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omnomnom2019-01-14 06:14 pm
monksandbones) wrote in omnomnom2019-01-14 06:14 pm
Plain Old Vegetable Borscht (with Doukhobor-Style Borscht Variation)
It's been ages (plus an international move), but after eighteen months at my parents' place, I have a kitchen of my own again and I'm back to cooking. To celebrate, and in the spirit of the recent increase in activity on dreamwidth, I'm posting the recipe for the soup I made myself for supper tonight, with a potential variation to make a Doukhobor-style Borscht.1
Dietary notes: this soup is vegetarian, and in its basic form, could easily be made vegan by using cooking oil instead of butter to sauté the vegetables. Veganizing the Doukhobor-style variation would be a little harder, and would probably require something like cashew cream.
On the other hand, you could also make this with something like beef stock, and brown some beef to go in it before the initial sautéing step, or whatever you normally do to incorporate meat into soups.
Accessibility notes: this soup inevitably involves a lot of chopping of vegetables, and there are limited ways around that. Purchasing mirepoix and pre-chopped garlic would help a lot, and if you have a food processor, using it to shred the cabbage would too. Nevertheless, you're probably going to have to peel and chop something. If you're chopping everything, prepare for at least an hour of chopping, maybe more. If you're making the Doukhobor-style variation, you'll also need to mash some potatoes.
Ingredients:
1 onion, diced
4–6 cloves garlic, minced
3–4 stalks of celery, diced
3–4 carrots, diced
1–2 large beets, diced
3 fist-sized boiling-type potatoes, chopped
1 green bell pepper, diced
1/2 a small cabbage, shredded
1 796mL/28oz can diced tomatoes
2L/2 quarts vegetable stock
2–3 tbsp/30–45g butter
1–2 tbsp/15–30mL dried dill weed
2–3 tsp/10–15mL salt
pepper to taste
sour cream to serve
Additional ingredients for Doukhobor-style variation:
Two baking-type potatoes
An additional 2–3 tbsp butter
250mL/1 cup half&half or whipping cream
Directions:
Pre-chop the vegetables however seems good to you. I did about a 1cm dice for the beet and a little larger for the potatoes. I also recommend shredding the cabbage as finely as possible; YMMV but using the grater/shredder on a food processor makes for bits of cabbage that seem almost creamy.
To make the Doukhobor-style variation, peel and roughly chop the two additional boiling-type potatoes and cook separately until very soft, then drain them and mash them together with 2–3 tbsps of the butter and the cream, plus some salt.
Melt the butter/the remaining butter in a large soup pot. Add the onion and garlic and sauté until translucent, then add the carrots and celery and salt and continue to sauté for 5 or so minutes, or for as long as you have the patience to continue. Then add the potatoes and beets and the can of diced tomatoes. Stir.
Add the stock and bring everything to a boil, then turn the heat down to simmer until the vegetables are soft. Add the green pepper, cabbage, and dill and bring back to a boil, then continue to simmer for ~15 minutes until the pepper and cabbage are cooked.
For the Doukhobor-syle variation, stir in the mashed potatoes along with the peppers, cabbage, and dill.
Season to taste with pepper and more salt, and for the plain borscht, serve with sour cream. Enjoy!
1. Real Douhkohbor borscht is amazingly delicious but is typically prepared in huge batches in a much more complicated process than the rough-and-ready somewhat similar method I've described here, and it's much richer (think DEFINITELY heavy cream plus MASSIVE AMOUNTS of butter). back
Dietary notes: this soup is vegetarian, and in its basic form, could easily be made vegan by using cooking oil instead of butter to sauté the vegetables. Veganizing the Doukhobor-style variation would be a little harder, and would probably require something like cashew cream.
On the other hand, you could also make this with something like beef stock, and brown some beef to go in it before the initial sautéing step, or whatever you normally do to incorporate meat into soups.
Accessibility notes: this soup inevitably involves a lot of chopping of vegetables, and there are limited ways around that. Purchasing mirepoix and pre-chopped garlic would help a lot, and if you have a food processor, using it to shred the cabbage would too. Nevertheless, you're probably going to have to peel and chop something. If you're chopping everything, prepare for at least an hour of chopping, maybe more. If you're making the Doukhobor-style variation, you'll also need to mash some potatoes.
Ingredients:
1 onion, diced
4–6 cloves garlic, minced
3–4 stalks of celery, diced
3–4 carrots, diced
1–2 large beets, diced
3 fist-sized boiling-type potatoes, chopped
1 green bell pepper, diced
1/2 a small cabbage, shredded
1 796mL/28oz can diced tomatoes
2L/2 quarts vegetable stock
2–3 tbsp/30–45g butter
1–2 tbsp/15–30mL dried dill weed
2–3 tsp/10–15mL salt
pepper to taste
sour cream to serve
Additional ingredients for Doukhobor-style variation:
Two baking-type potatoes
An additional 2–3 tbsp butter
250mL/1 cup half&half or whipping cream
Directions:
Pre-chop the vegetables however seems good to you. I did about a 1cm dice for the beet and a little larger for the potatoes. I also recommend shredding the cabbage as finely as possible; YMMV but using the grater/shredder on a food processor makes for bits of cabbage that seem almost creamy.
To make the Doukhobor-style variation, peel and roughly chop the two additional boiling-type potatoes and cook separately until very soft, then drain them and mash them together with 2–3 tbsps of the butter and the cream, plus some salt.
Melt the butter/the remaining butter in a large soup pot. Add the onion and garlic and sauté until translucent, then add the carrots and celery and salt and continue to sauté for 5 or so minutes, or for as long as you have the patience to continue. Then add the potatoes and beets and the can of diced tomatoes. Stir.
Add the stock and bring everything to a boil, then turn the heat down to simmer until the vegetables are soft. Add the green pepper, cabbage, and dill and bring back to a boil, then continue to simmer for ~15 minutes until the pepper and cabbage are cooked.
For the Doukhobor-syle variation, stir in the mashed potatoes along with the peppers, cabbage, and dill.
Season to taste with pepper and more salt, and for the plain borscht, serve with sour cream. Enjoy!
1. Real Douhkohbor borscht is amazingly delicious but is typically prepared in huge batches in a much more complicated process than the rough-and-ready somewhat similar method I've described here, and it's much richer (think DEFINITELY heavy cream plus MASSIVE AMOUNTS of butter). back