Borshch (борщ, red beet soup)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •A 6 to 8 litre stockpot
• •A wide heavy pan for the zasmazhka
• •A box grater
• •A skimmer or fine sieve
• •A deep ladle

Instructions

1. 1

   Start the broth

   Put the bones in a 6 to 8 litre pot and cover with the cold water. Bring it up slowly until the first small bubbles break, then skim the grey foam as it gathers. Add the halved onion, snapped carrot, bay leaves, peppercorns, dill stalks if your bunch gave you good ones, and a light hand of salt. Keep it at the gentlest movement, what my grandmother Vira called "spirit", until the meat loosens from the bone and the broth smells clean, sweet, and meaty.

   Salt carefully here. The fermented tomatoes and beet zakwas bring their own salt and sourness later, and you can always adjust at the end.
2. 2

   Cook the beets

   While the broth murmurs, put the whole beets in a separate pot, cover with water, and cook until a knife slides through without forcing. Let them cool just enough to handle, then slip off the skins and grate them coarsely. Keep the tails on while they cook; they hold the colour where you want it, inside the beet and then inside the borshch.

3. 3

   Return the meat

   Lift the bones from the broth and strain the liquid back into the pot. Pull the meat from the bones in generous pieces and return it to the broth. You want about 2.5 to 3 litres of broth now; if the pot has cooked down hard, add a little water. It should taste meaty but still leave room for the vegetables and ferment.

4. 4

   Soften vegetables

   Add the potatoes to the broth and let them cook until the edges yield when pressed with a spoon. Add the cabbage after that and cook until it bends into the broth but still tastes green. Don't boil the life out of it. Borshch should be thick and full, not tired.

5. 5

   Build the zasmazhka

   Warm the sunflower oil in a wide pan over low heat. Add the diced onion and let it turn translucent before the grated carrot and sweet pepper join it. You're not browning anything. You're coaxing sweetness out slowly, until the oil goes orange and the pan smells like the start of dinner from the hallway.

   A wide pan matters because the vegetables sweat instead of stew. If the onion starts to catch, lower the heat and add a spoonful of broth.
6. 6

   Stain it red

   Stir the grated beets into the zasmazhka, then add the thick tomato mors or tomato paste and the fermented tomatoes with a spoonful of their brine. Let everything move together until the colour deepens and the raw-earth smell of the beet changes into something round and sweet. If your beets taste dull, add the smallest pinch of sugar, but make them prove they need it first.

7. 7

   Sour and finish

   Scrape the whole red zasmazhka into the broth once the potatoes and cabbage are tender. Add about 150ml of beet zakwas first, then taste before adding the rest. Bring the pot back to hot, but don't hammer it with a hard boil after the zakwas goes in; you want its clean sourness and colour to stay bright. Stir in the garlic, most of the chopped dill, and black pepper.

   The zasmazhka goes in near the end so its sweetness sits brightly on top of the broth. If it cooks from the start, it disappears into the stock and the pot tastes flatter.
8. 8

   Rest and serve

   Turn off the heat and let the borshch sit before serving, long enough for the beet, cabbage, meat, and souring to stop shouting over each other. Taste again for salt and zakwas. The spoon must stand up straight. Serve in deep bowls with smetana, more dill, a thread of green sunflower oil if you like, and pampushky or rye bread for dragging through the crimson edges.

Chef Tips

• •Buy beets heavy for their size, tails still attached. The tails stop them bleeding into the cooking water, so the finished pot stays beet-crimson instead of tired pink.
• •Fermented tomatoes for this pot should come from a proper brine, four to five percent salt by water weight, not a vinegar pickle. The brine should smell sour and clean.
• •If fermented tomatoes are out of reach, use good tomato passata for body and sour with beet zakwas or sauerkraut brine. It is a bit more modern, and the pot will still belong at the table.
• •The chopping forgives you. The souring and the zasmazhka placement do not forgive quite as much, because they decide whether the soup tastes bright or flat.
• •For a meatless borshch, start with a dried mushroom broth and add cooked white beans. Buckwheat, mushrooms, beans, and fermented vegetables have been feeding Ukrainian kitchens for centuries; the tradition got there before the restriction did.
• •Borshch improves overnight. Chill it without smetana, reheat gently, and add fresh dill at the table so it stays green.

Advance Preparation

• •Beet zakwas takes 5 to 7 days: pack sliced raw beets in a clean jar, cover with 2 percent brine (20g sea salt per 1 litre water), weight everything below the brine, and leave at room temperature until tart and ruby, then refrigerate. If it grows fuzzy mold or smells rotten instead of pleasantly sour, discard it and start again.
• •The broth can be made a day ahead and chilled. The fat will firm on top; keep a spoonful for the zasmazhka if you want a deeper pot.
• •The beets can be cooked, peeled, and grated the day before. Keep them covered in the fridge so they don't dry at the edges.
• •Finished borshch is better the next day. Reheat gently, then finish with fresh dill and smetana in the bowl.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 650g)