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Borscht with pork

Pork Borscht

Rich, the tastiest, simple, and done right! Red borscht with pork is a classic of Ukrainian and Russian cuisine — a hearty dish that has earned universal love and acclaim. The recipe is easy, made from the most everyday ingredients, and it comes out very tasty and filling.

Maria

Recipe author

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Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Potatoes

300

Cabbage

300

Ground black pepper

Salt

Carrot

Beet

Tomato paste

Vegetable oil

Sugar (a pinch)

Water

Pork (bone-in is better)

500

Celery stalk

Onion

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 27 % 3 g

Fats 36 % 4 g

Carbohydrates 36 % 4 g

59 kcal

GI: 75 / 0 / 25

Cooking method

Step 1:

How do you make pork borscht? First, get the ingredients ready for the broth. For a richer borscht, it's best to use bone-in meat. Rinse the pork and pat it dry with paper towels. Peel the onion. Rinse the celery stalk and cut it in two.
Step 2:

Put the whole onion, the celery, and the meat in one piece into a pot. Add filtered water. Don't use tap water, or the flavor of the dish will suffer. Set it over medium heat. Once the broth boils, lower the heat to its lowest setting and cook for about 1 hour (until the pork is done). Be sure to skim off the foam as it forms.
Step 3:

Meanwhile, prepare all the other vegetables and spices on the list.
Step 4:

Remove the limp, darkened outer leaves from the white cabbage. Cut off about a third of the head. Shred it thinly with a knife or on a cabbage slicer.
Step 5:

Wash and peel the potatoes, then cut them into small cubes.
Step 6:

Take the tender meat out of the broth and transfer it to a bowl. Strain the broth. The vegetables that cooked in it are no longer needed and can be discarded. Bring the broth to a boil and add the diced potatoes. Cook for about 10 minutes after it returns to a boil.
Step 7:

Cut the pork into small pieces.
Step 8:

Return the pork pieces to the broth. Bring it back to a boil.
Step 9:

Get everything ready for the sauté. Peel the carrot and beet. Cut them into thin sticks (or grate them coarsely). Keep them in separate containers.
Step 10:

Heat refined vegetable oil with a high smoke point in a skillet. Sauté the carrot for 5 minutes until soft.
Step 11:

Add the beet. Sauté, stirring, for another 5 minutes. To speed things up, you can use pre-cooked beets in vacuum packaging — there's no need to sauté them, just cut them up and add them to the soup 5–7 minutes before the end of cooking.
Step 12:

Add the tomato paste, sugar, and a little salt to the vegetables in the skillet. Mix everything well and simmer over low heat for another 1–2 minutes. The beet should soften. If you see there's hardly any liquid left in the skillet, add a couple of spoonfuls of boiled water or broth from the pot.
Step 13:

Add the cabbage to the pot of broth. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring, for about 10 minutes.
Step 14:

Now add the sautéed vegetables to the pot. Mix everything well, season with salt and pepper, and cook over medium heat for about 15 minutes. If you like, add a bay leaf and allspice and black peppercorns (3 of each).
Step 15:

Turn off the heat. Cover the pot of borscht with a lid. Let it rest for about 20 minutes. Then ladle it into bowls and serve while it's still hot.

If you like, add julienned bell pepper to the vegetable sauté.
For a deeper red color, you can add a little lemon juice (1 tbsp) or a pinch of citric acid at the end. It improves the flavor, too.
For more aroma, you can add garlic (2–3 cloves) put through a press to the pot of finished borscht.
It's delicious to put a spoonful of sour cream in your bowl of borscht and sprinkle it with chopped dill. And if you serve it with garlic pampushki and thin slices of salo (cured pork fat) on the side, it's simply perfection!
For cooking it's best to use neutral-tasting filtered or bottled water. If you use tap water, keep in mind it can give the dish an unpleasant characteristic aftertaste.
To keep your eyes from stinging when you cut onions, rinse the onion and the knife in cold water. Your cutting board won't pick up the unpleasant onion smell if you rub it with a piece of lemon before cutting.
Besides pork, you can use any other meat in this dish. Keep in mind that the cooking time, as well as the flavor and calorie count of the dish, will change. Beef, for example, takes longer to cook than pork, while chicken fillet or turkey takes less.