeks!

P.S. about the teaspoon of sugar. I thought it was odd, but I remember being told by a woman who knows her collards that you should put a teaspoon of sugar in the water when cooking greens. Even though this doesn't use the beet greens, maybe it's the same principle. Balancing the earthiness, offsetting any hint of bitterness? Whatever, I can't argue with the results.

P.P.S. And yes, put all the trimmings such as onion and potato skins and those rat-tail beet roots into the compost! Just put a small bucket or bowl in the sink and let the peelings fall in.