I have used this recipe twice- excellent. Read carefully, I have been to 23 countries. This is how I modified: No meat-to greasy. No garlic- not needed. No sugar- use aged vinegar, nice and sweet. I also added one cube chicken bullion and one can of chicken stock, no fat. Also HALF the tomato paste. FRESH dill- lots. Cooked onions in grape seed oil, high burn rate. If you follow what I suggest, you will achieve culinary greatness and Ukrainian authenticity.
Very good. I cook my beets with the skins on for about an hour in the water I will use for the soup. The skins slip right off after boiling and its easy to chop or slice them, besides it increases the nutritional value of the soup!
My family and I lived in Russia for 3 1/2 years, and I have looked for a borscht recipe that was the same as we had there. This one was perfect! I've never had borscht with meat in it, so I made it vegetarian. This was the real thing - especially with the sourcream, or "smeatana" on top!
Well, I grew up in Ukraine till I was 19, and this recipe has not much to do with the classic.First it is with pork meat- solid, juicy, not some boiled crumbs.No pork? Then chicken.Second-"boil beets they lost color(shape and nutrition value)"-why?It takes 10 minutes to have them cooked with love, preserving color,aroma, taste.Add even some more , finely shredded! recepie.
I lived in Russia for 6 months and this is authentic! Don't overcook it or the rich magenta color will turn brick red. Delicious and so healthy. Even my three year old liked it.
I tried out this recipe but added a few changes. First of all I prepared the sausage seperately and put it aside. For the veggie mix, I used a big bag of already prepared coleslaw mix since it has the cabbage and carrots already incorporated. I also used two cans of baby red beets. I prepared the vegetable mix and the onion and tomato paste mix separately and then mixed those two together. I then pureed the whole thing to give it a thicker and denser texture. I returned it to the pot and then added the sausage, salt and pepper to taste. I left out the sugar. It came out beautifully but I think the use of a whole can of diced tomatoes AND the tomato paste made this soup more tomato-y than red beet-y. In the future, I'll skip the tomato paste. Really good with crusty French bread and the dallop of sour cream.
I made this as an appetizer for Ukrainian Easter, it was really good. I wish it had a deeper beet flavor though. I added some red wine reduction in mine to give it a fuller flavor and to enhance the beets. I also made the soup a day in advance to let the flavors develop. I added some oregano to the recipe as well (I add oregano to everything) and didnt use as much tomatoes or tomato paste. I have seen a lot of borscht recipes that either involve beef or beef broth and I had always thought this was traditional (although i dont really think it is) so I used a little beef broth in replace of some of the water.. i wouldnt use too much though because it can take away from the beets. I plated the borscht in bowls that were set on top of leaves from the beets (which are edible and have a little purple coloring to them so they looked great with the soup). Overall, I would use this recipe again with a few adjustments. ...maybe more beets and less cabbage considering the cabbage doesnt add as much to it.
I must say that I was skeptical, but I absolutely LOVED it! We like our veggies in chunks (it's hard to shred beets without turning the counter pink!), so we diced/chopped all the vegetables, and it came out great. Thanks for this recipe!
I did like this borscht a lot and found it to be very authentic but it was a little too sweet for me with the amount of sugar called for... I should have paid more attention to the "to taste" part and added it 1/4 tsp. at a time. I also (as a few other reviewers have mentioned) served it with dill instead of parsley. The Borscht I recipe on this site is also very good but this one seems more true to the ones I have had in Russia or Ukraine.
