Real Ukrainian Borscht

Step 1

A good start to any soup is the meat. In this case we are using a good piece of chuck ON the bone. The bones give the borscht a ton of flavor and I actually like to get some bones without any meat on it. Hubs loves the marrow 🙂 Your butcher will have some for you if you just ask.

Step 2

You want to cut it up into slightly larger than bite size pieces. And place it into a heavy bottomed large pot.

Step 3

Cover the meat with cold water and brink up to a boil. Leave about 4 cups of room at the top.

Step 4

While your meat is coming up to a boil, get your veggies ready. Peel your carrots, onions and beets.

Step 5

Now at this point you have 2 choices. You can shred all the veggies (except the potatoes and cabbage) in a food processor or hand shredder.

Step 6

Or you can do what I do…and use the wet chop on the Vitamix. Just throw your veggies in the vitamix… cover with water and pulse, pulse, pulse. For me, this is the go to method because it is a lot quicker and gives the soup a ton of texture.

Step 7

Set aside. Cut up your potatoes slightly larger than bite size. Otherwise they will fall apart in the soup. I also really like to use Yukon Gold potatoes. I love how soft they get and they remind me of the potatoes we used to use back in the old country.

Step 8

Now, if we pay attention to our soup, you will notice all the scum has come on top. DO NOT LET THIS BOIL. Otherwise the scum will just spread throughout the soup. You want to carefully remove it with a slotted spoon. Your other option is to to strain it like I do with my chicken soup. Strain the soup and then start fresh with clean meat, bones and water. It does take a bit longer, but if you are anal like me and like a super clean soup…it may be a better option.

Step 9

Once you have a clean soup, (regardless of which method you use). Here is the reason why you left some room at the top. You are going to pour in your entire Vitamix of veggies WITH the water into the soup along with the potatoes.

Step 10

Add in your tomato puree as well.

Step 11

Add in a nice helping of red pepper flakes. Hubs and I like it with a kick 🙂 Add in salt, pepper, sugar and the juice of half a lemon. Allow to simmer for 15 minutes.

Step 12

In the meantime slice up your cabbage. First you cut the head of cabbage in half. And remove the core.

Step 13

Then you slice it thinly with a nice sharp knife. Again feel free to do this in a food processor. I do not however like the texture it gets if you do it in a Vitamix.

Step 14

Add it into your soup. Also, add in 3 tablespoons of chopped dill and the garlic. Allow to simmer for about 15 more minutes.

Step 15

Once the cabbage is nice and soft, taste the soup for flavor. We like it sweet and a bit sour. So feel free to add in more lemon juice, pepper, sugar, salt, whatever your heart desires.

Step 16

This soup actually tastes better the very next day. If you decide to serve it the next day, you can also remove any extra fat that has solidified on the top after being refrigerated.

Step 17

Serve with a nice dollop of sour cream, nice sourdough bread and as my hubs prefers, with a sweet red onion on the side 🙂