How to cook delicious borscht - recipes. How to cook delicious borscht

Do you want to get married? Cook the borscht!

Every housewife has her own secret for making borscht. Most mothers and grandmothers at one time never tired of telling their unlucky daughters and granddaughters that if you don’t know how to cook this dish, then you’ll never get married. And the girls studied, because borscht, apparently, was the main ticket to a happy married life. More modern mothers are no longer so categorical, but nevertheless, this traditional Russian (or Ukrainian?) dish not only has not outlived its usefulness, but still remains one of the main first courses. It is tasty, filling, and can last for several days. In addition, the cost of ingredients is not too high. Most expensive

It costs meat, but let's face it, you can even save on it by buying a cheaper bone for the broth.

As easy as pie

Here is the simplest recipe for one with beef. Who cares, but I prefer to put meat on the bone in the broth. A three-liter pan of water contains a piece weighing 300-400 grams. It needs to be filled with cold water, brought to a boil and then cooked until tender over low heat under a half-open lid. To be honest, I didn’t time how long to cook the borscht, but in general it takes about two hours to cook. I add all the ingredients by eye. While the broth is cooking, I peel potatoes (5-6 large pieces), carrots (one large or two small, depending on your luck), beets (1 piece, medium size). After cleaning, all this must be rinsed well. Cut the potatoes into cubes, and grate the carrots and beets on a coarse grater. The worst thing for me is chopping the onion, but nothing can be done, it is also needed (1 large onion).

Making frying

The next step in how to cook borscht is preparing the so-called frying. To do this, you need to take a fairly deep frying pan, pour sunflower oil into it and, as soon as it warms up, add chopped onions, grated carrots and beets and two or three tablespoons of tomato paste. All this needs to be mixed well and sautéed for 5-7 minutes. Check the meat in the broth. If it separates well from the stone or is easily pierced with a knife, it is ready. Take it out onto a plate with a slotted spoon, cut it into small pieces and throw it back into the broth. We also add potatoes there. The next step in the process called “how to cook borscht” will be shredding the cabbage. But before that, it’s better to remove the vegetables from the heat and transfer them directly from the frying pan to the pan, where the pieces of beef and potatoes are already floating.

Final stage

While all this is simmering over low heat, you can quickly wash and chop small cabbage. It should be added to an almost finished dish, literally two to three minutes before the end of cooking. This is necessary so that it does not boil over and turn into mush. Therefore, for now we set the chopped head of cabbage aside, and move on to the next stage of how to cook borscht. This is the addition of salt, pepper and seasonings. It is better to add spices to taste. If the borscht turns out a little sour, you can add a little sugar to it. If, on the contrary, there is not enough sourness, you can add citric acid at the tip of a knife. When you are satisfied with the result and make sure that the potatoes are cooked, finally add the cabbage to the pan. Wait for the dish to boil, let it bubble for a couple more minutes. For flavor, you can squeeze a couple of cloves of garlic into it. That's all, you can turn it off. Let the dish sit under a closed lid for at least 15 minutes, after which it can be served with sour cream. As you can see, there is nothing complicated about how to cook borscht.

Rich and aromatic borscht can only be achieved with properly prepared broth. It turns out especially appetizing in broth made from pork and beef brisket. Kiev borscht, for example, is prepared with beef and lamb broth, Odessa or Poltava borscht with duck (goose) broth.

To prepare the broth, wash small pieces of beef (500 g) and pork (300 g) brisket. Place the meat in a saucepan and fill it with cold water: there should be 1.5 times more water than the amount of expected broth. Bring the water to a boil, reduce the heat, skim off the foam, cover the pan with a lid and cook the broth for 2-2.5 hours. The water should boil gently so that the meat simmers in it: as a result, the broth for the borscht will turn out to be especially rich.

The juice of pickled or fresh beets added to the broth will help give the borscht a pleasant light sourness and a particularly rich color.

Another important point in preparing borscht is the preparation of vegetables before adding them to the broth and the sequence of adding them. Beets should be stewed separately, cut into cubes or strips, with the addition of a small amount of vinegar or lemon juice to preserve the brightness of the color as much as possible. It is better to stew beets in well-heated pork fat or butter.

Sometimes beets are boiled or baked whole in their peels, then peeled, cut and placed in broth.

I usually put potatoes into the broth about 15 minutes before the end of cooking, fresh young cabbage at about the same time. A few minutes after adding the cabbage, there is a turn of stewed beets, followed by sautéed vegetables - carrots and onions. 10 minutes before the end of cooking the borscht I add spices. If you plan to add fresh garlic, then it should come out literally 1-2 minutes before it’s ready, so that the valuable aroma is preserved. Before adding, the garlic must be chopped or crushed in a mortar.

By the way, about spices. You can use a special mixture of spices for borscht. You can make a choice in favor of the most appropriate spices, in your opinion. Parsley root and greens, bay leaf and black pepper are very appropriate for making borscht. Coriander, dill, herbs and celery root will also give it a special taste. Ukrainian borscht is characterized by a dressing made from finely chopped lard (200 g), several sprigs of parsley and 3-4 cloves of garlic, mixed and crushed in a mortar, which is added 2-3 minutes before the borscht is ready.

Borscht with fresh cabbage has a pleasant, light taste, which is why it has a large number of admirers. To prepare it in a 4-liter saucepan you will need the following ingredients:

beef (on the bone or fillet) 1 kg
beets 400 g
potatoes 500 g
fresh cabbage 300 g
onion 200 g
carrots 200 g
tomato paste 3 tbsp.
vinegar 6% 1 tsp.
garlic 2-3 cloves
pepper
bay leaf 2-3 pcs.
greenery
vegetable oil

We wash the meat, add water and cook for 1.5 hours. Then add the potatoes cut into cubes. When the broth boils, add shredded cabbage and cook for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, simmer the beets, cut into strips, in vegetable oil, add vinegar and tomato paste and simmer for 5-7 minutes. Then add to the borscht and cook for 10 minutes.

Chop the onion, grate the carrots and fry the vegetables in vegetable oil. Add to soup.

Then add bay leaf, salt and pepper, and garlic passed through a garlic press.

Remove the pan from the heat and leave covered for 10-20 minutes.

Pour the finished borscht into plates and serve with sour cream and herbs.

It's hard to find a more popular dish than borscht. Hot and rich, you can fill yourself up with it, because good borscht is prepared thick enough to stand on a spoon, in broth and always served with sour cream. But for those who are just learning the basics of cooking, it may seem that cooking borscht is a very labor-intensive task and will require a lot of time and effort. The most common and familiar borscht to the common man is simple to prepare; the main thing is to remember the order in which you add the ingredients, that’s the whole secret. Today we will tell you all the secrets of cooking delicious borscht and offer a win-win recipe for its preparation.

Cooking borscht - where to start

The first thing to avoid when preparing borscht is haste. This dish takes an average of 1.5 hours to prepare - quite a long time. But this is borscht. We are taking on the task of cooking one of the most colorful first courses, and you should not be intimidated by such a long preparation. The broth itself takes up the lion's share of cooking. If you cook it in advance, the first dish will take you an hour less to cook than expected.

So, first of all, choose a recipe. A traditional recipe for red, homemade borscht should be based on three components:

meat broth;
cabbage;
beet.

These ingredients are the basis of our first dish, which we cannot do without. The recipe also necessarily includes potatoes, onions and carrots - essential vegetables for the most delicious meal of all time.

Depending on the possibilities, the broth can be cooked from beef, pork, but we suggest using poultry - based on it you will get a low-fat, inexpensive and enviably tasty dish. Borscht can also be lean, cooked in water (vegetarian), and this option is also acceptable, but, of course, borscht without meat is a completely different story.

Three main secrets of cooking borscht

Whatever recipe you use when cooking homemade borscht, the main goal is for the dish to end up tasty. Every housewife does not get the perfect borscht from the first time she gets acquainted with the recipe, but, nevertheless, with each preparation comes experience. Here are some important tips that will help you cook rich, thick and satisfying borscht.

Beets - stew

Borscht, as a first course, should be appetizing and good in appearance. Properly prepared beets give the borscht the desired color. In order for the food to retain its burgundy color after cooking, the beets need to be lightly fried and simmered in a frying pan in oil before adding them to the broth. A teaspoon of sugar and a drop of lemon juice added to the beets at the time of stewing will help the root vegetable retain its bright color.

Note! Beets cut into strips retain their color better than grated beets.

Potatoes for thickness

The richness of the finished broth in borscht is a matter of taste. Some people like a liquid and transparent consistency, others prefer a thicker “yushka”. For those who like thicker liquids, you will like one trick that was used by our grandmothers in preparing borscht. At the very beginning of cooking, put 1-2 whole raw potatoes in the water, cook them along with all other products and do not remove them until the very end of cooking. During the cooking process, these potatoes will be mashed and the consistency of the broth will be enveloping, thick and pleasant to the taste. Essentially, the recipe is the same, but the taste of the first dish with potatoes boiled in it will be completely different.

Add tomatoes

There is a widespread opinion among housewives that if there are beets in the borscht, then it is not necessary to add tomatoes - after all, the color will already be bright due to the root vegetable. This is fundamentally wrong. It is the tomato that gives the dish that sourness, without which the process of preparing borscht will be imperfect. Fresh tomatoes will be good in this dish - they can be cooked together with onions and carrots; canned ones can be rubbed through a sieve and poured into the broth.

On a note! As an alternative (to replace fresh tomatoes), the recipe recommends adding canned tomato paste; you only need a few tablespoons per pan for the full flavor of the dish.

How to cook

The recipe for making ordinary borscht is very simple. The main part of the ingredients consists of vegetables familiar to the kitchen. It is thanks to them that this incredibly tasty first course turns out nourishing and thick. Be sure to cook borscht with beets - it gives the characteristic dark red color for which this dish is so famous. You can use any available cabbage in borscht (sauerkraut, sour, red or Beijing), but only white cabbage will give the dish its characteristic aroma.

Cooking time: ~ 1 h 30 min.

Number of servings: 6.

To prepare regular homemade borscht, you will need the following ingredients:

1 kg chicken or duck;

1 large beet;

500 g white cabbage;

4 potatoes;

1 large onion;

1 small carrot;

4-5 cloves of garlic;

5 tbsp. l. tomato paste;

2 tbsp. l. vegetable oil (for frying);

2 tbsp. l. finely chopped parsley;

3 bay leaves;

salt, ground black pepper;

0.5 tbsp. sour cream (to taste).

Recipe: Let's start cooking

1. Rinse the bird. Place in a 4-5 liter saucepan and cover the bird with cold water. Place on the fire and cook until the meat is completely cooked (about 1 hour). Periodically skim the foam from the broth. At the end of cooking, remove the finished bird from the broth, cool slightly and cut into portions.

2. Wash the beets and peel them. Cut the beets into thin strips. Heat half the prepared vegetable oil in a frying pan, add the beets, pour in a little broth and cook over medium heat until soft (about 30-40 minutes). You can periodically add water or broth. At the end of stewing the beets, add tomato paste and heat for another 10 minutes.

3. Peel the onions and carrots. Chop vegetables randomly. Heat the remaining vegetable oil in a frying pan and add chopped carrots and onions. Cook vegetables until soft.

4. Peel the potatoes, cut into neat cubes or cubes. Next, chop the white cabbage into strips.

5. Bring the broth to a boil. Place the potatoes into the boiling broth, and 5-7 minutes after boiling the potatoes, add the cabbage. Cook for 15 minutes, then add beets and sautéed onions, carrots and bay leaves. Salt and pepper the dish. Cook the borscht for another 15 minutes.

Advice: To ensure that the dish retains its rich beetroot color even after boiling, add 1-2 tbsp to the broth at this stage. l. 9% vinegar.

6. When there are 10 minutes left before the end of cooking, peel and chop the garlic using a press. Place chopped garlic in borscht. Cook for another 5 minutes and turn off the heat.

7. Let the dish sit under a closed lid for 10-15 minutes. When pouring the finished dish into plates, be sure to add a tablespoon of thick sour cream to each, and sprinkle fresh chopped parsley on top.

Bon appetit!

This is how you can easily and simply prepare the most popular first course, which will find its eaters in any kitchen. The dish can also be cooked using only broth, and the meat after cooking can be used for main courses. And the last piece of advice: if frozen vegetables (beets, carrots) are used in cooking, then you do not need to defrost them first - immediately place them in a frying pan and in it they will quickly soften and be ready for further cooking.

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How can you imagine lunch without rich, juicy, aromatic borscht? It combines only the healthiest and most delicious products.

We will tell you how to cook borscht.

Classic borscht with meat

You will need:

water - 3 l;
one carrot;
beef meat - 0.7 kg;
three potatoes;
vegetable oil;
one beet;
spices: bay leaf, ground pepper, parsley, basil, salt;
tomato sauce - 25 g;
one onion;
two cloves of garlic.

A classic borscht recipe requires step-by-step steps:

It is best to take beef on the bone. It needs to be rinsed under the tap, placed on the bottom of the pan and filled with water on top.
Immediately pour in 10 grams of salt so that the broth boils faster.
As soon as the liquid boils, set the heat to minimum and then cook the meat for an hour, skimming the gray foamy mass from the surface of the broth.
At this time, process all vegetables by peeling and washing them.
We free the cabbage from old leaves and chop a fresh white head of cabbage.
As soon as the meat has become soft, remove it from the pan, remove the bone, and cut the flesh into pieces.
We put them back into the broth.
As soon as the soup boils again, add cabbage to the meat.
After 5 minutes, throw in the potato cubes.
Sprinkle pepper and more salt to taste.
Finely chop the beets and sauté in a frying pan in oil.
After 10 minutes, add tomato sauce to it.
After a minute, transfer the contents of the frying pan into the soup being prepared.
Chop the carrots and onions with a knife and fry until golden brown.
Place the roast into the broth liquid.
Next, throw in the finely chopped garlic.
As soon as the borscht is ready, throw in fresh herbs and the remaining spices.
Turn off the gas and let the dish sit for half an hour.

How to cook borscht in a slow cooker?

A multicooker is a necessary device if you want to cook delicious food quickly and easily.

Grocery list:

beets - 0.1 kg;
beef - 0.8 kg;
water - 2 l;
carrots - 0.1 kg;
salt - 15 g;
potatoes - 0.5 kg;
onion - 0.1 kg;
tomato paste - 30 g;
five black peppercorns;
lemon juice - 20 ml;
fresh cabbage - 0.2 kg;
two bay leaves.

Cooking method:

In a slow cooker, meat is cooked along with all the vegetables, so choose boneless beef.
We clean the meat from the film in running water and chop it into portions.
We remove the top leaves of the cabbage head and chop it with a knife.
Cut the peeled potatoes into small slices.
We pass the beets through a grater and repeat this procedure with the peeled carrots.
Chop the onions.
Heat the multicooker with poured vegetable oil in the “Frying” mode and lay out the onion pieces.
Fry until golden brown for three minutes.
Continue cooking with the chopped carrots for another three minutes with the lid open.
Add beets and lemon juice.
After two minutes, add tomato paste and saute everything together for 4 minutes.
Move the multicooker to the neutral position and place pieces of meat on top.
Add potatoes, chop cabbage, pour water.
Add all the necessary seasonings, including salt.
Set the “Soup” program in the kitchen appliances menu, time - 50 minutes.
As soon as the dish is cooked, add a spoonful of sour cream or chop the herbs. Bon appetit!

In Ukrainian

Required ingredients:

white cabbage - 0.2 kg;
water - 3 l;
one sweet pepper;
two onions;
pork meat (ribs) - 0.7 kg;
two tomatoes;
one garlic clove;
a piece of lard;
two carrots;
salt to taste;
one beet;
ground pepper to taste;
three potatoes;
two bows;
tomato sauce - 50 g;
greenery.

Step-by-step cooking instructions:

Place the washed meat in a pan, fill it with water and wait until it boils.
Don't forget to remove the foam from time to time.
Place peeled whole onions and carrots into boiling liquid.
Cook until pork is tender - about 2 hours.
After this, add salt and remove the vegetables from the broth.
Place the finished meat on a cutting board, remove the bones, and chop the flesh into large pieces.
Strain the broth and pour into another bowl.
Peel and cut the vegetables according to the standard pattern.
Add chopped potatoes and cook for 15 minutes.
Add shredded white cabbage.
After 5 minutes you need to start frying.
Cut the peeled and washed beets into strips.
Chop the onion into cubes.
Remove the core and cap from the bell pepper and chop into strips.
Wash the tomatoes, put them first in boiling water and then in cold water, remove the thin skin and put them through a blender.
Chop fresh parsley.
Add all ingredients one by one to a hot frying pan with oil - first beets, then onions, carrots, peppers, tomatoes with tomato sauce.
Fry for 10 minutes and then simmer for 12 minutes with the addition of broth and salt under the lid.
Pour the contents of the pan into the soup pot. Wait until it boils and then cook for another 5 minutes.
After this, add herbs, seasonings, salt to taste and crushed garlic.
Wait for the dish to brew for 15 minutes and enjoy the extraordinary taste and aroma of Ukrainian borscht.

Siberian borscht with meatballs and beans

The dish cooks much faster, but the taste only gets better.

You will need:

minced pork - 0.5 kg;
one fork of cabbage;
one bell pepper;
five potatoes;
tomato sauce - 45 g;
canned beans - 0.4 kg;
one beet;
salt and pepper to taste;
one onion;
four cloves of garlic;
oil for frying;
greens optional;
beef bones for broth.

Cooking option:

First-class borscht requires a tasty broth.
To do this, lower the bones into the water, add a bay leaf, salt and place on the stove.
As soon as the liquid boils, the bones can be removed.
Make meatballs from the minced meat; you can buy ready-made meatballs.
Place them in the broth along with beet strips.
Next add the potato cubes.
For frying, chop the onion and carrots.
Saute pieces of sweet pepper, carrots and onions in a frying pan for 15 minutes.
Pass the peeled garlic cloves through a press and chop the cabbage with a chopping knife.
As soon as the contents of the pan are cooked, pour it into the borscht.
Next add canned beans and a lot of garlic.
After 10 minutes, chop the greens.
The finished, aromatic and rich borscht can be poured into plates.

Moscow recipe with meat, sausages and smoked meats

You will need:

beef - 1 kg;
one carrot;
tomato paste - 65 g;
smoked meats - 100 g;
a couple of sausages;
one onion;
beets - 0.3 kg;
melted butter - 30 g;
white cabbage - 0.3 kg;
herbs, salt, spices - to taste;
sour cream - 40 gr;
apple cider vinegar - 20 gr.

How to cook delicious borscht with beets:

Place the meat and bones in a pan of water and cook until it is tender.
Prepare all vegetables according to the standard procedure.
Fry the beet strips in a frying pan with melted butter along with chopped onions and carrots.
Add a little sugar, broth and 10 grams of vinegar and simmer for 5 minutes.
When the beef is cooked and the broth is simmering, add the shredded cabbage to the pan.
After 10 minutes, add the dressing and cook over low heat.
Add chopped smoked meats, bulk ingredients and herbs.
Wait for it to boil and turn it off.
Pour the steaming soup into bowls and add a spoonful of sour cream.

Boyar style borscht - with beef, pork and chicken

Required ingredients:

sugar - 10 g;
beef meat - 0.2 kg;
chicken meat - 0.2 kg;
butter - 30 g;
two carrots;
pork - 0.2 kg;
two onions;
tomato paste - 50 g;
water - 2.5 l;
lard - 70 g;
a few black peppercorns;
four garlic cloves;
one beet;
salt - to taste;
vinegar.

Step-by-step instruction:

Fill the meat on the bones with water and cook for 3 hours on low heat.
From time to time it is necessary to remove gray foam and fat from the surface.
Make a fry of carrots and onions, adding a spoonful of broth at the end.
In another frying pan, simmer the beet strips with vinegar, tomato paste, sugar and broth.
Once all the meats are cooked, remove them from the pan and cut into pieces.
Strain the broth and put the meat back.
Cut the bacon into cubes, press the garlic in a press.
We take clay pots and put all the prepared ingredients for borscht in them.
Fill all this splendor with broth, add spices, and add salt.
Close the pots in the oven for half an hour.

Step-by-step recipe for borscht with sauerkraut

If you like sour dishes, be sure to make borscht with sauerkraut for lunch.

Grocery list:

one carrot;
meat broth - 2 l;
potatoes - 0.3 kg;
sauerkraut - 0.2 kg;
Bay leaf;
one onion;
salt and pepper to taste;
beets - 250 gr.

Cooking secrets:

Take any meat of your choice and cook the broth.
Fry onion pieces with carrots in vegetable oil.
The cabbage needs to be slightly squeezed out of its juice.
Place cabbage in the pan with the sautéed vegetables.
Grate the beets.
Make small cubes from potatoes.
Place the grated beets in a frying pan and simmer all the vegetables covered for 10 minutes.
Send the potato cubes into the broth to cook.
After 15 minutes, send the frying to the borscht.
Add spices and salt.
To complete the color and taste, you can add garlic, sour cream and herbs to the finished borscht. Bon appetit!

There are sometimes more controversies around borscht than around politics. In fact, no one knows what proper borscht is. It should be tasty - that’s the main rule,” says Ilya Lazerson, president of the St. Petersburg Guild of Chefs. - Personally, I don’t like it when there are potatoes and sweet peppers in borscht. In my version there are none, and that is my right. Some people like sauerkraut and pre-boil or bake the beets. I prefer raw beets. I cut it into thin strips, add a little sugar, water, vegetable oil, and after 5 minutes add tomato paste. Then I stew the beets and add them to the pan at the very end of cooking. Thanks to this, the soup acquires a rich, appetizing shade. And this is just one of the secrets of delicious borscht.

1. With or without broth?

For vegetarian borscht, meat broth is not needed. But, if you are a fan of classic soup, then you need to prepare a rich broth. For it, you can take beef brisket, chicken or pork and beef in a 1:1 ratio. It is better to pre-fry the pieces of meat for flavor. Or immediately put the meat on the bones in cold water and put it on fire. As soon as it boils, remove the foam, add salt, bay leaf, a few peas of black and allspice and cook for 2-3 hours until the meat is completely cooked. Then you need to strain the broth, remove the meat from the bones, chop it and return it back to the pan.

2. Stew the beets separately!

If you put the beets in a common pan and then cook for about an hour, all the color will disappear from the vegetable and the borscht will turn out faded. To avoid this, you need to grate the root vegetable on a coarse grater or cut it into thin strips with a knife. Then add water, a teaspoon of sugar and be sure to have a little acid (a couple of tablespoons of wine vinegar or lemon juice), this will help the root vegetable retain its color. Place the beets on the fire and simmer until they become soft.

3. Or maybe cook?

The second popular option for preparing beets for borscht is to boil them in advance. It is important to rinse the vegetable thoroughly before immersing it in water, without cutting off the roots and top, otherwise the juice will “go” into the pan. For better preservation of the bright shade, do not salt the water, but pour 1/2 tsp into it. vinegar or citric acid. Cooking time depends on the size of the fruit and the season - young small root vegetables are usually cooked for 20-30 minutes, old ones - 1-1.5 hours. However, today most chefs advise baking beets rather than boiling them. To do this, wrap the fruit in food foil and place it in the oven for 30-40 minutes (time depends on the size of the tuber) at +180°C. In baked beets, the taste and color do not “dissolve” in water, so this method of preparation is considered the most successful.

Classic borscht Photo: shutterstock.com

Ingredients:

Beef brisket - 500 g
Pork - 500 g
Carrots - 1 pc.
Onions - 1 pc.
Beets - 2 pcs.
Cabbage - 300 g
Sweet pepper - 1 pc.
Potatoes - 200 g
Tomato paste - 1 tbsp. l.
Bay leaf, pepper, salt - to taste

How to cook:

Place the meat in a saucepan, add 3 liters of cold water, bring to a boil, cook for 2 hours.
Cut the carrots into strips, the onion into half rings, fry until golden brown. Place in a saucepan along with the chopped peppers.
After ten minutes, add cabbage, then potatoes.
Cut the beets into thin strips, simmer for 10 minutes, then add tomato paste, cover and cook for another 20 minutes.
Place in borscht 10 minutes after potatoes. Cook for another 10 minutes.
Add bay leaf, salt and pepper. Remove from heat and let steep for 20 minutes.

4. Don't forget the cabbage

Many people call borscht beetroot soup. In fact, these are different soups. Borscht has cabbage, but beetroot soup does not. Most often, fresh white cabbage shredded into strips is used for borscht. But there may be variations on the theme. For example, you can put red cabbage or savoy cabbage in a pan - it looks similar to white cabbage, but has a bright green color and corrugated, bubbly leaves. There are even versions of borscht with cauliflower and Brussels sprouts, but with them you still get a soup that is far from the classic one. Some people like to add sauerkraut instead of fresh cabbage. It must be washed, chopped, simmered separately until soft and only then added to the borscht.

5. Unsweetened couple: onion and carrot

Nutritionists are against all sorts of sautés that add calories to the dish. But if we speak from the point of view of taste and gastronomic rules, then borscht without sautéing is not borscht. First, fry the onion into strips in vegetable oil, then add the carrots cut into strips. When the vegetables acquire a golden hue, add tomato paste and simmer everything together for a few more minutes. Some housewives believe that it is better to use tomatoes instead of pasta - fresh or in their own juice. Nevertheless, many professional chefs insist: only paste has the concentrated taste that is so necessary for the soup, which will give the borscht a beautiful color and pleasant sourness.

6. Vegetables - to taste

In addition to beets, carrots, onions and cabbage, other vegetables are added to the borscht to taste: potatoes, tomatoes and fresh sweet peppers, which are also chopped into strips. In general, do not forget that all products in the soup should be cut approximately equally. You can use any color of pepper: green, yellow, red, orange. The main thing is to maintain the proportion: there should be a lot of beets and cabbage in the borscht, and 2-3 times less potatoes, tomatoes and peppers.

7. Who is first in line?

Borscht, like most other soups beloved by Russians, is a filling first course. It is in the West that they prefer pureed soups, but we should have a broth in which various tasty additives float. In order for these additives to be harmoniously combined with each other and to obtain the correct consistency (and not when one product is overcooked and the other crunches on the teeth), it is necessary to observe the correct seasoning of the soup.

The first thing to go into the pan is shredded cabbage; it takes longer to cook than others. Then - sweet peppers and potatoes. At the very end, you need to add sautéed onions, carrots and tomato paste into the borscht, and finally, ready-made sour beets. After this, cook the soup for no more than 5 minutes. If you cook borscht with sauerkraut, you should also add it at the end. If you add sour beets or cabbage first, and then potatoes, the latter will take a very long time to cook (the acid will interfere).

8. The final touch - lard with garlic

Many borscht lovers simply cannot imagine this soup without garlic and lard dressing. It gives the dish a bright juicy taste and a very appetizing garlic aroma... For the dressing you will need skinless lard, garlic and fresh herbs: dill and parsley. The products must be cut and crushed in a mortar or blender until pureed. Then this fatty mush with a delicious aroma is added to the prepared hot borscht, the lid is closed, and the soup is infused for at least 15 minutes. After this, you should not boil the contents of the pan, otherwise the aromas of garlic and herbs will disappear.

9. Lush, rosy donuts

We say “borscht”, and the word “pampushka” comes to mind! Pampushka is a round bun made from yeast dough. It is better to start cooking it immediately after you set the broth to cook, because the yeast dough must rise properly and have time to bake. Water, egg, salt, sugar, vegetable oil, yeast, flour - the ingredients for buns are simple. When the dough has risen, roll the balls and place them on a baking sheet, but remember that the donuts will rise during baking. If you want perfectly rounded buns, place them at a decent distance from each other. However, even if they stick together, they can be separated while hot and poured with garlic dressing. For dressing, take vegetable oil, crushed garlic, chopped dill with parsley and a little water. Mix everything and pour onto freshly baked plump donuts.

10. You can’t go anywhere without sour cream!

If a tureen has been gathering dust on the shelf of your sideboard for a long time and has not been used, take it out and use it for its intended purpose - it is in this beauty that borscht is usually served on the table for a large company. Place additives and snacks corresponding to the dish nearby - donuts, bread, chopped herbs and, of course, rich sour cream. Well, what would borscht be without sour cream!

Borscht with beans Photo: shutterstock.com

Borsch with prunes and mushrooms

Ingredients:

Prunes - 200 g
Dried porcini mushrooms - 20 g
Potatoes - 4 pcs.
Fresh cabbage - 300 g
Beets - 3 pcs.
Onions - 1 pc.
Carrots - 1 pc.
Tomato paste - 2 tbsp. l.
Sugar - 1 tbsp. l.
Parsley root - 1 pc.
Flour - 0.5 tbsp. l.
Vegetable oil - 3 tbsp. l.

How to cook:

Soak the mushrooms for 2 hours. Then cook for 1 hour. Remove the mushrooms, chop, and save the broth.
Rinse the prunes, add 2 cups of water, add sugar and cook until soft for 10 minutes.
Cut the beets into strips. Heat half the oil in a frying pan, add beets, 1 tbsp. l. tomato paste and mushroom broth, simmer, stirring, over low heat for 15 minutes.
Cut the onion, carrots and parsley root into strips and sauté with butter, tomato and flour for 5 minutes.
Place the cabbage in the boiling mushroom broth, after boiling, add the potatoes and cook for 15 minutes.
Place stewed beets and sautéed vegetables in a saucepan. Add mushrooms, cooked prunes along with the broth. Add salt and pepper and cook for another 10 minutes.

Garlic dumplings Photo: shutterstock.com

Garlic dumplings

Ingredients:

Wheat flour - 200 g
Rye flour - 120 g
Milk - 200 ml
Eggs - 2 pcs.
Yeast - 7 g
Vegetable oil - 50 ml
Sugar - 1 tsp.
Flax seeds - 50 g
Garlic - 4 cloves
Salt - a pinch

How to cook:

Warm milk to room temperature. Add dry yeast, stir.
Add sugar, 1 egg, vegetable oil, a little sifted flour and flax seeds. Mix.
Add the remaining flour, knead the dough and leave it to rise for 1 hour.
Place on the table and let rise for another 1 hour, covering with a towel.
Make 7-8 round donuts, brush the tops of the buns with yolk and bake for 20 minutes at 180°C.
Grease the still hot pampushki with crushed garlic mixed with a small amount of vegetable oil, salt and water.