Ukrainian Borscht
Ukrainian borshch is a vegetable soup with beetroots as its characteristic ingredient. It is an everyday and ritual dish, known since at least the early Kyiv Rus times. Borshch is very nourishing, especially if you cook it with meat, so it is normally eaten for dinner. Ukrainians are known for eating this hearty vegetable soup with pork as a morning pick-me-up and then again three times throughout the day! A plate…
Ingredients
- ½ cup dried beans, soaked in water overnight
- 2–3 pounds pork or beef
- 3 cups water
- 1 large or 2 medium beets, peeled and julienne
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 onion, peeled and diced
- 3 carrots, peeled and diced
- Green bell pepper, diced
- Tomatoes, diced
- 2 potatoes, cut into thick slices
- Herbs and spices: salt, bay leaf, black pepper, red pepper flakes, thyme
- ½ small cabbage, thinly sliced
- 3 ounces salted pork fat or bacon
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 tbsp chopped dill
- ½ cup plain yoghurt
- ⅓ cup of tomato paste
- Sour cream
Steps
- Drain soaked beans. Set aside.
- Place meat in large pot. Add 3 cups cold water.
- Bring slowly to boil. Remove scum.
- Add half the onion and 2 carrots.
- Reduce to simmer. Partially cover. Cook about 1 hour.
- Add beets and beans. Bring to boil. Lower heat. Cover. Simmer until beans are tender.
- Sweat half the onion, carrots and green pepper in vegetable oil over low heat until onions are yellow.
- Scrape into pot. Simmer a few minutes. Add tomatoes, potatoes and spices. Simmer until potatoes are tender.
- Add cabbage. Simmer to desired consistency.
- Meanwhile, chop garlic, dill and pork fat (or bacon) in food processor. Whisk in yoghurt at end.
- When cabbage is ready, add tomato paste and garlic-dill-fat mixture.
- Return to simmer. Cover. Turn heat off. Rest at least 30 minutes.
- Ladle into bowls. Top with dollop of sour cream.
Notes from the original
- Use clean filtered or natural water.
- Cook all vegetables over low heat in a covered pot.
- Beets can be stewed separately with a little amount of beet kvass and vegetable oil before adding the broth. Then add them to all other ingredients 10 minutes before the end of cooking.
- The best meat for borshch is fat beef with bones.
- Often dried white mushrooms are added, but you can use any other dried mushrooms.
- Garlic can also be mashed with a slice of fat bacon and added to the prepared borshch.
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Ukrainian Borscht” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2026-09-21, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photo. Bowl of Ukrainian Borscht.jpg by Borshch at English Wikibooks, Public domain, via Wikimedia. Resized; otherwise unchanged.