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Classic cold borscht with boiled beetroot and tops

Classic Cold Borscht with Boiled Beets and Greens

All vitamins, minimal calories! Classic cold borscht — beet soup — is a truly summery dish that's both filling and refreshing. And it looks beautiful, with its rich, vivid beet-red color!

Maria

Recipe author

Classic cold borscht with boiled beetroot and tops

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Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Water

800

Beets (young, with greens)

Potatoes

Cucumbers

Eggs

Lemons

0.25

Dill (a large bunch)

100

Salt

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 22 % 2 g

Fats 11 % 1 g

Carbohydrates 67 % 6 g

36 kcal

GI: 50 / 0 / 50

Cooking method

Step 1:

How do you make cold borscht? Gather the ingredients you'll need. Borscht calls for young, fresh beets with lush greens. If you don't grow them yourself, you can usually find beets like this at the market in the second half of summer.
Step 2:

Separate the beet greens from the roots. Discard any withered, limp leaves. Peel the beets and cut each one into 4 pieces.
Step 3:

Put the quarters in a saucepan, pour in 800 ml of water, and boil for about 25–35 minutes, depending on the size of the beets. Check for doneness with a knife or skewer. Cook the beets in a stainless steel pot — never use white-enamel pots, since the beets will quickly stain them pink.
Step 4:

Boil the potatoes in their skins until tender, peel them, and grate or cut into small cubes.
Step 5:

Hard-boil the eggs, cool them, peel them, and cut into small cubes or grate on a fine grater.
Step 6:

Grate the cucumbers on a fine grater too, or cut into small cubes. There's no need to peel them if the skin isn't tough, damaged or bitter.
Step 7:

Take the cooked beets out of the cooking liquid.
Step 8:

Wash the beet greens well, shake off the water, and dip them into the hot liquid left from cooking the beets; let them sit for 5–7 minutes. This step is optional, especially if the greens are young, small leaves. Mine were very large and tough, so they needed softening. Then lift the greens out of the liquid and shake them off. You can also pour boiling water over the leaves separately instead of using the cooking liquid.
Step 9:

Finely chop the beet greens and dill.
Step 10:

Cool the beet cooking liquid.
Step 11:

Meanwhile, grate the boiled beets on a fine or medium grater.
Step 12:

In a metal pot, combine the prepared vegetables, eggs and herbs.
Step 13:

Salt everything to taste.
Step 14:

Pour the cooled beet liquid in with the vegetables. Stir everything gently and refrigerate for 25–30 minutes. Taste for salt and add more if needed.
Step 15:

Ladle the finished borscht into bowls, adding a slice of lemon to each. Even better — squeeze the lemon juice right into the bowl. Enjoy!

Cold first courses made from young vegetables are just the thing in summer. Today we're making cold beet borscht, adding juicy fresh beet greens along with the beets themselves.
You can decrease or increase the amount of water given in the recipe as you wish, depending on whether you want a thick soup or a thinner one.