Ukrainian borscht has been my favorite soup since childhood. One of my fondest memories is visiting my grandmother in a small Ukrainian village: after walking through the winter forest, I would enter her warm, cozy home. The oven would be glowing, and on the table, my grandmother would have prepared a hearty meal—borscht served with freshly baked bread.
Unfortunately, I don’t have the chance to cook in a wood-burning oven, but I can still make a delicious, rich borscht on the stove.
Ingredients (for a 3 L / 12-cup pot):
- Beef on the bone – 600 g (~1.3 lb)
- Potatoes – 4
- White cabbage – 300g (~10.5 oz).
- Onions – 2
- Beets – 1
- Carrots – 1
- Garlic – 3 cloves
- Tomato paste – 2 tbsp
- Lard – 50g (~3.5 tbsp)
- Vegetable oil – 2 tbsp.
- Apple cider vinegar – 1-2 tbsp
- Pepper peas – 3 peas
- Bay leaf – 1
- Salt – to tasty
- Sour cream and herbs for serving
Cooking process
1.First, prepare the broth: place the beef in a pot with cold water and bring it to medium heat. Once it boils, discard the water and refill the pot with fresh water to make a clearer broth. Bring it to a boil again, then reduce the heat and simmer for 1.5 hours. After the first hour, add the peeled onion and half of the carrots.
2.While the broth is cooking, prepare the vegetables: chop the cabbage, finely dice the onion, grate the carrots on a coarse grater, and cut the beets into small cubes.
3.Prepare the vegetable sauté: heat the vegetable oil in a pan, add the onion, and cook until translucent (about 5 minutes). Add the carrots and sauté for another 5 minutes. Next, add the beets and pour in the vinegar, cooking for a few minutes to allow the vinegar to evaporate. Add a cup of broth and the 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 ready, remove and discard the onion and carrots. Take the meat off the bone and cut it into pieces.
6. Add the peppercorns, bay leaves, cabbage, potatoes, chopped meat, and the prepared vegetable sauté to the broth. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
7.Finely chop the lard and mix it with garlic pressed through a garlic press. Add this mixture to the saucepan 5 minutes before the end of cooking. Then season the borscht with salt (I use about 2 teaspoons of coarse sea salt for a 3-liter pot, but adjust to your taste).
8. Once the borscht is cooked, remove the bay leaf. Cover the pot and let it rest for 15–20 minutes. In my experience, the full flavor of borscht is best enjoyed 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/
