Ukrainian borscht is my favorite soup since childhood. One of the pleasant memories: “I am visiting my grandmother in a small Ukrainian village. After walking through the winter forest, I go into the house. And the house is warm and cozy. The oven is melted and on the table there is already a dinner prepared by my grandmother – borscht with freshly baked bread. “
Unfortunately, I do not have the opportunity to cook in a wood-burning oven, but on the stove I also get a delicious rich borscht.
Ingredients (for a 3L pot):
- Beef on the bone – 600 gr.
- Potatoes – 4 pcs.
- White cabbage – 300 gr.
- Onions – 2 pcs.
- Beets – 1 pc.
- Carrots – 1 pc.
- Garlic – 3 cloves
- Tomato paste – 2 tbsp
- Lard – 50g.
- Vegetable oil – 2 tbsp.
- Apple cider vinegar – 1-2 tbsp
- Pepper peas – 3 peas
- Bay leaf – 1 pc.
- Salt
- Sour cream and herbs for serving
Cooking process
1 First of all, prepare the broth: fill the beef with cold water and put it on medium heat. After boiling, drain the water and pour in a new one (so our broth will be more transparent). Bring it to a boil again, reduce heat and cook for 1.5 hours. After an hour, add the peeled onion and half the carrots.
2 While the broth is preparing, chop the cabbage, finely chop the onion, grate the carrots on a coarse grater, cut the beets into small cubes.
3 Prepare the dressing: pour vegetable oil into a preheated pan, spread the onion and fry it until transparent (about 5 minutes). Add the carrots and fry for another 5 minutes. Next, add the beets, pour in the vinegar and fry for a few minutes so that the vinegar evaporates. Add a glass of broth and tomato paste, mix well, cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes.
4 Peel the potatoes and cut them into cubes.
5 When the broth is cooked, take out of it and discard the onion and carrots. Separate the meat from the bone and cut into pieces.
6 Throw peppercorns, bay leaves, cabbage, potatoes, chopped meat and a previously prepared dressing into the broth. Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.
7 Chop the lard very finely, add the garlic squeezed through a press to it and mix. We put this mixture in a saucepan 5 minutes before the end of cooking, then salt our borscht (I add 2 teaspoons with a slide of coarse sea salt to a 3 liter saucepan, but you are guided by your taste).
8 When the borsch is cooked, we take out a bay leaf from it. Cover the pan with a lid and let it brew for 15-20 minutes. But, as it seems to me, the real taste of borscht is revealed the next day.
Serve Ukrainian borscht with sour cream and finely chopped herbs.
For borscht, I usually bake delicious garlic buns with herbs https://takajaeda.com/en/recipes-en/garlic-bread-rolls-with-whole-grain-flour/
