Classic cold borscht with boiled beets and tops

Step-by-step cooking

1. Step 1:

   

   How to cook cold borscht? Prepare the necessary ingredients for the dish. For borscht, young fresh beets with lush tops are needed. If you do not grow such a beet yourself, you can usually buy such beetroot on the market in the second half of summer.

2. Step 2:

   

   Separate the beet tops from the root crops. Remove the withered and flaccid leaves. Peel the beets, cut each vegetable into 4 parts.

3. Step 3:

   

   Put the quarters in a saucepan, pour 800 ml of water and boil for about 25-35 minutes, depending on the size of the beetroot. Check the readiness of the beetroot with a knife or skewer. Beets should be cooked in steel dishes, in no case should you use pots made of white enamel, as beets will quickly turn them pink.

4. Step 4:

   

   Boil the potatoes in the peel until tender, peel and also grate or cut into small cubes.

5. Step 5:

   

   Boil hard-boiled eggs, cool, peel, cut into small cubes or grate on a fine grater.

6. Step 6:

   

   Also grate cucumbers on a fine grater or cut into small cubes. The skin, if it is not rough, not damaged and not bitter, does not need to be cut off.

7. Step 7:

   

   Remove the finished beetroot from the broth.

8. Step 8:

   

   Wash the beet tops thoroughly, shake off the water and dip into the hot broth left after cooking the beets, and let stand for 5-7 minutes. It is not necessary to do this, especially if the tops consist of young and small leaves. My leaves were very large and harsh, so they need to be softened. Then remove the tops from the broth and shake. You can lower the leaves not into the broth, but pour boiling water separately.

10. Step 9:

    

    Chop the beet tops and dill finely.

11. Step 10:

    

    Cool the beet broth.

12. Step 11:

    

    Meanwhile, grate the boiled beets on a fine or medium grater.

13. Step 12:

    

    In a metal saucepan, combine the prepared vegetables, eggs and herbs.

14. Step 13:

    

    Salt everything to taste.

15. Step 14:

    

    Pour the cooled beet broth into the vegetables. Mix everything carefully and refrigerate for 25-30 minutes. Try the dish with salt and add salt if necessary.

16. Step 15:

    

    Pour the finished borscht on plates, adding a slice of lemon to each. Or even better - squeeze the juice from the lemon directly into the plate. Enjoy your meal!