This is a classic Ukraine soup dish known as Borscht. You know you want it, like right now! Plus, anything with bacon always tastes better.
This soup has a lot of history, for you beetroot lovers check out the wiki write up on it.
If you decide to go the vegetable stock route you can follow this recipe.
Borscht
Ingredients
- 2-3 Medium Beets, Thoroughly Washed Get all the dirt off, unless of course you like dirt.
- 2-3 Medium Potatoes, Sliced into Bite-Sized Pieces
- 4 strips Bacon or Pancetta
- 4 tbsp Cooking Oil
- 1 Medium Onion, Finely Chopped
- 2 Carrots Grated
- 1/2 head Cabbage, Thinly Chopped
- 1 can Kidney Beans w/ Their Juice
- 2 Bay Leafs
- 10 cups Saffron Soaked in hot water
- 6 cups Chicken or Vegetable Stock
- 5 tbsp Ketchup
- 4 tbsp Lemon Juice or Sherry Vinegar
- Lots of Ground Pepper to taste
- 1 tbsp Chopped Dill
Instructions
- Fill a large soup pot with 10 cups of water. Add beets. Cover and boil for about 1 hour (some beats take longer, some take less time. It depends on how old the beets are). Once you can smoothly pierce the beets with a butter knife, remove from the water and set aside to cool. **Keep the water**
- Slice potatoes, add into the same water and boil 15-20 minutes.
- Grate carrots and dice onion. Add 4 Tbsp of cooking oil to the skillet and saute vegetables until they are soft (7-10 minutes). Stir in ketchup when they are almost done cooking.
- Thinly shred 1/2 a cabbage and add it to the pot when potatoes are half way done.
- Next, peel and slice the beets into match sticks and add them back to the pot. When you peel beets, use a plastic bag over your hands unless you want red fingers.
- Add 6 cups of chicken broth, lemon juice, pepper, bay leaves and can of kidney beans (with their juice) to the pot.
- Add sauteed carrots and onion to the pot along with chopped dill.
- Cook another 5-10 minutes, until the cabbage is done. You can cook up the bacon and chop to a crumble.
- Serve with a dollop of sour cream and some more dill. And don't forget the BACON!
Master Brad...ya, that flying dog held me captive forever, in the end the eggs never hatched. Grrrr
I had totally forgotten about this, my Portuguese dogs are still in therapy.
Try is with a couple of sprigs of tarragon while you're making the sauce, not too much just enough to…
Looks good
Good catch...I forgot to add the good stuff. Butter. :)