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All fans of delicious food know for sure that traditional Ukrainian cuisine is not complete without borscht. Every housewife should know the recipe for the most delicious borscht, because it is an excellent first course that can capture the heart of any man. Of course, this is provided that it is prepared correctly, without any errors.
A little history
This dish has all the features traditional for Ukrainian and South Russian cuisines; it was prepared by our ancestors - the Slavs. It got its name because the main ingredient in this dish is beets, and in ancient times the vegetable was called “borscht”. From the territory of Kievan Rus, where the dish was invented, it spread throughout the surrounding area and even to neighboring states. That is why it is currently in countries such as Poland, Lithuania, Romania and Belarus. This dish was very fond of the Russian rulers Catherine the Second and Alexander the Second, as well as the famous ballerina Anna Pavlova, whose name also went down in history.
Varieties of borscht
There are a considerable number of varieties of this soup, and which borscht is the most delicious remains a mystery to this day. This diversity is due to the fact that each nation put something of its own into the obtained recipe, characteristic of the national traditions of its native state - this changed the taste of the finished dish in the crust.
All presented varieties are divided into two large categories: red borscht and cold borscht, which is also popularly called kholodnik. Kholodnik is more common in Belarus, where it is eaten as a snack with hot boiled potatoes.
Kholodnik
It is very simple to prepare such a dish - it is based on pre-prepared beets, which must first be pickled. As a rule, all ingredients are added raw to such a dish. All ingredients are diluted with kefir or other fermented milk products, the desired amount of hard-boiled chicken eggs is added to a common pan, and then everything is seasoned with sour cream and served.
There are a considerable number of fans of such a bright and tasty dish in the world. It is prepared mainly in summer or spring, when all the ingredients can be easily obtained fresh.
Red
However, as many gourmets admit, the most delicious borscht is red, which is prepared by heat treating food and served hot. Its main ingredients are vegetables, which should initially be taken fresh. As a rule, the standard set includes carrots, potatoes, beets, cabbage, tomatoes and herbs. If desired, you can prepare lean borscht, but many housewives prefer to pre-cook meat broth from different types of meat. Many step-by-step recipes for the most delicious borscht recommend using chicken or pork broth. With such a combination of meat in the broth, the finished soup turns out to be the most aromatic and delicate in taste.
Before serving the finished dish, season it with sour cream or mayonnaise. In Ukrainian culture, the tradition of eating such soup as a bite with garlic and bread is especially widespread.
The most delicious borscht: step-by-step recipe with photos
In order to prepare an excellent soup, which is the king of traditional Ukrainian cuisine, you do not need to have a lot of culinary skills. It is enough to simply understand the order of cooking the ingredients, and also know how to properly cook a tasty and clear broth for the future soup.
Step 1: Preparing the broth
Many famous chefs recommend using pork or, in extreme cases, chicken to prepare the most delicious borscht. If you choose the first option, it is best to use the breast part and bones for cooking, which can be bought inexpensively at almost any butcher shop.
Preparation of the broth should begin by boiling the bones, which should be filled with cold purified water. After this, cover the pan with a lid and put it on the stove to cook. As soon as the contents begin to boil, you should reduce the heat and begin to gradually remove the resulting foam. Correct actions at this stage will ensure a tasty and clear broth.
As practice shows, for the most delicious borscht, the bones need to be cooked for a couple of hours, without turning off the heat and skimming off the foam regularly. After this, you need to add meat to them in the amount indicated in the selected recipe. In this composition, the pan should be kept on low heat for a couple of hours.
If the broth is made from chicken, it will take about an hour or two to prepare. If this type of broth is chosen, it is not recommended to add another type of meat to it, so as not to interrupt the taste.
Ingredients
In the classic recipe for the most delicious Ukrainian borscht, he recommends using a standard set of ingredients. It necessarily includes bright red beets (called beets in some recipes) - a couple of root vegetables, no more than 0.5 kg of fresh cabbage, a couple of medium-sized carrots, the same number of onions, five potatoes. This is a basic soup set, which is designed for broth made from 800 g of pork meat.
Step 2. Preparation of ingredients, their pre-processing
All components of borscht must be washed and peeled in advance. After this, the potatoes need to be cut into medium-sized cubes. As practice shows, root vegetables cut in this way give the finished soup a special taste.
Grate the beets into a separate plate on a coarse grater. Many people prefer to cut it into strips or bars by hand, but the recipes for the most delicious borscht often say that the vegetable, chopped in this way, gives the final result that original red or even burgundy color. After the beets have been grated, they should be sprinkled with the juice of half a lemon and, after mixing thoroughly, left in a cool place for 15-20 minutes.
The cabbage needs to be chopped, which most housewives do with a regular kitchen knife. However, in the modern world there are a considerable number of devices that can also be used. Some chefs recommend chopping the vegetable into cubes, but this does not change the taste of the soup.
Step 3. Preparing the borscht dressing
Ukrainian borscht becomes the most delicious only if the housewife uses lard, grated with garlic, as a dressing. To prepare it, you need to take a small piece of this product (about 50 grams) and grind it thoroughly. After this procedure, a couple of cloves of garlic are added to a common bowl, and in this composition the mass is crushed in a mortar until a state of homogeneity is formed. When ready, the dressing should be covered with cling film and refrigerated until needed.
Some experienced housewives advise using old lard, which has a slightly yellowish color, to prepare such a mixture. However, along with them, there are recommendations regarding the use of aromatic lard with spices.
Step 4. Preparing the roast
Properly prepared frying is the element without which the most delicious borscht cannot be obtained. Photos depicting bright red borscht are taken to clearly convey the color that the dish should have if it was properly fried.
At the very beginning, you need to heat a frying pan, preferably with a non-stick coating, into which you should pour a small amount of sunflower oil. After it heats up, you need to put grated carrots and chopped onions into the frying pan. After this, 3-4 tomatoes, previously peeled, or 2-3 tablespoons of tomato paste should be sent to them. Vegetables need to be mixed well during frying. After some time, add beets to them and mix well. Everything in the pan is covered with a lid and simmered for 10-15 minutes.
Step 5. Cooking borscht
First, you need to heat the prepared broth to boiling water, into which you should add the prepared potatoes and chopped meat. In this composition, the dish is cooked for 10 minutes, after which you need to add shredded cabbage, continuing to cook over high heat for a short period - about 10 minutes.
After the vegetables begin to become more or less soft, the heat should be reduced and the prepared frying should be added to the pan. In this composition, everything is boiled until the vegetables are completely cooked; a dressing made from lard and garlic is added to the borscht, as well as finely chopped herbs, salt, pepper and other seasonings to taste. Be sure to add 1-2 bay leaves here, which give the dish not only a pleasant aroma, but also some piquancy.
Tricks for cooking borscht
Any good housewife should know how to cook the most delicious borscht. This dish can become special if you follow the basic instructions and know some small tricks in the process of creating it.
A large part of success lies in the right products. To prepare borscht, do not be afraid to use too fatty pieces of meat - the juiciness and softness of the broth, as well as its richness, have never harmed the finished dish. A separate trick lies in the choice of beets: it is better to take them in small sizes. In such root vegetables there is a smaller number of veins, which ensures greater juiciness of the fruit and, as a result, a brighter color of the finished borscht.
If the potato chosen for cooking is too boiled, you can cut it larger - by the time the cabbage is cooked, the potatoes will not have time to boil to a puree. Some families prefer to pre-fry it before storing it - the vegetable turns out not only dense, but also especially tasty.
You can use bell pepper in the general composition of the ingredients - it will add some zest to the taste of the finished borscht. It is best to choose this vegetable at the market. The ideal fruit is green in color and rather unprepossessing in appearance - this will be the most aromatic and rich in useful components.
If different types of meat are used to cook borscht, it is best to use it in a 1:1 ratio.
You can use more than just lard and garlic as a dressing. For variety, at the final stage of preparing the soup, you can use ghee, fried cracklings or simple sour cream with the maximum percentage of fat content.
In order for the soup to be as aromatic as possible, after cooking it is advisable to wrap the pan with it in a towel and leave it to steep for six hours - the result will pleasantly surprise you.
The recipe for the most delicious borscht (with photo), which is presented here, is not a standard. It can be varied in any way the housewife wishes. Some people add their own secret ingredients to this soup, which improve the quality of the finished dish. Examples of these could be legumes, mushrooms or some special spices.
Borscht is a dish that each of us has probably tried. Every housewife and every cook knows the recipe for this extraordinary dish. However, in order to cook the most delicious borscht, you need to know some subtleties and little secrets. The soup is seasoned with beets, the main ingredient. Beets can be used boiled, sautéed or stewed. The borscht recipe, in addition to it, is added with various other vegetables.
There is an opinion that every housewife cooks borscht with her own individual taste. And this is true, there are a lot of options for preparing this dish, so everyone will find a recipe with that unique taste. The basis of borscht is properly cooked meat broth. You can use any meat for it. The classic recipe is usually based on beef or pork on the bone, but many people prefer poultry. If you take meat on the bone, you must first cook it and remove the bone. It is not recommended to add salt to the broth at the very beginning. This will not make the taste any better, but the nutrients will be lost. To cook the broth correctly, you need to take the meat on the bone, add cold water and after boiling, remove the foam, then turn the heat down and cook for about two hours. Only by observing these secrets can the broth be cooked clear and rich.
you need to stock up on Ingredients:
- Meat on the bone - 1 kg.
- Beetroot - 1 pc.
- Potatoes - 4 pcs.
- Bow - 1 goal.
- Carrots - 1 pc.
- Bell pepper - 2 pcs.
- Tomatoes - 2 pcs.
- Fresh cabbage - 300 g.
- Greenery.
- Vegetable oil.
- Spices.
Recipe
1. Like every recipe, ours also states that before starting to prepare borscht, the meat needs preliminary preparation. We wash a piece of meat in cold water, cut off all excess films, if any, from it. Fill the meat with cold water and place the container on the stove. The amount of water does not matter, the main thing is that it completely covers the meat. This affects the fat content of the borscht. For about 1 kilogram of meat you need to take 2 - 2.5 liters of water.
2. While the broth is cooking, you need to prepare the vegetables.
3. Chop the cabbage, peel the onions and carrots. We work on the beets, remove the seeds from the peppers, taking out the center with the stalk. There is no need to touch the potatoes yet. Otherwise, it will become black and dry, then the borscht will be tasteless.
4. Don't forget about the broth. After the water boils, remove the scale with a slotted spoon and make the flame smaller. To get rid of all the scale, move the pan a little to the side so that the scale forms on one side. After new scale stops appearing, use a clean napkin to remove all its remnants from the walls of the pan. Use a spoon to remove any fat spots floating on top of the broth. From time to time you need to repeat everything. Salt the broth. The recipe reminds you that the water will boil away a little during cooking, so add a little less salt.
Secrets to help: To make the soup thicker, you need to boil one whole potato in it. When it is ready, take it out, knead it thoroughly and put it back.
5. We begin to prepare vegetable dressing. The recipe recommends doing everything consistently, cutting the vegetables correctly, and then the soup will turn out very tasty, rich and aromatic, which will delight the whole family.
6. Peel the potatoes, wash them and remove all the eyes. Cut into not too large cubes. Moreover, for thickness you can mash the potatoes with a spoon. Place it in a saucepan and let it boil, while the potatoes are boiling, chop the cabbage. We put it in the pan.
7. Chop the onion and other vegetables. Pour oil into the frying pan and, when it is hot, add the onion, lightly fry, stirring. There we also place peppers cut into thin strips and diced tomatoes, grated carrots and at the very end we fill the top with beets. Stir and cover the pan with a lid - let it simmer a little.
Secrets to help: To make the soup rich in color, you need to add a teaspoon of 6% acetic acid or lemon juice to the pan with beets. The acid will prevent the red pigments of beets and tomatoes from being destroyed by high temperatures.
8. In order not to disrupt the cooking recipe, put tomato paste and flour in a separate plate, stir everything thoroughly and dilute with cold water, stirring vigorously so that no lumps form. Remove the lid from the pan and add the tomato mixture, stirring continuously. Continue stirring the contents of the pan until the color of the tomato paste changes and acquires a rich red hue. Then pour the finished product into the pan. Stir the borscht and add spices.
Secrets to help: To improve the taste of borscht, the recipe advises taking a piece of good lard, grinding it with salt and garlic, and adding the resulting aromatic mixture to the finished soup. This is done like this: cut a piece of lard finely with a knife, take a couple of cloves of garlic and crush it on a board with a masher, mix, evenly rubbing the lard with the garlic. Before turning off the gas, we dip our aromatic garlic preparation into the borscht. Be sure to cover the pan with a lid (don’t close it, just cover it), and let it brew a little for a richer taste.
9. Add seasonings. Usually these are peppercorns, bay leaves, fresh parsley.
10. Let the borscht stand for a while so that it is saturated with the garlic aroma; this will take 20-30 minutes under a closed lid. After this time, you can serve the dish on the table and invite the whole family for dinner. Eating this borscht is very tasty with fresh village sour cream! The recipe for a delicious, rich dish with a pleasant red color will not leave even the most severe critic indifferent!
INTERESTING: Before the advent of potatoes, borscht was prepared with beets and beans. It was cooked separately or boiled in broth along with meat. This is how they cook it now, reducing the amount of potatoes or completely replacing them with beans.
Any borscht will be even more delicious if you eat it not with simple bread, but with fresh, hot pampushki - buns made from yeast dough with aromatic garlic sauce. They are very simple and easy to prepare.
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Borscht is the first thing many of us think of when we hear the word soup. One of the most popular soups found in both Russian and Ukrainian cuisine, as well as the cuisine of many Eastern European countries. Although there are differences in recipes and names, the most important thing they always have in common is the main vegetable ingredient is beets. Whether it’s delicious borscht with meat or lean, with cabbage or beans, the right red borscht will always be with beets. This is what makes him special and loved.
We always associate borscht with a home-cooked dinner, mother or grandmother in the kitchen, and the unique aromas of meat and vegetables. I know a lot of people whose favorite soup is borscht. And I can understand their feelings. By the way, every family has its own tricks and peculiarities of preparing delicious borscht. Some add pepper, some add lemon juice, vegetables are added in different sequences, tomatoes and spices, garlic, dumplings, lard. It's varied and can make your head spin.
Just recently I talked about the version of borscht, and in this article I want to turn to borscht with meat, my favorite. And I think that many will agree with me.
The easiest recipe for making borscht with beef
First of all, I want to tell you how to cook delicious borscht with meat in beef broth. Beef meat is lean, tasty and healthy, rich in iron and proteins, and also contains B vitamins. Broths that are cooked from meat with bones are especially successful. Of course, you don’t need to boil one bone, but if you have a piece of meat with a small bone, the broth will definitely turn out excellent, thick and rich, but not greasy. Therefore, borscht with beef can be considered a safe dish for your figure, the main thing is not to use too much vegetable oil when preparing the frying.
For borscht you will need:
- beef - 400-500 g (possibly with a bone),
- beets - 1 large (or 2 small),
- cabbage - 300 grams,
- potatoes - 3-4 pieces,
- carrots - 1-2 pieces,
- onions - 1 piece,
- tomato paste - 2 tablespoons without top,
- garlic and herbs to taste,
- bay leaf - 1-2 pcs,
- vegetable oil - 2-3 tablespoons,
- salt, peppercorns.
Preparation:
1. Delicious borscht with meat always starts with preparing the broth. It is necessary to thoroughly rinse the piece of meat, remove any broken bones and put it to cook over medium heat. During the cooking process, be sure to constantly skim any foam that appears from the surface of the water. If you don’t remove it, the broth will be cloudy and not tasty. Foam is a protein that is released from meat when heated. As soon as the water boils, reduce the heat to medium or slightly lower so that there is no active boiling, but only rare bubbles. This way the beef will almost simmer in the water and you will get a very tasty broth. Cooking can take anywhere from two to three hours, depending on what part of the carcass you used. Check for doneness by checking the tenderness of the meat.
2. When the meat becomes soft, you can remove it from the pan to cool. A little later, cut it into small pieces that will be convenient to eat. In the meantime, we will start adding vegetables. Peel potatoes, beets and carrots. Immediately cut the potatoes into cubes and place in a pan of boiling water. The fire can now be increased. Boil the potatoes for 10 minutes.
3. While the potatoes are cooking, cut the cabbage into thin strips. Do not make it too long; the pieces should fit in a tablespoon so that it is convenient to eat the finished soup. Put the cabbage to cook 10 minutes after the potatoes. And cook for another 10 minutes.
If you have autumn or winter cabbage, it takes longer to cook and is tougher. In this case, it can be placed with or in front of the potatoes.
4. At this time, put a frying pan on the fire with a small amount of vegetable oil. Finely chop the onion and pour it into the frying pan. Fry the onion until it becomes transparent and just starts to turn a little golden.
5. The next vegetable also goes into frying in a frying pan. This will be a carrot; it needs to be grated on a coarse grater. Do this in advance so that while you are grating it, the onions do not overcook. Add the grated carrots to the onions and continue sautéing, stirring constantly. The carrots and onions should become soft, but not browned. A fried crust will spoil the taste of the soup.
6. When the carrots soften a little and change color, it’s time to add the grated beets and tomato paste. They need to be added together because beets, when cooked, begin to lose their rich burgundy-red color, and the acid contained in tomato paste prevents this process and fixes the color. Some cooks add vinegar or citric acid to the soup to fix the color, but this time we’ll make do with tomato paste.
7. Mix the vegetables well with the tomato paste and reduce the heat under the frying pan. Now cook over low heat until the beets soften a little. You can cover with a lid and lightly simmer the vegetables.
8. While the roast is stewing, check the potatoes and cabbage. Use a spoon to catch a piece of vegetables and try to cut them with a knife; if it cuts easily and does not crunch, then they are ready. It's time to return the boiled meat, cut into pieces, into the preparing borscht.
9. The vegetables are cooked, the frying is ready. It's time to connect them. Transfer the roast to the boiling broth with vegetables and stir thoroughly. Cook for another 5-7 minutes. Salt the borscht to taste, add a bay leaf and, if desired, a few peppercorns. Then turn off the stove, cover the soup with a lid and leave it to steep for 15-20 minutes.
10. If you want to add flavor to our delicious borscht with meat, then finely chop fresh herbs and garlic. Add to soup and stir. You can add herbs and garlic to the plates when serving.
Well, our beef borscht is ready. You can pour it into plates, add sour cream or herbs to taste. Take out fresh rye bread and invite everyone to the table.
Bon appetit!
Borscht with pork ribs - step-by-step recipe
If I choose what to cook delicious borscht with meat from, then in second place after beef I will have pork ribs. But not smoked, as we use for, but raw. From them we will make a good, hearty broth for borscht; it will be correct and rich, because ribs consist of meat and bone, and the bone, as you know, is the best friend of a tasty broth.
You will need:
- pork ribs - up to 1 kg,
- beets - 1 piece (large),
- potatoes - 3-4 pieces,
- carrots - 1 piece,
- onion - 1 piece,
- tomato paste - 2 tablespoons,
- cabbage - 250-300 grams (1/4 head of cabbage),
- garlic - 2-3 cloves,
- greens to taste,
- Bay leaf,
- salt and pepper to taste.
Preparation:
1. Rinse the pork ribs thoroughly in running water. Then divide into pieces, cutting between the rib bones to leave one rib per piece. Ribs that are too long can be cut in half, but then be sure to rinse the meat again so that no bone fragments remain. Heat a frying pan and fry the ribs on both sides until lightly browned for 5 minutes. After this, pour water into the pan and let them cook for about 1 hour. Lightly fried meat will give the broth a golden color and a pleasant taste.
2. While the meat is cooking, you can prepare all the vegetables. The cabbage is peeled from the top leaves and chopped into small strips. Peel the potatoes and cover with cold water to prevent them from darkening. Peel the beets and carrots and grate them on a coarse grater. Chop the onion into small squares. Peel the garlic and chop finely.
3. Once the meat is cooked, remove it from the pan and set it aside. We'll add it back to the soup later once the vegetables are cooked.
4. Cut the potatoes into cubes and add to the boiling broth to cook for 5-7 minutes.
5. Try the cabbage; if it is tough from the late varieties, then put it to cook 10 minutes after the potatoes. If it is young summer cabbage, then add the cabbage after frying and cook for only 7-10 minutes.
7. Place the onion in a frying pan with heated oil and fry it until soft, then add the carrots and beets. Mix everything well and reduce the heating temperature. Simmer the vegetables over medium heat, stirring for 10 minutes.
8. Add tomato paste to the frying, stir and fry for another 5 minutes. Tomato paste will give vegetables a red color and a characteristic smell. It is important not to turn up the heat, otherwise everything will be overcooked and tasteless.
9. By the time the cabbage and potatoes in the pan are ready to fry, they should become softer. Add the roast to the soup and stir. Cook for another 10 minutes over low heat until it is just bubbling rather than actively simmering. After this, you can add garlic and herbs. Salt and pepper the soup, add bay leaf.
10. Taste all the vegetables, they should be ready and soft. After this, remove the pan from the heat, return the pork ribs to the borscht and cover with a lid. Let the soup brew for 25-30 minutes. During this time, it will cool down a little and become saturated with the aromas and tastes of all the ingredients.
You can serve it to the table!
Ukrainian borscht with pork and beans - video recipe
Since we are considering the most delicious ways to prepare borscht with meat, we shouldn’t lose sight of Ukrainian borscht. It is necessarily cooked in meat broth and with pieces of meat. To this we will also add bell peppers and beans, these are the important ingredients of Ukrainian borscht. The correct cooking recipe will help you make real tasty borscht, and in order not to make any mistakes, it is best to watch a very detailed and visual video. Don't forget to prepare an appetizer of lard with garlic and add a spoonful of sour cream. Consolidation!
Delicious borscht with meat and vegetables - step by step recipe
It would seem that what can be added to borscht with meat to make it even tastier, besides the standard set of vegetables or beans, as in the Ukrainian borscht recipe. It turns out that celery root and parsnips will help us greatly enrich the taste. These roots are not so difficult to find, and besides, many of us grow them in our own gardens. I suggest you cook borscht according to this recipe, and then evaluate the difference. Believe me, you will love this option too.
You will need:
- pork or beef with bone - 1-1.3 kg,
- potatoes - 3-4 pcs,
- carrots - 1 piece,
- beets - 1 piece,
- parsnip - 1 piece,
- celery stalks - 2 pieces,
- onions - 2 pcs,
- sweet pepper - 1/2 pcs (or small),
- tomatoes - 400 grams (canned in their own juice),
- tomato paste - 1.5 tablespoons,
- spicy adjika - 1 teaspoon,
- garlic - 2 cloves,
- ground coriander - 0.5 teaspoon,
- sugar - 1 teaspoon,
- bay leaf - 1-2 pcs,
- vegetable oil 2-3 tablespoons,
- salt and black pepper to taste.
Preparation:
1. Delicious borscht with meat starts with meat. Take pieces with bones for cooking. It can be either beef or pork, the only difference will be in the time the meat is cooked. Beef cooks for about 2-2.5 hours, pork - 1-1.5 hours. Rinse the meat under running cold water to remove any bone fragments, then place in a saucepan and cover with cold water. This is important, under no circumstances hot. Now put it on the stove and cook. As it boils, gray foam will appear, which must be removed so that the broth is clear.
2. As soon as the meat boils, place two celery stalks and one small onion without peel into the pan. Continue cooking the meat until fully cooked.
3. While the broth is cooking, you need to prepare all the vegetable ingredients. Peel beets, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and onions. Grate the carrots, beets and parsnips. Chop the cabbage into thin strips. Cut the sweet pepper into thin strips. Cut the onion into squares or quarter rings. Cut the potatoes into medium-sized cubes and cover them with cold water to prevent them from darkening.
Tomatoes also need to be prepared in advance if you have fresh ones. They need to be doused with boiling water and the skin removed. Then grate or grind with a blender at low speed into a paste.
4. When the meat is cooked, remove the onion and celery stalks from the broth. They were needed only for the taste and aroma of the broth. Now you can throw them away.
5. Remove the meat from the pan as well. Let it cool slightly, then separate the seeds and cut the rest into small pieces.
6. Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan over medium heat and add the onion first. Fry it for literally 2 minutes.
7. Now add the grated carrots and fry for another 2-3 minutes, stirring.
8. Bell peppers go into the pan next. Continue sautéing vegetables for another 2 minutes.
9. Now add the grated beets. Reduce heat to low and simmer vegetables for 5 minutes.
10. After five minutes of simmering, add the tomatoes in their juice along with the juice (or fresh grated ones) and tomato paste. Mix everything well.
11. Add aromatic and tasty spices to the roast. Ground coriander, adjika and a spoonful of sugar. Stir everything and continue to simmer over low heat for another 5 minutes.
13. Immediately add the white parsnip root. If you don’t have it, it’s not a big deal, you can cook without it, the broth will just have a slightly different taste. Add two bay leaves and cook further. As soon as it boils, remove the foam that appears, now the potatoes will produce it. After boiling, cook for 5-7 minutes until the potatoes are half cooked.
14. Fish out the bay leaf and add the cabbage. Cabbage should be cooked depending on how firm the variety is. Young cabbage cooks very quickly, but late winter cabbage should simmer for at least 10 minutes. It is best to try the cabbage raw, and then during cooking, to understand when it is ready.
15. When the cabbage is almost ready, add the fry and cook at low simmer with small bubbles for another 5 minutes. Now you can add garlic to make the delicious borscht with meat even more aromatic.
16. Now add finely chopped greens. Cover with a lid and leave to steep for 20-25 minutes. The borscht will not lose its temperature, but at the same time it will be wonderfully saturated with aromas.
Well, our delicious borscht with pork and various vegetables is ready. It's time to serve. Don't forget sour cream and fresh bread. Have a nice lunch with your family!
Navy borscht - delicious video recipe with meat broth and smoked meats
Finally, I can’t help but mention this delicious recipe for borscht with meat. Navy borscht is prepared not only with boiled meat and broth, but also with the addition of aromatic, golden-brown smoked meats. Have you already imagined this taste and smell? For lovers of smoked meats, this borscht is just a godsend, believe me, I’m one of them. Classic borscht is certainly beyond competition, but this is a worthy variety.
For cooking you will need products already known to us; you could see their list at the very beginning of the article in the recipe for borscht with beef. But in addition to meat on the bone, from which we will cook a hearty broth, smoked ribs or knuckle will take part in the preparation. Beets, cabbage, carrots, potatoes - all these favorite vegetables are in place.
There are sometimes more controversies around borscht than around politics. In fact, no one knows what proper borscht is. It should be tasty - that’s the main rule,” says Ilya Lazerson, president of the St. Petersburg Guild of Chefs. - Personally, I don’t like it when there are potatoes and sweet peppers in borscht. In my version there are none, and that is my right. Some people like sauerkraut and pre-boil or bake the beets. I prefer raw beets. I cut it into thin strips, add a little sugar, water, vegetable oil, and after 5 minutes add tomato paste. Then I stew the beets and add them to the pan at the very end of cooking. Thanks to this, the soup acquires a rich, appetizing shade. And this is just one of the secrets of delicious borscht.
1. With or without broth?
For vegetarian borscht, meat broth is not needed. But, if you are a fan of classic soup, then you need to prepare a rich broth. For it, you can take beef brisket, chicken or pork and beef in a 1:1 ratio. It is better to pre-fry the pieces of meat for flavor. Or immediately put the meat on the bones in cold water and put it on fire. As soon as it boils, remove the foam, add salt, bay leaf, a few peas of black and allspice and cook for 2-3 hours until the meat is completely cooked. Then you need to strain the broth, remove the meat from the bones, chop it and return it back to the pan.
2. Stew the beets separately!
If you put the beets in a common pan and then cook for about an hour, all the color will disappear from the vegetable and the borscht will turn out faded. To avoid this, you need to grate the root vegetable on a coarse grater or cut it into thin strips with a knife. Then add water, a teaspoon of sugar and be sure to have a little acid (a couple of tablespoons of wine vinegar or lemon juice), this will help the root vegetable retain its color. Place the beets on the fire and simmer until they become soft.
3. Or maybe cook?
The second popular option for preparing beets for borscht is to boil them in advance. It is important to rinse the vegetable thoroughly before immersing it in water, without cutting off the roots and top, otherwise the juice will “go” into the pan. For better preservation of the bright shade, do not salt the water, but pour 1/2 tsp into it. vinegar or citric acid. Cooking time depends on the size of the fruit and the season - young small root vegetables are usually cooked for 20-30 minutes, old ones - 1-1.5 hours. However, today most chefs advise baking beets rather than boiling them. To do this, wrap the fruit in food foil and place it in the oven for 30-40 minutes (time depends on the size of the tuber) at +180°C. In baked beets, the taste and color do not “dissolve” in water, so this method of preparation is considered the most successful.
Classic borscht Photo: shutterstock.com
Ingredients:
- Beef brisket - 500 g
- Pork - 500 g
- Carrots - 1 pc.
- Onions - 1 pc.
- Beets - 2 pcs.
- Cabbage - 300 g
- Sweet pepper - 1 pc.
- Potatoes - 200 g
- Tomato paste - 1 tbsp. l.
- Bay leaf, pepper, salt - to taste
How to cook:
- Place the meat in a saucepan, add 3 liters of cold water, bring to a boil, cook for 2 hours.
- Cut the carrots into strips, the onion into half rings, fry until golden brown. Place in a saucepan along with the chopped peppers.
- After ten minutes, add cabbage, then potatoes.
- Cut the beets into thin strips, simmer for 10 minutes, then add tomato paste, cover and cook for another 20 minutes.
- Place in borscht 10 minutes after potatoes. Cook for another 10 minutes.
- Add bay leaf, salt and pepper. Remove from heat and let steep for 20 minutes.
4. Don't forget the cabbage
Many people call borscht beetroot soup. In fact, these are different soups. Borscht has cabbage, but beetroot soup does not. Most often, fresh white cabbage shredded into strips is used for borscht. But there may be variations on the theme. For example, you can put red cabbage or savoy cabbage in a pan - it looks similar to white cabbage, but has a bright green color and corrugated, bubbly leaves. There are even versions of borscht with cauliflower and Brussels sprouts, but with them you still get a soup that is far from the classic one. Some people like to add sauerkraut instead of fresh cabbage. It must be washed, chopped, simmered separately until soft and only then added to the borscht.
5. Unsweetened couple: onion and carrot
Nutritionists are against all sorts of sautés that add calories to the dish. But if we speak from the point of view of taste and gastronomic rules, then borscht without sautéing is not borscht. First, fry the onion into strips in vegetable oil, then add the carrots cut into strips. When the vegetables acquire a golden hue, add tomato paste and simmer everything together for a few more minutes. Some housewives believe that it is better to use tomatoes instead of pasta - fresh or in their own juice. Nevertheless, many professional chefs insist: only paste has the concentrated taste that is so necessary for the soup, which will give the borscht a beautiful color and pleasant sourness.
6. Vegetables - to taste
In addition to beets, carrots, onions and cabbage, other vegetables are added to the borscht to taste: potatoes, tomatoes and fresh sweet peppers, which are also chopped into strips. In general, do not forget that all products in the soup should be cut approximately equally. You can use any color of pepper: green, yellow, red, orange. The main thing is to maintain the proportion: there should be a lot of beets and cabbage in the borscht, and 2-3 times less potatoes, tomatoes and peppers.
7. Who is first in line?
Borscht, like most other soups beloved by Russians, is a filling first course. It is in the West that they prefer pureed soups, but we should have a broth in which various tasty additives float. In order for these additives to be harmoniously combined with each other and to obtain the correct consistency (and not when one product is overcooked and the other crunches on the teeth), it is necessary to observe the correct seasoning of the soup.
The first thing to go into the pan is shredded cabbage; it takes longer to cook than others. Then - sweet peppers and potatoes. At the very end, you need to add sautéed onions, carrots and tomato paste into the borscht, and finally, ready-made sour beets. After this, cook the soup for no more than 5 minutes. If you cook borscht with sauerkraut, you should also add it at the end. If you add sour beets or cabbage first, and then potatoes, the latter will take a very long time to cook (the acid will interfere).
8. The final touch - lard with garlic
Many borscht lovers simply cannot imagine this soup without garlic and lard dressing. It gives the dish a bright juicy taste and a very appetizing garlic aroma... For the dressing you will need skinless lard, garlic and fresh herbs: dill and parsley. The products must be cut and crushed in a mortar or blender until pureed. Then this fatty mush with a delicious aroma is added to the prepared hot borscht, the lid is closed, and the soup is infused for at least 15 minutes. After this, you should not boil the contents of the pan, otherwise the aromas of garlic and herbs will disappear.
9. Lush, rosy donuts
We say “borscht”, and the word “pampushka” comes to mind! Pampushka is a round bun made from yeast dough. It is better to start cooking it immediately after you set the broth to cook, because the yeast dough must rise properly and have time to bake. Water, egg, salt, sugar, vegetable oil, yeast, flour - the ingredients for buns are simple. When the dough has risen, roll the balls and place them on a baking sheet, but remember that the donuts will rise during baking. If you want perfectly rounded buns, place them at a decent distance from each other. However, even if they stick together, they can be separated while hot and poured with garlic dressing. For dressing, take vegetable oil, crushed garlic, chopped dill with parsley and a little water. Mix everything and pour onto freshly baked plump donuts.
10. You can’t go anywhere without sour cream!
If a tureen has been gathering dust on the shelf of your sideboard for a long time and has not been used, take it out and use it for its intended purpose - it is in this beauty that borscht is usually served on the table for a large company. Place additives and snacks corresponding to the dish nearby - donuts, bread, chopped herbs and, of course, rich sour cream. Well, what would borscht be without sour cream!
Borscht with beans Photo: shutterstock.com
Borsch with prunes and mushrooms
Ingredients:
- Prunes - 200 g
- Dried porcini mushrooms - 20 g
- Potatoes - 4 pcs.
- Fresh cabbage - 300 g
- Beets - 3 pcs.
- Onions - 1 pc.
- Carrots - 1 pc.
- Tomato paste - 2 tbsp. l.
- Sugar - 1 tbsp. l.
- Parsley root - 1 pc.
- Flour - 0.5 tbsp. l.
- Vegetable oil - 3 tbsp. l.
How to cook:
- Soak the mushrooms for 2 hours. Then cook for 1 hour. Remove the mushrooms, chop, and save the broth.
- Rinse the prunes, add 2 cups of water, add sugar and cook until soft for 10 minutes.
- Cut the beets into strips. Heat half the oil in a frying pan, add beets, 1 tbsp. l. tomato paste and mushroom broth, simmer, stirring, over low heat for 15 minutes.
- Cut the onion, carrots and parsley root into strips and sauté with butter, tomato and flour for 5 minutes.
- Place the cabbage in the boiling mushroom broth, after boiling, add the potatoes and cook for 15 minutes.
- Place stewed beets and sautéed vegetables in a saucepan. Add mushrooms, cooked prunes along with the broth. Add salt and pepper and cook for another 10 minutes.
Garlic dumplings Photo: shutterstock.com
Garlic dumplings
Ingredients:
- Wheat flour - 200 g
- Rye flour - 120 g
- Milk - 200 ml
- Eggs - 2 pcs.
- Yeast - 7 g
- Vegetable oil - 50 ml
- Sugar - 1 tsp.
- Flax seeds - 50 g
- Garlic - 4 cloves
- Salt - a pinch
How to cook:
- Warm milk to room temperature. Add dry yeast, stir.
- Add sugar, 1 egg, vegetable oil, a little sifted flour and flax seeds. Mix.
- Add the remaining flour, knead the dough and leave it to rise for 1 hour.
- Place on the table and let rise for another 1 hour, covering with a towel.
- Make 7-8 round donuts, brush the tops of the buns with yolk and bake for 20 minutes at 180°C.
- Grease the still hot pampushki with crushed garlic mixed with a small amount of vegetable oil, salt and water.
Classic borscht (red borscht) is a famous beet soup that the peoples of Eastern and Central Europe can rightfully be proud of. Borscht with beets has a particularly ancient history in Ukraine, which is why it is often called Ukrainian borscht. But there is also Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, Kuban, Moscow and even Siberian borscht. And they cook it differently in each individual region, and even with variations: meat, lean, and in the summer, cold borscht, which is often called kholodnik, beetroot soup... What unites the main thing is that wherever borscht is cooked, it is one of the most favorite culinary dishes. dishes. And the ability to deliciously cook real borscht in these parts is considered one of the main virtues of a woman, almost not inferior to beauty and kindness. Therefore, cooking borscht is a kind of sacrament, and borscht itself is one of the main aphrodisiacs for the Slavs. This word is delicious - borscht!
Green borscht- This is sorrel soup, also a dish of national cuisines of Eastern Europe. Green borscht is not a variation of classic borscht; it has a completely different recipe and a completely different color - green. It comes from sorrel and other green ingredients.
- To make the borscht thick, boil one whole potato in it. When the borscht is ready, take it out, mash it thoroughly and return it to the borscht.
- When beets are cooked, their color and the color of their broth are muted. To make the borscht a juicy, bright color, place about a quarter of the beets chopped for borscht in a bowl, pour boiling water over it and leave for at least 20 minutes. When the borscht has already been removed from the heat, squeeze out the beets and pour the resulting juice into the borscht.
- To improve the taste of borscht, it is recommended to take a piece of good lard, grind it with salt and garlic, and add the resulting mixture to the almost finished borscht.
- Do not serve borscht immediately after cooking! Let the borscht steep for at least an hour.
