April 4, 2009

borscht soup

Beets are one of the few vegetables we can find pretty much year round in our cool climate zone. They are so hardy and yet they somehow manage to be nutritious and beautiful too!

Serving Size: 3


Ingredients:
3 small beets, diced (1 c.)
3 c. water
1 T. sugar
1 t. salt
1 t.
"better than bouillon" vegetable base
1/8 cabbage, diced (1 1/2 c.)

2 T. lemon juice

1/2 t. dill

1/2 c. plain yogurt

1 t. all-purpose flour

Add the beets, water, sugar, salt and vegetable base to a medium pot and bring to a boil. Boil until the beets are tender, about 20 minutes. Puree the tender beets with an immersion blender.

Add the cabbage, lemon juice and dill to the pot. Allow to simmer until the cabbage is tender and has absorbed the red beet juice, about 20 minutes.

Take the pot off the heat. Remove some hot liquid with a measuring cup. Mix the flour, yogurt and hot liquid thoroughly. Add the creamy mixture to the soup and serve!


Side Notes:

The main ingredient of real Polish borsht is kwas which is fermented beets. Since we did not feel like fermenting our beets, we just added lemon juice. Honestly, if you were being a purist, kwas is all you would really need to have borsht. The dill and yogurt are fluffy additions. Also, if you were any other person making a creamy borsht, you would add sour cream not yogurt. W
e prefer to use plain yogurt only because it is so versatile.

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