Who hasn’t heard of borscht, the most famous beetroot soup ever? With its deep red color, rich bone-based broth, tender pieces of beef and flavour-bursting veggies, borscht is the king of all soups. Hearty, aromatic and filling, this is true soul food. Borscht can be very versatile: beef or vegetable broth base, fresh or marinated beetroot and/or cabbage, different ways to spice it up – it’s a whole playground and every home chef has their own special tweak. Below is a basic recipe that yields a rich and flavourful bowl with minimal effort and time. Like it vegan? Use vegetable broth in place of beef and skip the sour cream.

Essential Ingredients for Borscht:

Beetroot: duh! 😀 a lot of recipes use marinated or pickled beetroot to add a little extra acidity to the broth. I personally prefer to keep the level of sourness down and more often than not use fresh beetroot.

Potatoes: make the chunks of potatoes large. Like, Large! Starchy potatoes will take in a lot of broth, making them extremely flavourful but also prone to breaking if cut small. See those two big things sticking out of the soup? Yep, potatoes.

Cabbage: similar to beetroot, you can opt for marinated cabbage to add that sour finish. I prefer fresh, but who said you cannot try both?

Fresh herbs: a must. Use a mix if you can – chopped parsley, coriander, dill and even basil. Fresh herbs add an instant flavour boost to soups, and the more the merrier.

Carrots, onions, garlic and tomato paste: this is what we called “podzharka” in Russian (from “zhárit‘ – to fry), and it is often added to soups. Grated carrots and finely chopped (or thinly sliced) onions are fried in a mix of butter and oil. Once they’ve softened, you add a little minced garlic, salt and a table spoon of tomato paste. Podzharka goes into the soup in the end, adding more substance, a little kick and boosting the colour. (are you getting hungry yet?)

Lemon: you just need a drizzle. Lemon is an excellent colour preserve, and a little tang never hurt anyone.

Sour cream: well I cannot say it is a must because you do have vegan versions, but it kind of is. Sour cream is an essential part of the whole borscht experience. You can skip it, but people will look.

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Optional Ingredients:

This list can get too long too fast, so here’s a few suggestions you may want to use to enhance the overall flavour:

• Celery – add a stalk to the broth and discard later;
• Bay leaf – if you like the aroma, bay leaf is wonderful in the vegetable-packed borscht;
• Ginger – a knob-sized piece of fresh ginger added to broth contributes with fresh and pungent notes;
• Black peppercorns – although you can always sprinkle freshly ground black pepper over your plate, whole black peppercorns are more than just heat. They contain earthy, warming compounds with a hint of citrus that open up during cooking.
• Ground cumin and coriander – you can add 1 tsp each to podzharka to impart a more complex flavour.

Preparation Tips for Borscht:

• Go for the meat version (unless you are vegan of course). There is SO much depth and flavour in the broth!
• Use a piece of meat that has either a fair amount of fat or is on a bone. This will ensure that the meat gets super tender, and the broth gets super rich. And there are not too many things that are as rewarding as succulent chunks of beef in robust, hearty borscht.
• Use a large (+/- 5l) soup pot. Cover the meat completely with water but don’t fill the whole pot. Allow for about 7cm gap between the edge and the water level.
• Start with medium-high heat and open lid. As the broth warms up, froth will starts to develop. Turn the heat to medium and use a blotted spoon or a normal spoon to remove the froth. Turning the heat down is important, because otherwise the broth will come to boil too fast and you won’t have enough time to clear it up.
• If there’s too much froth left, just leave it be. Once the meat is ready, you can strain the broth through a fine mesh or sieve. I do it almost always because I like my broth very clean 😀
• When there is no more froth forming, turn the heat to minimum and put the lid on. Let the broth simmer gently for at least two hours.
• Some of the liquid will evaporate, and this is fine. You will be left with about 2.5l of broth. This should be enough to achieve a rich but not too thick soup consistency when all the veggies are in. But you can always top it up with a little water or chicken/beef stock if you wish.

Serving Suggestions:

I already mentioned sour cream didn’t I? And fresh herbs? These two will get you covered, but if you have a warm slice of dark bread at hand, don’t let it go in vain! They also often serve “salo” – smoked lard – with borscht, which goes very well on that piece of dark bread. If you don’t happen to have salo at hand just today, you can try smoked bacon instead.

I hope it doesn’t sound like a big scary project, because it absolutely is not! The broth will cook itself, it only needs about 20 minutes of your time to remove the froth. A little bit of cutting and chopping is pretty much all you have to do. I kid you not when I say you will be done with your delicious borscht in half an hour max after the broth has cooked.

Looking for more filling soups recipes? Be sure to try this outstanding Sopa de Albóndigas – Mexican meatballs soup – or the soothing and comforting Hearty Lamb and Lentils Soup!

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