Borscht

I was tweeting a while back with the lovely Mdivani (I know you must be thinking Rebecca is addicted to twitter :-)) he had mentioned making Borscht and I asked him for the recipe. He very kindly emailed me his Grandma's recipe and she is Russian. I made it according to his directions the only different is I didn't add any sour cream, not keen on it and made a smaller amount. It was easy to make and a great soup.

If you love fashion, travel and food he's a great person to follow, he's a designer by trade now a blogger and awesome interviewer. He is the real deal and one of the nicest folks on twitter - @ladieswholunch1 and his blog 

Borscht


Ingredients 

• 8 cups Vegetable Stock
• 2 1/2 cups uncooked beets cut into julienne strips
• 1 cup finely chopped uncooked beets
• 1 cup finely chopped carrots
• 1 cup finely chopped onion
• 2-3 Tablespoons Sugar (to taste)
• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt (to taste)
• 2-3 Tablespoons red-wine vinegar (to taste)
• 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
• 1 1/2 cups Sour Cream

Method:

Put 5 1/2 cups of the vegetable stock in a large pot.  Place the remaining 2 1/2 cups of vegetable stock in a saucepan and add the julienned beets.  Simmer covered over medium heat about 10 minutes.  Strain the julienned beets out of the stock and put aside.  Add the bee/vegetable stock to the rest of the stock and bring to a boil.  Add the chopped uncooked beets, carrot an onions to the stock. Stir in the vinegar, salt and sugar, tasting as you do to get the flavor you like.  Over medium heat, cook covered for 15-20 minutes or until vegetables are soft.

Now here is where you get to decide, because my grandmother did it both ways:

For a smoother soup, strain out the vegetables and discard.  For a chunkier soup (my preferred) leave them in.

If serving hot, gradually stir in the lemon juice and the sour cream until smooth then add the julienned beets back into the stock and simmer for another 10 minutes.

If serving cold, let stock cool then chill. When ready to serve, add the lemon juice and then gradually add in the sour cream until smooth, then add the julienned beets back to the mixture.

I serve it with Sour Cream on the side  for extra dollops when serving.  Or!!  Serving hot, I sometimes don't add the sour cream to the mixture at all and just put dollops into the bowl when serving (when doing this I add the julienned beets back into the stock without the sour cream addition).

Have a great start to the week everyone