Hello, everyone!
Borscht is the main Ukrainian first dish and is among the most recognised in the world. Borscht is Ukrainian dish, and each family and even every person in the family has their own recipes of the Borscht. We use different techniques and ingredient combinations, but we all cook from our heart. I have learned how to cook Borscht from my parents, but I have developed my own recipe that reflects my preferences in the food. I have cooked this dish for the International day in India, and have adopted it to Norwegian ingredients.
This dish requires a bit of your time and totally it needs about 4 hours, but you don’t spend all this time in the kitchen. You have two breaks for about 1-1.5 hours for yourself .
So, what are the main ingredients you have to have in Borscht? They are red beets, cabbage, potato, onion, carrot, tomato puree, and water. in most cases we also add meat with a bone (but it is also delicious without meat).
Feel free to be creative and trust your food preferences. If you you like sour taste, add more tomato puree. If you don’t like cooked cabbage, just add less of it to the casserole. Find perfect balance of ingredients for yourself and welcome to the club of Borsch lovers.
Ingredients for ca. 3-3.5 l:
- Meat with bone (I have used frozen chicken with bone (part of wing) – 0.5 -1 kg
- Red beets – 250 g
- Potato – ca. 450 g
- Onion – ca. 200 g
- Carrot – ca. 200 g
- Cabbage – 500-600 g
- Garlic – 10 g
- Tomato puree – 180 g (or 360 g if you don’t have next ingredient)
- Box of chopped tomatoes – 390 g (optional)
- Kidney beans – 230 g pack (optional) (if fresh add them at Step 1)
Ingredients
Step 1. Set meat and red beets to cook (fresh beans if you use them)
The first part of the dish is to put meat in the casserole. Pour water in the casserole until you cover all meat and go a bit over. Set it boil and mean while we will prepare red beets. Wash it and peel of the skin. The cut it in half and slice it. Then cut each slice in the line manner like is shown on the pictures below. Add cut red beets in the casserole to the meat, cover casserole with lid, set temperature to the medium and let it simmer for about 1-1.5 hour (until red beet pieces become close to white colour).
Set meat to boil 
Slice red beets 
Cut the slices 
Ready red beets 
Add to the meat 
Stir well and let it simmer for 1-1.5 hour
Step 2. Fry onion, carrot, garlic and tomato puree
After we have waited for about 1-1.5 hour, our Borsch we look like the one on the picture. Boil water in the kettle and cover meat again with water. We can prepare other vegetable. Cut garlic and onion into small pieces, shred the carrot on the shredder (size is shown on the picture). And let’s start frying garlic in the pan at the medium temperature. The garlic starts getting gold colour, add onion and keep frying. In about 2-3 minutes we can add shredded carrot to the pan, and add 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 tsp of black pepper. Fry all together for about 2-3 minutes and the add tomato puree (and chopped tomatoes from the box if you have them, if don’t – double size of tomato puree). Fry this mixture for about 2 minutes and pour it over into the casserole. Try the taste of the Borscht and add salt and pepper according your taste.
1.5 hours later 
Add hot water to cover meat again but leave space for water to go up 
Garlic cut size 
Onion cut example 
Shredder for carrot 
Shredded carrot 
Fry garlic 
Ready to add onion 
Fry onion 
Ready to add carrot 
Add carrot, salt and pepper 
Add tomato puree 
Add chopped tomatoes from box 
Fry for 2-3 minutes 
Add fried vegetable into casserole
Step 3. Adding rest of the vegetables
The next step is to peel of the skin from potato, wash it and cut it (you can cut in similar way as I did or as you like). Add cut potato into the casserole. Then take cabbage, was it and clean couple of layers from the top. The slice as thin as you can or like it is shown in the picture below. Add cabbage into casserole and stir it well. Reduce heat to 3 out of 9, cover casserole with lid and let it simmer for another 1-1.5hour.
Cut potatoes 
Add them to the Borscht 
Stir well 
Cut cabbage 
Add cabbage to the Borscht 
Add salt and pepper after your taste and let it simmer for 1 hour
Step 3. Adding beans and adjusting taste
This is the last step, which we do 1-1.5 hour after step 3. We add beans for the box to the casserole, and taste your Borscht. If it is too sour, in my family we add a bit of sugar but NOT MORE than 1/2 teaspoon (or like on the picture with table spoon). Sugar balance the sourness and you enjoy taste more. Add more salt and pepper if you need, let it simmer for 10 minutes and that’s all. So simple it is!
If too sour, add a bit of sugar 
Add beans 
In 10 minutes ready
