Reddish borscht recipe

A common dish in Ukrainian cuisine is borscht. In fact, this is a rich vegetable soup, because its traditional composition includes onions, carrots, potatoes, beets, cabbage (fresh or pickled), sweet peppers, tomatoes. There are many options with different combinations of these vegetables; every housewife prepares reddish borscht, the recipe for which is passed down from generation to generation, in her own way. The usual color of borscht comes from the use of beets or tomatoes (new tomatoes, tomato paste). Based on beetroot, the dish comes out with the most saturated and dark reddish, almost burgundy, color.

The main principles of making real borscht

The rich reddish color is the hallmark of borscht, it comes out thanks to beets. It is not recommended to put raw fruit in the soup; with long-term heat treatment, it loses its color. Specifically, to preserve coloring parameters, the vegetable is stewed or sautéed. When browning borscht, the fruit is grated on a large grater and fried in a small amount of vegetable oil. To stew, chop into strips, add a small amount of water, add a little oil and vinegar (can be replaced with citric acid). Fry the beet mass over high heat until the water boils, after which the heat is reduced. Young beets are stewed for 10–15 minutes, mature ones for 30–40 minutes.

There is another option for preserving the color of beetroot in borscht. The fruits are cut into large pieces and boiled in a small amount of water with the addition of vinegar. The purchased rich beet broth is poured into ready-made borscht to acquire a bright red color.

5 best recipes for reddish borscht

Borscht with beets and fresh cabbage – recipe

To make reddish borscht, pour water into a saucepan, add meat and cook over medium heat until done. It is better to take the meat on the bone.

When the meat is cooked, add the potatoes, which must be peeled and cut into medium cubes earlier.

Finely chop the fresh cabbage for borscht in advance, and after 5 minutes transfer it to the pan, without covering it with a lid one hundred percent, which corresponds to the recipe.

Now let's prepare the rest of the borscht ingredients. The onion must be peeled and finely cut into cubes.

Carrots need to be cut into small pieces or grated. Select medium-sized beets for reddish borscht and grate them as well.

The borscht will be richest and most beautiful in color if you fry the vegetables in advance. Heat a frying pan, pour a little vegetable oil. Place the chopped onion in the pan and fry until translucent. Add the grated carrots and beets to the onions. Immediately pour in 2 tbsp. l. vinegar and add a spoonful of sugar. Next, stir, cover with a lid and leave to simmer for 10-20 minutes. Specifically, simmer, not fry! At the very end, add grated tomato to the frying dish to preserve the catchy color of the borscht.

When the fresh cabbage and potatoes are actually cooked, add stewed onions and carrots to them. Stir everything. Leave to simmer over low heat to give the borscht a reddish color. At this moment, the main thing is not to boil, otherwise it will lose its own taste and color. Sprinkle the finished borscht with chopped dill and garlic according to the recipe. Cover it with a lid and let it brew a little longer. Before serving, add sour cream, it will be much tastier. You can serve borscht with garlic buns or dark bread with crushed lard and herbs. Bon appetit!

How to cook real reddish borscht with beets and sauerkraut

Step-by-step recipe preparation:

We wash the meat for the reddish dish and put it in cool water. Remove the foam and after the borscht broth has boiled for the first time, add salt and ground pepper to your taste. If the foam is not removed, the broth will be cloudy. After removing the foam, add large pieces of carrots and onions, then discard them; vegetables help to reveal the taste sensations. It is worth using a bone for the broth, then the borscht itself will turn out to be the richest.
Peel the onion and cut into fine cubes. Three boiled beets in advance on a medium grater. Peel the carrots and chop them into small strips, or better yet, grate them on a large grater. For this borscht recipe, we will take sauerkraut in half with fresh cabbage, in a 1 to 1 ratio.
Place finely chopped garlic in a perfectly heated frying pan, and then add onion. Once the onion becomes transparent, add grated carrots. Next, put the beets in the roast and pour in a little tomato juice. Simmer the borscht mixture for a couple of minutes.
Peel and cut the potatoes into cubes. Cut the boiled meat into small cubes and add it to the broth along with the potatoes.
One by one, place the roast and sauerkraut into the reddish borscht. We do not close the pan with a lid; in the first couple of minutes of boiling, the cabbage releases all its nasty odors, which prevents it from getting into the dish. Be very careful with salt in this borscht recipe, because sauerkraut is already significantly salted.
5 minutes before turning off, add a teaspoon of sunflower oil. This is done so that the broth is transparent and light.
Turn off the finished borscht of a rich reddish color and let it brew for half an hour. Place a spoonful of sour cream on a plate. The dish is delicious served with garlic buns or donuts.

Recipe for reddish borscht with beets without cabbage

Method to prepare reddish borscht:

Cook broth for borscht. So that the dish does not turn out too fatty, take beef, preferably with a bone. Pour the meat with cool water, after boiling, remove the foam and put the onion and carrots in the broth.
Cut the beets or grate them on a coarse grater and simmer with vinegar and a small amount of water under the lid. After 5-8 minutes, add tomato paste to the vegetables, so the reddish color will be richer.
Cool the meat for borscht that was cooked in the broth and cut into small pieces. We chop the lard and mix it with herbs and garlic, previously passed through a press for our recipe.
Chop the onion and carrots and fry until golden brown. Add flour at the end of frying, this will give the borscht thickness.
The fragrant reddish soup can be cooked in pots in the oven, or in a pan on the stove. Stir the roast, beet and meat into the broth, add spices, salt and pepper. Cook the borscht for 20-30 minutes, then leave to steep for half an hour.

How to cook traditional reddish borscht according to a step-by-step recipe with photos

Recipes and secrets of delicious borscht are passed down in families from generation to generation. My family is no exception - I cook it the same way my grandmother did. She taught me how to cook a hearty, fragrant borscht with beets and cabbage and that it was necessary to make it reddish and not orange. I would like to share this tried and tested recipe for traditional borscht with meat with you.

Ingredients

Meat broth	2 l
Beetroot (large)	1.5 pcs.
Carrots (small)	1 PC.
Sugar	1.5 tbsp. l.
Onion (small)	1/2 pcs.
Salt	taste
Cabbage (small fork)	¼ pcs.
Oil for frying	50 g
Garlic	4 cloves
Tomato paste	1.5 tbsp. l
Pepper	a couple of pinches
Salted lard	50 g
Wine or apple vinegar	1 tbsp. l.
Bay leaf	1-2 pcs.
Sour cream for serving	6 tbsp. l.

How to choose the right products

Choose beets that are dark burgundy in color, oval-spherical in shape, up to 10 cm in diameter. Do not use fodder beets for borscht - they are larger in size and have a lighter color. Such beets are the hardest and can contain a lot of nitrates.

Choose high-quality vegetables, without signs of rottenness or sprouting, and not limp. The green parts of carrots and potatoes must be cut off, because they contain solanine, which is harmful to health.

Step-by-step production

Peel the beets (one and a half large or two medium ones) and cut into strips.
Transfer it to a saucepan, pour half a glass or a glass of water (the water should cover the beets), add one and a half tablespoons of sugar and tomato paste. Simmer the beets until softened.
Peel one small carrot and cut it into strips.
Cut half of the small onions into half rings.
Sauté vegetables in oil until softened for a couple of minutes.
Cut a quarter of a small cabbage into strips (shred).
Put it in broth (2 liters), bring to a boil, add salt (half a teaspoon).
Add sautéed vegetables. Cook for 5-7 minutes.
Peel the garlic (4 cloves), put it in a blender, add a little pepper, 50 grams of finely chopped lard and grind.
Add a tablespoon of wine or apple vinegar to the pan with cabbage and vegetables. We add vinegar so that the beets do not lose their color and the borscht is red-raspberry in color. Also, thanks to vinegar and sugar, its taste will be sweet and sour.
Transfer the stewed beets and add a bay leaf.
Add lard and garlic to the borscht. Mix and taste. If necessary, add more salt, spices, seasonings.
Let the borscht brew for 15-20 minutes.

Innings

Borscht is served in the deepest bowls. Place a spoonful of sour cream in the center (no need to stir it). You can sprinkle with finely chopped herbs. The borscht is served with bread, chopped lard and garlic, or you can create a pate from lard and garlic by grinding them in a blender and spreading it on bread.

Place yeast, sugar, a pinch of salt, flour in warm water and knead the dough well. We give him an hour and a half to come. We form balls weighing 30 grams, place them on a greased baking sheet, close to each other. To make them easier to separate from each other after baking, grease them around the edges with vegetable oil. Let it rest a little longer, brush with egg and bake for 7-8 minutes at 180 degrees.

We prepare gravy for the donuts - grind the garlic with salt in a mortar, add a little boiled water and vegetable oil. You can pour the gravy over the donuts, or you can dip them in it.

Video recipe for traditional borscht

In this video, the professional chef will tell you how to cook borscht and share his culinary secrets.

Tips and tricks for making

To make the borscht richer and thicker, add potatoes cut into medium cubes. When to add it depends on how long you cook the cabbage in the borscht. If the cabbage is chopped very finely, add the potatoes first. Boil it for 10 minutes and then add the cabbage. If the cabbage is cut into checkers (squares), add it along with the potatoes.
You can also add previously boiled beans to the borscht.
The beets can be cooked ahead of time or baked in the oven. This will reduce the time it takes to make borscht. The beets prepared using this method must be peeled, cut and added to sautéed vegetables. Fry everything together with the addition of sugar, vinegar and tomato paste. Add a little water and simmer for a few more minutes. These vegetables must be added to the borscht 5-7 minutes before the end of the cooking process.
If, despite the addition of vinegar, the borscht still loses its color, add a little beet juice (half a glass) at the very end. Boil the borscht and turn it off. The color also disappears from long and vigorous boiling, so it is very important to observe the production time.
Broth for borscht can be cooked with meat (with pork, beef), or meat and bone broth (with pieces of meat and with ribs, in this case, first cook the ribs until half cooked, and only later add the pieces of meat). Add onions and carrots to the broth for taste, which we remove after cooking. You can also cook borscht with chicken.

Other manufacturing options

Borscht in a slow cooker will cook even faster, while less utensils are used for cooking, and, accordingly, less time will be spent on cleaning.

If you like exotic things, prepare Thai Tom Yum soup or Chinese Miso soup. These first dishes are easy to prepare, and the result will exceed all expectations.

Red borscht

Base of the dish: meat, beets, cabbage

45 minutes / 2 hours broth

A little about the recipe:

Borscht is a common Ukrainian dish. BUT there are similar dishes in the cuisines of other countries such as in Eastern and Central Europe: Poland, Lithuania, Romania and Moldova. Borscht became popular in Russia several centuries ago. Now this savory and rich soup is associated with Russia and is also known as Russian reddish (or beetroot) borscht.

Water or broth: 2 liters
Beef meat on the bone: 300 gr.
Onion: 1 medium head
Bay leaf: 2 pcs.
Cabbage: 200 gr.
Potatoes: 150 gr.
Beets: 200 gr.
Tomato/tomato paste: 2 pcs/ 1 tbsp. l.
Lard or butter: 100 gr.
Sugar: 1 tbsp. l.
Vinegar: 1 tbsp. l.
Sour cream: 100 gr.
Greens: parsley and dill
Spices: salt and pepper to taste

Similar recipe

Manufacturing:

The borscht broth can be prepared ahead of time. To do this, take beef meat on the bone, rinse it and place it in a saucepan, fill it with cool water until the water covers all the meat. Place on the fire and bring to a boil, remove the foam with a strainer and drain the water. Pour hot water over the meat in a saucepan, bring to a gentle boil, add one washed but not peeled onion, cover the bay leaf with a lid and cook over low heat for at least 2 hours.

Cut the potatoes into thick shavings, shred the cabbage and place in the bubbling broth and cook for 15 minutes.

Grate or cut the carrots and beets into very thin strips, I use a coarse grater. Heat a frying pan and melt lard or butter, then add the beets and simmer for about 10-15 minutes.

Add tomato paste or finely chopped tomatoes, sugar, vinegar, mix everything and simmer for a few more minutes. If our dressing becomes very thick and begins to burn, it is necessary to add a little broth or water. Next, add the carrots and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.

From the pan with potatoes and cabbage, remove the onion, bay leaf and meat, add our stewed vegetables and cut the meat into medium pieces, bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste and you can serve our dish to the table.

How to cook borscht according to a traditional recipe

Anyone can cook perfect borscht.

In Kievan Rus, borscht was prepared from edible hogweed leaves—hence the name. Later they began to cook it with beets, and from the 19th century they added potatoes.

Now every family has its own borscht recipe. Beans, mushrooms, smoked meats, and even celery are added to the pan. We will teach you how to cook perfect ordinary borscht.

Ingredients

1½–2 liters of water;
400–500 g pork or beef on the bone.

2 small beets;
1 medium carrot;
3 medium onions;
4–5 tablespoons of vegetable oil;
a pinch of citric acid, a little table vinegar or ½ lemon;
2 tablespoons of tomato paste.

300 g of fresh white cabbage;
4 medium potatoes;
salt - to taste;
1–2 dried bay leaves;
greens - to taste;
1 clove of garlic - optional;
a pinch of ground cloves - optional;
a pinch of ground black pepper - optional.

Manufacturing

Step 1. Make the broth

Pour cool water into the pan, add the meat and place over medium heat. The broth will taste better if you use meat on the bone.

Watch the broth and skim off the foam before boiling.

When the liquid boils, cover the pan with a lid and cook over low heat for an hour and a half.

Step 2: Roast

Wash and peel the beets, carrots and onions. Grate the beets on a large grater, and grate the carrots on a medium grater. Cut the onion into small cubes.

Pour oil into the pan, turn on medium heat. Fry the onions and carrots, stirring, for about 5 minutes.

Then add the beets. Add citric acid, vinegar or lemon juice to it. Thanks to this, the borscht will be truly reddish and acquire a pleasant sourness.

Cook for another 5 minutes. After this, add tomato paste, stir and leave on the fire for another 5-7 minutes.

Step 3. Assemble the borscht

When the broth is cooked, remove the meat from it. While it cools, add shredded cabbage to the pan. After 5-10 minutes, add the potatoes cut into strips or cubes.

The order in which the vegetables are added can be changed. If the cabbage is young, it is better to add it after the potatoes. Well, either right away, if your potato variety is boiling quickly.

While the potatoes are cooking, remove the meat from the bone and cut into cubes. Return it to the soup. Add salt to taste.

Add the roast and stir.

Throw in the bay leaf and finely chopped herbs. Cover the pan with a lid and cook for another 5-7 minutes.

For flavor, you can add slightly chopped garlic, ground cloves or black pepper to the pan. Leave the borscht to steep under the lid for 5–10 minutes.

How to serve borscht

Borscht can be eaten immediately after preparation. But, usually, it tastes even better the next day.

Add sour cream and fresh herbs to the plate. If you prefer it sour, add a slice of lemon.

Serve the borscht with rye bread or buns rubbed with garlic. The dish is also perfectly complemented by lard and donuts.