Classic beef borscht
Gorgeous, classic, made from everyday ingredients — the very best! Cooking a classic beef borscht isn't all that hard, but holding on to that bright ruby color is where a lot of cooks come up short. Follow a few simple tricks and you'll make a borscht that's not just delicious but truly beautiful.
Cooking method
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Step 1:
How do you make classic beef borscht? Gather all the ingredients. For a richer broth, beef on the bone is best. Wash and peel the potatoes well. To keep them from darkening, cover them with water while the broth cooks.
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Step 2:
Peel the onion. I use a whole onion and discard it right at the end of cooking. But generally, onion goes into the sautéed vegetables with the beet and carrot — in that case cut it into small cubes. Or you can use two onions: one for the broth and one for the sauté.
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Step 3:
Rinse the beef and put it in a pot along with the whole onion (if you're not adding onion to the sauté). Pour in the water and set the pot over medium heat. Bring it to a boil and cook over medium heat until the meat is done, about an hour, skimming off the foam. The cooking time depends on the size of the piece, which part of the carcass it's from, and the age of the animal.
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Step 4:
While the broth cooks, cut the potatoes into medium cubes.
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Step 5:
Strip the outermost leaves off the cabbage and cut out the core. Shred the cabbage finely.
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Step 6:
Take the meat out of the broth, let it cool, and cut it into small pieces.
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Step 7:
Add the shredded cabbage and the potatoes to the broth. Bring it to a boil and cook over medium heat for 10–15 minutes.
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Step 8:
Get the ingredients ready for the sauté. How do you make it? Prep the vegetables. Wash and peel the beet and carrot. You can swap the tomato paste for ketchup or 1–2 fresh tomatoes. If you use fresh tomatoes, peel them: score them in a cross, scald with boiling water, then plunge into cold water — the skin will slip off easily. Then grate the flesh on the fine side of a grater.
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Step 9:
Grate the beet on the coarse side of a grater.
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Step 10:
Grate the carrot on the coarse side too.
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Step 11:
Heat the vegetable oil in a skillet over low heat. Add the carrot, beet, and tomato paste. If you're using onion in the sauté, add it with the rest of the vegetables.
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Step 12:
Simmer the sauté over low heat for 5–7 minutes, stirring.
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Step 13:
Transfer the sauté to the pot and stir. The borscht will immediately take on a bright ruby color. The secret to a beautiful, bright red borscht lies in the color of the beet itself and in the cooking time. If you stew the beet a long time and then boil it, it goes pale, and the borscht turns a faded orange. The ratio of beet to water matters too: if there's a lot of water and only a small beet, it won't be enough to color the whole broth.
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Step 14:
Return the beef to the pot. Pour in the vinegar. You can swap the vinegar for the juice of half a lemon or 1/2 tsp of citric acid. Either way, you need to add some acid to the borscht — it preserves the bright color and gives the borscht a slight tang. Add the bay leaves, salt, and pepper. Stir again and cook until the vegetables are done, about another 10–15 minutes.
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Step 15:
Peel the garlic cloves and press them through a press.
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Step 16:
Stir the minced garlic into the borscht and take the pot off the heat. I usually leave the pot on the cooling burner.
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Step 17:
Cover the pot and let the borscht rest for 10–15 minutes. Then ladle it into bowls and serve with sour cream and dark bread. Enjoy!
- Important! Whether or not a recipe gives an exact amount of water for soup, it's best to go by your own preference (do you like a thick soup or a thinner one?), the size of your pot, and the ingredients you're using. Keep in mind that the author has their own idea of how much meat, potato, grain, and so on belongs in the soup, and it may not match yours. In practice, that means if you're making it for the first time, don't cook a whole pot at once. Make a tasting batch — enough for one or two people. To do that, scale all the ingredients down to 1–2 servings and figure the water at roughly one cup per serving for a very thick soup, up to 1.5–2 cups for a thinner one. Don't forget that some of the liquid will boil off as it cooks. After tasting that small batch, you can dial in both the amount of liquid and the proportions to your liking. Down the road, like most seasoned cooks, you'll be able to add the water and the ingredients by eye.
- Root vegetables are best scrubbed with a brush or a stiff sponge under running water.
- For cooking, it's best to use filtered or bottled water with a neutral taste. If you use tap water, keep in mind it can give the dish an off, characteristic flavor.
Caloric content of the products possible in the composition of the dish
- Onion - 41 kcal/100g
- Ripe potatoes - 80 kcal/100g
- Baked potatoes - 70 kcal/100g
- Mashed potatoes - 380 kcal/100g
- Boiled potatoes - 82 kcal/100g
- Potatoes in uniform - 74 kcal/100g
- Fried potatoes - 192 kcal/100g
- Green cabbage - 46 kcal/100g
- Fresh frozen green cabbage in a package - 45 kcal/100g
- Melted beef fat - 871 kcal/100g
- Fat beef - 171 kcal/100g
- Lean beef - 158 kcal/100g
- Beef brisket - 217 kcal/100g
- Beef - okovalok - 380 kcal/100g
- Beef - lean roast - 200 kcal/100g
- Beef shoulder - 137 kcal/100g
- Beef - ribs - 233 kcal/100g
- Beef - ham - 104 kcal/100g
- Beef - tail - 184 kcal/100g
- Boiled ham - 269 kcal/100g
- Beef corned beef - 216 kcal/100g
- Beetroot - 40 kcal/100g
- Dried beetroot - 278 kcal/100g
- Boiled beets - 49 kcal/100g
- Carrots - 33 kcal/100g
- Dried carrots - 275 kcal/100g
- Boiled carrots - 25 kcal/100g
- Garlic - 143 kcal/100g
- Bay leaf - 313 kcal/100g
- Ground black pepper - 255 kcal/100g
- Wine vinegar (3%) - 9 kcal/100g
- Vinegar 9% - 11 kcal/100g
- Balsamic vinegar - 88 kcal/100g
- Apple vinegar - 14 kcal/100g
- Vinegar - 11 kcal/100g
- Vegetable oil - 873 kcal/100g
- Tomato paste - 28 kcal/100g
- Salt - 0 kcal/100g
- Water - 0 kcal/100g
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