If you’ve read my About Page, you know that my parents carted me and my sister around the world from a young age, teaching music. In fact, many of my childhood summers were spent in Eastern Europe, particularly Ukraine. Since our first family trip there was in 1997, I don’t remember a time when it didn’t feel like a second home. We also quickly found a place in the Ukrainian immigrant community in my hometown of Pittsburgh. Their cuisine is so special, particularly when it’s prepared with love by babas (grandmas). These grandmas love to say “You are TOO skinny! You need to eat more. Here, have some more borshch. It’s good for you!” Of course, when it’s so good, it’s not too hard to find a little extra space.
Generations of Good Eats
I can see how this carries through the generations with my own babushka who has Polish roots. She loves to make sure I am well-fed, along with serving up a side dish of great advice. This continued in my own family’s kitchen, which was filled with amazing food, courtesy of my father. And while he loves food from all around the world, Ukrainian cuisine holds a special place in his heart.
A true Ukrainian smorgasbord includes borshch, varenyky (pierogies), holubtsi (stuffed cabbage rolls), pyrizhky (stuffed small buns), mlyntsi (crepes), and all sorts of amazing meats, salads, and other dishes. Truly delicious! Actually, most Slavic countries have their own regional variations of these dishes, so you will find similar cuisine across Eastern Europe. If you have Slavic roots, you know that borshch is Ukrainian soul food. This savory and hearty stew is often served everyday, or sometimes even twice a day in Ukraine.
Benham Borshch Flavor
My family has its own version of borshch, adapted by my dad, that we hope will carry through the generations. It’s flavorful and is the perfect meal for cold days. And there’s nothing secret about this recipe since Ukrainian culture is all about family and hospitality. My dad puts it best:
“Some 24 years and nearly 60 visits to Ukraine later, our opinions [on Ukrainian cuisine] haven’t changed! We still love this food and the strong sense of family and community that accompany a shared meal.”
Steve’s Ukrainian Red Borschch
Print RecipeIngredients
- 1 pound beef (chuck) roast (Omit for vegetarian option.)
- 2 –3 large potatoes approximately 4 cups
- 2 medium white onions approximately 1.5 cups
- 1 large carrot
- 1 red bell pepper
- 3 –4 medium fresh beets roasted
- 3 –4 medium size cloves of garlic
- 1 small head of green cabbage
- ½ cup dried cannellini or other small white beans or one 14–16 oz. can of white beans, such as Great Northern or Cannellini.
- 2 –3 bay leaves
- ½ cup of dry red wine
- 32 oz beef stock Use vegetable stock for vegetarian version.
- 1 large can typically 46 oz tomato juice
- 46 oz of water just fill the tomato juice can with water
- 1 –2 tablespoons of Hungarian paprika make sure it’s not the spicy kind!
- 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
- Salt and Fresh ground black pepper To Taste
- Fresh dill don’t even bother with dried dill
- Sour cream
Instructions
- If you are using dried beans, start here. If not, skip to the next step. Rinse beans to remove any extra shells, debris, etc. Place beans in a large pot. Add water until beans are covered by about two inches of water. Cover pot and soak beans overnight. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and cook on a low simmer (do not let boil) until tender. This may take anywhere from 45 minutes to two hours.
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Remove stems and leaves from the fresh beets (don’t throw away, though; you can use them as greens for another meal). Place the beets on a large sheet of aluminum foil, place on a baking sheet, salt and pepper, and roast until tender when pierced with a fork, about 45 minutes. Let the beets sit until cool enough to handle. The skin of the beets should easily slide off after roasting. (If not, sorry…mine don’t always, so it can be a bit frustrating.)
- Peel and then dice potatoes into bite-size pieces, somewhere around ¾” of an inch. Precook potatoes for approximately 15 minutes in salted boiling water. Drain and allow to cool. (Will add to soup for last 30 minutes of cooking.)
- Peel and then finely grate or shred the onion and carrots. I do the onions and carrots at the same time in a food processor. Shred the beets and red pepper separately. Cut the cabbage into thin slices (no more than ¼” wide by about 1” long—think bite-size pieces again). Peel and mince the garlic.
- Cut the meat into bite-size pieces, remove excess fat as you don’t want to be eating that in your soup! Add 2 T of canola oil or bacon fat (do not use olive oil) to your soup pot, add meat, salt and pepper to taste, and brown until lightly browned on all sides. Set the meat aside on a paper towel on a plate to allow the excess oil to drain off but leave the drippings in the pan.
- In the same pot in which the beef was browned, sauté the onion and carrots until they are translucent. (Add more canola oil or bacon fat to the pan if needed.) Then add garlic, red pepper, and beets. Lightly salt and pepper the mixture. Sauté until cooked and mixture begins to stick to the bottom of the pot (2–3 minutes). Deglaze pan with red wine.
- Add the tomato juice, water, bay leaves, and beef stock.
- Simmer for 60–90 minutes. Approximately 30 minutes before serving, add the meat, the cabbage, beans, and the potatoes. Simmer for an additional 30 minutes. Add lemon juice, fresh ground black pepper, salt, and paprika to taste. (The lemon juice helps to brighten up and balance the acidity in the borshch.)
- Garnish with Sour Cream (slightly thinned with water) and fresh dill.
Simmering Suggestions
You can’t go that wrong with this soup, but there are certainly ways you can make it even better! My dad passed along a few recipe notes that can help you make this a meal that your friends and family will talk about. For instance, he recommends using “Better Than Bouillon” Beef Base to make the 32 ounces of stock required for this recipe. Questions on what potato to use? We suggest red potatoes or Yukon Gold. However, Russets just won’t quite do the trick! In addition, don’t even bother using dried dill to garnish – Ukrainians are all about fresh dill!
Soup Substitutions
A few notes on substitutions you can make. If you choose to use prepackaged shredded cabbage, just make sure there is no purple cabbage in the mix. You could also use Savoy or Napa cabbage instead of green cabbage.
If you’re a vegetarian, this soup can easily be made without the chuck roast. For example, you could add in a few more potatoes or veggies to balance. Another note for my plant-based friends: adding one cube of porcini mushroom bouillon to your borshch will really help with the richness that you lack when you substitute vegetable stock for the beef stock. If you’re vegan, you could substitute the sour cream for a dairy free alternative. Who says carnivores get to have all the fun!
To Your Health!
Did you check out my blog post on eco-friendly mugs? This soup ladles into a mug perfectly! Let me know if you try this borshch out, or if you have any family recipes that you hope to pass down.
на здоров’я! (To your health!)
Be Well. With Love.
merridee benham says
Terrific!
Maggie says
That it is! You’ll have to make it sometime!