This hearty beet soup is made with beef, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, garlic and dill or parsley. Borscht us served with a dollop of sour cream (smetana), salo (suet) and garlicy grenki (croutons).
Originally a Ukrainian dish, these days borscht is tenderly loved in all Eastern European countries 😋
Ingredients for Borscht Recipe
- Beef bones or beef broth: Most flavorful borscht starts with making broth with beef bones like oxtail, shanks, short ribs or even pork ribs. If your bones are not meaty, add some cubed stew beef. If in a rush, you can use beef broth. Please see below for more info about it.
- Beets: You want to use red beets because they add the most red deep color to soup. Young beets in fall and summer will also taste more tender and fresh, just a different flavor.
- Cabbage: Traditionally green cabbage is used but you can also use red cabbage because you won’t see its color in this soup and it tastes exactly the same.
- Potatoes: Red or yellow potatoes, Yukon golds, russet potatoes or baby potatoes work.
- Carrots and onion: For bulk and flavor. I use yellow onion but you can use white onion or red onion.
- Tomato paste: To add more flavor and color.
- White vinegar and sugar: You can also use any light color vinegar like white wine vinegar, red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar. Also any sugar or maple syrup works. It’s just to create that sweet and sour taste at the end of cooking.
- Garlic: Please use only fresh garlic cloves and grate them or press them. Garlic in borscht is a must!
- Dill: Just like with garlic you have to use only fresh dill and not dried dill weed. Fresh dill is an essential flavor profile in this soup!
- Bay leaves, salt and pepper
- Sour cream: For serving.
How to Make Borscht
Here are quick instructions of how to make borscht. It’s actually very easy to make and anyone can do it!
Tip: You want to start with cabbage first because it takes the longest time to cook. While it is cooking, you can prepare other vegetables.
Cook cabbage in broth with bay leaves and peppercorns for 20 minutes after bringing to a boil. Chop beets, potatoes, carrots and onion in the meanwhile.
Saute onion and carrots in a bit of olive oil until translucent, about 5 minutes. This makes onion flavorful making entire borscht recipe more delicious. Do not skip.
Then add beets and a bit more oil, cook for another 5 minutes. It’s called “zazharka”.
Transfer sauteed veggies to the pot along with potatoes, tomato paste and salt. Cook covered for 20 minutes. In the meantime, prep garlic, dill and other seasonings.
Season borscht with white vinegar, garlic, sugar and pepper.
Stir, turn off heat and let it stand for 10 minutes covered to allow flavors to “marry” each other. Add dill and your borscht is ready to serve.
How to Peel and Cut Vegetables for Borscht
- Beets: Peel beets and cut them into thick matchsticks. You can also grate beets on a box grater or in a food processor. If you have fresh beets, you can also chop some beet greens and add to the soup.
- Cabbage: Thin uniformly shredded cabbage is a key to a borscht with right texture. Don’t shred it paper thin so it disintegrates during cooking, and don’t cut into large chunks so all you taste is cabbage. Cut it as thin as you can.
- Potatoes: Cube potatoes into small-medium pieces to soak up more of the soup flavor.
- Onion and carrots: Dice the onion like for frying, a mirepoix size. And carrots into small rounds and wider part into half moons.
- Beef bones with meat: If you choose to add meat to borscht, first make the broth. Cover beef with cold water, bring to a boil and simmer for about an hour, skimming foam occasionally. After soup is ready, remove meat, separate from bones and discard bones, chop and return meat to the pot.
Rye bread: Rye bread is dense dark color bread. I usually prefer Borodinskiy bread 🍞
How to Store and Reheat
The best borscht is like a good bottle of wine, it gets better with time. Therefore, I always make a very large pot and we eat it for days or freeze.
Store: Refrigerate leftovers in a large pot you cooked soup in for up to 5 days. Or transfer to an airtight container.
Reheat by simmering on low in a small pot only amount you are planning to consume. Or microwave in individual bowls for 2-3 minutes.
Freeze in an airtight glass container for up to 3 months. Then thaw in the fridge overnight and reheat.
Have you ever tried it? Please share your thoughts in the comments. Enjoy!
5 from 297 votes
Ukrainian Borscht Recipe
Prep: 20minutes mins
Cook: 1hour hr 5minutes mins
Total: 1hour hr 25minutes mins
Servings: 8 servings
Ingredients:
- ▢12 cups low sodium beef broth, or beef bones + cold water (see notes)
- ▢5 cups green or red cabbage, thinly sliced
- ▢1 large onion, chopped
- ▢3 medium carrots, chopped
- ▢2 tablespoons olive oil
- ▢3 large beets, peeled and cut into matchsticks
- ▢4 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
- ▢6 ounces can tomato paste, low sodium
- ▢2 teaspoons salt
- ▢3 bay leaves
- ▢1 tablespoon white vinegar
- ▢Pinch of sugar or maple syrup
- ▢3 large garlic cloves, grated
- ▢Ground black pepper, to taste
- ▢1/4 cup dill or parsley, finely chopped
- ▢Yogurt, sour cream and rye bread, for serving
Instructions
- In a large add beef broth, bay leaves and bring to a boil. Or you can make beef broth with bones and meat first, please see notes. Meanwhile, wash, peel and cut vegetables.
- Once beef broth is boiling, add cabbage, cover and bring to a boil. Then reduce heat to low and cook for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat large skillet on medium heat and swirl 1 tablespoon of oil to coat. Add onion, carrots and saute for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add beets, remaining 1 tablespoon of oil and cook for another 3-4 minutes.
- Transfer sauteed veggies to a pot along with potatoes, tomato paste and salt. Cover, bring to a boil and cook on low heat for 20 minutes.
- Turn off heat. Add vinegar, sugar, garlic and pepper. Stir and let borscht sit for 10 minutes to allow flavours to marry each other. Add dill, stir and adjust any seasonings to taste.
- Serve hot with a dollop of yogurt or sour cream, bread and garlic clove on the side. Borscht goes very well with some salo. Enjoy your meal!
1 Comment