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Cabbage soup with sprat in tomato sauce

Shchi with Sprats in Tomato Sauce

A fish version made with canned fish — quick and tasty. I'd never made a fish version of shchi before, even though in old Russia it was cooked on fish stock too. There are countless takes on this soup. What sets shchi apart from other soups is the white cabbage — and there should be plenty of it. The rest of the ingredients, though, can vary widely.

Maria

Recipe author

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Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Water

1.5

Green cabbage

300

Potatoes

Ground black pepper

Dill

Salt

Carrot

Garlic

Canned sprats in tomato sauce (1 can)

250

Vegetable oil

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 29 % 2 g

Fats 29 % 2 g

Carbohydrates 43 % 3 g

41 kcal

GI: 100 / 0 / 0

Cooking method

Step 1:

Gather your ingredients. For shchi with sprats in tomato sauce you'll need: water, green cabbage, potatoes, bay leaf, ground black pepper, and salt.
Step 2:

Shred the cabbage.
Step 3:

Peel the potatoes and cut them into medium slices.
Step 4:

Bring the water to a boil in a pot. Add the shredded cabbage and cook for 5 minutes.
Step 5:

Then add the potatoes and salt. Cook for another 15 minutes, stirring.
Step 6:

Now the sauté. For it you'll need: a can of sprats in tomato sauce, a carrot, garlic, and vegetable oil.
Step 7:

Grate the carrot on the coarse side of a box grater.
Step 8:

Peel the garlic and put it through a press.
Step 9:

Heat the vegetable oil in a skillet and add the carrot.
Step 10:

Add the pressed garlic right away. Sauté, stirring, until the carrot is soft.
Step 11:

Add the sprats along with their tomato sauce to the skillet. Stir and simmer together over low heat for 5 minutes.
Step 12:

Add the sauté to the pot. Stir, bring to a boil, and cook for 2 minutes. If you like, stir in some dried or fresh dill and take the pot off the heat.
Step 13:

Let it rest, covered, for 15–20 minutes, then ladle into bowls.

Shchi is a quintessentially Russian dish. It's thought to have entered the national cuisine as far back as the 9th century, when cabbage was brought to Russia from Byzantium. Old sources record several names for it — shti, cabbage shti, borscht shti, turnip shti. It quickly caught on across every layer of society and became a centerpiece of the table. At first it was a meatless, almost sacred dish (made on vegetable or mushroom stock), but later a hearty version on meat or fish stock appeared. Depending on the ingredients, shchi was either "rich" or "empty." Poorer folk, who rarely got to eat meat, would sometimes stir in a little pounded lard; other times they made do with just cabbage and onion. Potatoes joined shchi in the 17th century — before that, turnip went in when it was on hand. One fun fact: in the 18th and 19th centuries, people would freeze cooked shchi into big ice rounds for travel, then chop it with an axe, drop it in a pot, reheat it, and eat. This nationwide love for the soup shows up in countless sayings and proverbs — a whole layer of Russian folk culture. And to this day, a bowl of fragrant, steaming shchi still finds its way to many family tables.