Vladimir’s Authentic Borsch
Borsch is a staple in most Eastern European cuisines and for good reason – it’s hearty, delicious, filling and best of all, it’s supposed to be accompanied by vodka. Other sides are black bread, green onions or garlic and salo.
Ingredients
- 1 to 1½ pounds beef, pork, or chicken cut into 2-inch pieces
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 potatoes diced
- 2 small onions diced
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 large carrot sliced
- 2 small beets diced
- 1 (8-ounce) can tomato paste
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 3 tbsp vinegar
- ½ cabbage coarsely chopped
- ½ tsp fresh dill chopped
- Sour cream for topping
Instructions
- Make broth: fill a 5-quart pot about ⅔ full of water, then add meat. Cover and simmer over low heat for about 1 ½ hours. After the broth is done, remove the meat from your soup and set it aside. Do not discard broth.
- Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Sauté the potatoes and onions until the onion develops a light golden color, about 12 minutes.
- Add about ½ cup of broth along with carrots, beets, and salt. Cook over low heat, covered, about 10 minutes.
- Add tomato paste, sugar and vinegar. Cook, covered, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add cabbage and cook, covered, another 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until all the vegetables are tender.
- Transfer the vegetables from the skillet into the pot with your broth from earlier; cover and decrease heat to medium-low and simmer for about 10 minutes. Add the cooked meat.
- Sprinkle the dill into the pot, then cover the pot and turn off stove. Let it sit for 30 minutes.
- Serve borsch topped with sour cream
Video
Notes
For a vegetarian version, ignore Step 1 and use store-bought or homemade vegetable broth; you can also use mushrooms instead of meat.