How to cook delicious borscht. Secrets of cooking borscht with frying

There is sometimes more controversy around borscht than around politics. In fact, no one knows what the right borscht is. It should be delicious - that's the main rule, - says Ilya Lazerson, President of the St. Petersburg Guild of Chefs. - Personally, I do not like it when there are potatoes and sweet peppers in borscht. In my version, they are not, and this is my right. Someone loves sauerkraut, and pre-boil or bake beets. I prefer raw beets. I cut it into thin strips, add a little sugar, water, vegetable oil, after 5 minutes - tomato paste. Then I add the carcass of beets and ready-made ones at the very end of cooking into the pan. 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?

Vegetarian borscht does not require meat broth. But, if you are a fan of the classic soup, then you need to cook a rich broth. For him, you can take beef brisket, chicken or pork and beef in a 1: 1 ratio. For flavor, it is better to pre-fry the pieces of meat. Or immediately put the meat on the bones in cold water and put on fire. 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 fully cooked. Then the broth must be filtered, remove the meat from the bones, chop and return to the pan.

2. Stew beets separately!

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

3. Or maybe cook?

The second popular option for preparing beets for borscht is to boil it in advance. It is important that before you lower the vegetable into the water, rinse it thoroughly without cutting off the roots and top, otherwise the juice will “leave” into the pan. For better preservation of a 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 crops are usually cooked for 20-30 minutes, old ones - 1-1.5 hours. However, today most chefs advise not to boil, but to bake beets. To do this, wrap the fruit in food foil and send it to the oven for 30-40 minutes (the 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 cooking method is considered the most successful.

Borscht classic Photo: shutterstock.com

Ingredients:

• Beef brisket - 500 g
• Pork - 500 g
• Carrot - 1 pc.
• Onion - 1 pc.
• Beets - 2 pcs.
• Cabbage - 300 g
• Sweet pepper - 1 pc.
• Potato - 200 g
• Tomato paste - 1 tbsp. l.
• Bay leaf, pepper, salt - to taste

How to cook:

1. Put the meat in a saucepan, pour 3 liters of cold water, bring to a boil, cook for 2 hours.
2. Cut carrots into strips, onions into half rings, fry until golden brown. Place in a bowl along with chopped peppers.
3. Ten minutes later, add cabbage, then potatoes.
4. Cut the beets into thin strips, simmer for 10 minutes, then add the tomato paste, cover and cook for another 20 minutes.
5. Put in borscht 10 minutes after the potatoes. Cook for 10 more minutes.
6. Add bay leaf, salt and pepper. Remove from heat, let stand 20 minutes.

4. Don't Forget the Cabbage

Many people call borscht beetroot soup. In fact, they are different soups. There is cabbage in borscht, but not in beetroot. Most often, fresh white cabbage chopped into strips is used for borscht. But there may be variations on the theme. For example, you can put red or Savoy in a saucepan - outwardly it looks like a white head, but it has a bright green color and corrugated bubble leaves. There are even variants of borscht with cauliflower and Brussels sprouts, but with them you still get a soup that is far from the classic one. Someone likes to add sauerkraut instead of fresh. It must be washed, cut, stewed separately until soft and only then added to borscht.

5. Unsweetened couple: onion and carrot

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

6. Vegetables - to taste

In addition to beets, carrots, onions and cabbage, other vegetables are put into borsch 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 the same. You can use any color of pepper: green, yellow, red, orange. The main thing is to keep the proportion: there should be a lot of beets and cabbage in borscht, and potatoes, tomatoes and peppers - 2-3 times less.

7. Who is first in line?

Borsch, like most other soups beloved by Russians, belongs to the filling first courses. It is in the West that pureed soups are preferred, but we should have a broth in which various tasty additives float. In order for these additives to harmoniously combine with each other and get the right consistency (and not when one product is overcooked and the other crunches on the teeth), you must observe the correct dressing of the soup.

First of all, shredded cabbage should go into the pan, it is cooked longer than others. Then - sweet peppers and potatoes. At the very end, you need to put browned onions with carrots and tomato paste in the borscht, and in the final - ready-made sour beets. After that, cook the soup should be no more than 5 minutes. If you cook borscht with sauerkraut, it must also be added in the final. If you put sour beets or cabbage first, and then potatoes, the latter will cook for a very long time (acid will interfere).

8. The final touch - lard with garlic

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

9. Pampushki lush, ruddy

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 put the broth on to boil, because the yeast dough should 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 put them on a baking sheet, but remember that the donuts will rise during baking. If you want to get perfectly rounded buns, place them at a decent distance from each other. However, even if they stick together, they can be separated hot and sprinkled with garlic dressing. For dressing, take vegetable oil, crushed garlic, chopped dill with parsley and a little water. Mix everything and pour on freshly baked puffy donuts.

10. Without sour cream anywhere!

If a soup tureen has been gathering dust on the shelf of your sideboard for a long time, take it out and use it for its intended purpose - it is in this beauty that it is customary to serve borscht for a large company. Next, put the appropriate supplements and snacks for the dish - donuts, bread, chopped herbs and, of course, fatty sour cream. Well, what a borscht without sour cream!

Borscht with beans Photo: shutterstock.com

Borscht with prunes and mushrooms

Ingredients:

• Prunes - 200 g
• Dried white mushrooms - 20 g
• Potatoes - 4 pcs.
• Fresh cabbage - 300 g
• Beets - 3 pcs.
• Onion - 1 pc.
• Carrot - 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:

1. Soak mushrooms for 2 hours. Then boil for 1 hour. Remove the mushrooms, chop, save the broth.
2. Rinse prunes, pour 2 cups of water, add sugar and cook until soft for 10 minutes.
3. 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.
4. Cut the onion, carrot and parsley root into strips and sauté with butter, tomato and flour for 5 minutes.
5. Dip the cabbage into the boiling mushroom broth, after boiling add the potatoes and cook for 15 minutes.
6. Put stewed beets and sautéed vegetables in a saucepan. Add mushrooms, boiled prunes along with the broth. Salt, pepper and cook for another 10 minutes.

Garlic donuts Photo: shutterstock.com

Garlic donuts

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:

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

5 years ago

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Borsch, perhaps the most favorite first dish of Russians. It is borscht that people dream about when they are on long trips abroad, and it is borscht that is the first thing you want to eat when you return from vacation. Agree, borscht is the main national dish. Borscht is our everything! Recipes for borscht are varied, each housewife brings her own subtleties and peculiarities to the cooking process. Only the main composition remains unchanged: beets, cabbage, potatoes and carrots. And, of course, sour cream and garlic! Borscht can be cooked both with meat and lean. In general, for every taste. I offer you my recipe for cooking borscht. I hope it has its own "secrets".

Products for borscht

For the broth you need:

• 700 g beef pulp
• 2.5 liters of water
• 1 bulb
• 1 sweet bell pepper
• salt, peppercorns, bay leaf

To prepare borscht we use:

• Handful of thinly shredded white cabbage (about 200g)
• 5 potatoes
• 1 carrot
• 1 bulb
• 1 tomato
• 2 small beets
• 1 sweet bell pepper
• 3-4 garlic cloves
• 3-4 tbsp vegetable oil
• sour cream
• parsley or dill

Borscht classic with photo

How to cook borscht with meat

As we prepare the classic borscht with meat, then first we will deal with them (meat). Put a pot of water on the fire first. Rinse the meat, cut into portions and put in already hot water.

IMPORTANT! P I will allow myself a slight digression from the recipe and explain why meat should be put in hot water. Hot, but not boiling, water will minimize the amount of "foam" that forms and keep the broth clear. And most importantly, the high temperature of the water when laying the meat will preserve the taste and nutritional properties of the product as much as possible.
If you lay the meat in cold water, then a significant part of the nutrients will pass into the resulting foam. And very hot water will “brew a crust”, which will keep everything useful inside a piece of meat.

When it boils, reduce the heat, remove the resulting foam. Salt, add a few black peppercorns, 1 bay leaf, 1 onion and ATTENTION!— A whole sweet bell pepper with a peduncle, which will fill our broth with a delicate aroma. I always cook borsch with bell pepper - fragrant! Close the lid and cook for 1 hour over medium heat. The broth should not boil too much, otherwise it will become cloudy.

While our broth is cooking, prepare the vegetables. Peel and cut beets, carrots and potatoes. I always cut beets and carrots with a knife into thin strips (not chopped on a grater). So the taste is preserved and looks more appetizing, in my opinion.

We cut the potatoes into cubes, as you like.

Bulgarian pepper in thin strips. Onion cut into half rings. Wash the tomato and put the whole one into the boiling broth for 25-30 seconds. At the same time, the peel of the tomato bursts and lags behind the fruit and is very easy to remove.

Cut the tomato into small cubes.

Saute the onion in vegetable oil until golden brown, add the tomato and simmer for 2-3 minutes.

Shred the cabbage finely.

When our broth is cooked, the meat has become soft, we remove the onion, bay leaf and bell pepper from the broth. Peppers can be chopped and added to borscht at the end of cooking. I also take out the meat and cut into portions.

First of all, put the carrots in the boiling broth, because. it cooks the longest, when the carrots boil for 2-3 minutes, spread the potatoes.

At this time, separately stew the chopped beets. We put it in a pan, pour 1/2 cup of broth, add 1 tsp sugar to improve the taste and color of the beets. Simmer until ready. It is better if the beets are slightly firm, then they will “reach” in borscht.

When the potatoes in the broth are almost ready (we check the readiness by piercing the potatoes with a knife), spread the cabbage. If the cabbage is thinly sliced, then it does not need to be cooked for a long time, it will be tastier if it is a little crunchy. As soon as it boils, add the prepared beets, browned onions and tomatoes, chopped bell peppers (from the broth and fresh). Close the lid, cook for 3-5 minutes and remove from heat.

Crush the garlic with the flat side of a knife so that it gives off its flavor better and cut into 2-3 parts. Add to the finished borscht. Sprinkle with parsley or other herbs. For example, if I cook in the spring and there is already

Admit it, you love borscht. Take a look around, make sure that there are no girlfriends and nutritionists nearby, and admit that no matter how much you would like to lose weight, it is simply impossible to deny yourself a plate of fiery red, hot borscht exuding breathtaking aromas. Sprinkled with finely chopped greens and garlic, seasoned with a spoonful of fat sour cream, served with fresh, hot donuts, borscht was and remains one of the most beloved first hot dishes in almost the entire territory of the former Soviet Union.

Despite many disagreements, the merit of the invention of this dish should be given to the Ukrainians, if only because it is in Ukrainian cuisine that there is probably the largest variety of recipes for cooking borscht. In every Ukrainian region, and sometimes in every family, borscht is prepared in its own way. And, as is the case with most other dishes of folk cuisine, a significant role in the variety of recipes for preparing borscht is played by the variety of tastes and the flight of imagination of the hostesses preparing it.

It would seem difficult to tell something new about a dish that is at least sometimes cooked in every family. Almost every housewife, every cook, every culinary specialist knows how to cook borscht. But even in the preparation of such a common dish, there are always little tricks and secrets that you might accidentally overlook. And today "Culinary Eden" tried to collect for you the most important and interesting tips that will help you cook a truly delicious and fragrant borscht.

1. How to cook borscht? The basis of any borscht is a properly prepared broth. The best broth for borscht is considered to be a broth made from beef and pork belly, laid in a ratio of 2:1. However, borscht can be cooked on other broths. For example, for Kyiv borscht you will need beef and lamb, and for Poltava or Odessa borscht - goose or duck broth. Let's try to cook a broth for a simple Ukrainian borscht. Rinse thoroughly and chop into not too large pieces 500 g beef and 300 g pork belly. Place the meat in a saucepan and cover with cold water so that it is twice as much as it is supposed to get the broth. Put the pot on the fire and let the water boil. Try to remove the foam as carefully as possible. Once the water boils, reduce the heat to low, cover the pot with a lid, and simmer your broth over the lowest heat for 2-2.5 hours. The less your broth boils, the longer the meat languishes in weakly boiling water, the tastier and richer the borscht broth will turn out.

2. The second important feature of the preparation of borscht is the preliminary separate preparation of vegetables before putting them into the broth. Beets should be stewed in advance, separately from other vegetables. To keep the bright red color of the beets, drizzle them with a little vinegar or lemon juice. The beets are stewed, cut into small cubes or strips, laying it in well-heated pork fat or butter. In some cases, beets can be boiled or baked whole in their skins, and then peeled, chopped and put into the broth. It is extremely important when cooking borscht and the sequence of laying vegetables. According to V. Pokhlebkin, the sequence of laying vegetables is as follows: “Potatoes are laid 30 minutes before borscht is ready, cabbage - 20 minutes, beets in prepared stew - 15 minutes. Sauteed vegetables (onions, carrots, parsley) - in 15 minutes. Spices - 5-8 minutes, garlic (separately from other spices) - 2 minutes before the end of cooking.

3. To add a special flavor to borscht, you can use almost any of your favorite spices. However, key spices are root and parsley (fresh or dried), black pepper (ground or whole peas), bay leaf. You can also experiment by adding celery root and greens, dill, coriander. Of course, we should not forget about garlic. Garlic is best added at the very end of cooking. It should first be finely chopped and pounded in a mortar or simply kneaded with the flat side of a knife blade. A classic Ukrainian spicy dressing for borscht can be called a dressing based on lard. Chop into small pieces 200 gr. gently lard, 3 - 4 cloves of garlic and a few sprigs of parsley. Mix everything together and crush in a mortar, or scroll in a blender until a smooth, homogeneous mass is obtained. Add the resulting seasoning to your borscht 2-3 minutes before it is ready.

4. To give your borsch a special sour taste and bright color, you can add pickled beet juice, beet sourdough or just fresh beet juice to the broth. You can also prepare a special beetroot dressing in advance, which can then be added to borscht. Rinse one kilogram of beets thoroughly, peel and grate on a coarse grater. Finely chop 1 kg of onion and 1 kg of sweet bell pepper. Place the vegetables in a saucepan, add ½ liter of vegetable oil, ½ liter of tomato sauce, 2 tbsp. tablespoons of salt, 1 cup of vinegar and 1 cup of sugar. Simmer everything together over low heat for 40 minutes, stirring frequently. Make sure the dressing doesn't burn! Divide prepared dressing into jars and store in the refrigerator.

5. The most widely used borscht recipe is Ukrainian plain borscht. Let's try to cook it the way V. Pokhlebkin recommends. Cook a strong broth from 500 g of beef brisket. Peel one large beet, cut into cubes and stew in pork fat, adding 1 tbsp. l. vinegar, 2 tbsp. l. sugar and ½ cup tomato paste. Cut two onions, one carrot and one parsley root into strips and fry in butter. Chop ¼ head of cabbage, cut 4 potatoes into cubes. Lower potatoes and cabbage into the broth and cook for 15 minutes. Then add stewed beets and fried vegetables to them and cook for another 10 minutes. At the end of cooking, add your favorite spices, herbs and dressing from lard, garlic and parsley. Cook for a couple more minutes and remove from heat. Before serving, season your borscht with sour cream.

6. Kiev borscht is considered to be even more tasty and fragrant. It is cooked in beef and lamb broth, which gives it a characteristic taste and aroma. Cook a strong broth from 250 grams of beef by adding ½ liter of beet kvass or sour beet juice to the water. Peel and grate one large beet on a coarse grater and stew it together with 250 gr. lamb belly, cut into small pieces. Stew three tomatoes in 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Cut the onion, carrot and parsley root into strips and fry in butter. Chop ¼ head of cabbage, cut 4 potatoes into cubes. Dip the cabbage and potatoes into the boiling broth and cook for 15 minutes, then add all the stewed and fried vegetables and lamb and cook for another 10 minutes. Add three bay leaves, 3 allspice and ¼ teaspoon ground red pepper. Season the borscht with two tbsp. spoons of boiled beans and cook everything together for another 10 minutes. At the very end of cooking, season the borscht with lard, garlic and parsley. Serve hot with sour cream added.

7. Poltava borscht cooked in poultry broth is very tasty. In addition to the broth, Poltava borsch is also distinguished by the fact that it is seasoned not only with vegetables, but also dumplings. Cook borscht according to a simple Ukrainian borscht recipe in a broth made from 600 grams of goose or duck. Prepare in advance dumplings. To do this, dilute 1 tbsp. a spoonful of flour in ¼ cup boiling water. Shake thoroughly and refrigerate. To the chilled mixture, add one egg and ½ cup buckwheat or wheat flour. Knead the dough. The consistency of the dough should resemble not too thick sour cream. Take the finished dough with a teaspoon and lower it into boiling, salted water. Boil dumplings until they float, then drain in a colander. Add ready-made dumplings to your borscht 5 minutes before the end of cooking. Serve Poltava borsch with sour cream and finely chopped parsley.

8. Fans of fish dishes can be recommended to try cooking borscht with fish broth. Boil 500 g of fish fillet in 6 cups of strong fish broth made from heads and fins. Cut one medium-sized beetroot, one onion, parsley root and celery into strips and fry in butter. Add ½ cup of stock to the vegetables and simmer everything together for 10-15 minutes. Cut into strips of 50 grams of sorrel and spinach. Put 4 sliced ​​potatoes into the boiling broth and cook for 10 minutes, then add the green vegetables and cook for another 10 minutes. Put the stewed vegetables, salt, add spices to taste and cook everything together for 5 minutes. Serving to the table, put a piece of fish fillet in each plate with borscht. Season the borsch with finely chopped boiled eggs and sour cream, sprinkle with fresh herbs.

9. Vegetarians were not left without their own borscht recipe. Boil 1.5 liters of water or mushroom broth. Put the peeled whole beets in it and cook until tender. Cut the head of onion and one carrot into strips and stew in butter. Remove the prepared beets from the broth, and put two diced potatoes and a glass of finely chopped cabbage into the broth. Boil everything together for 10-15 minutes, then add the stewed vegetables and grated on a large grater boiled beets. Cook for another 10 minutes, then add 1 tbsp. a spoonful of tomato paste, salt, sugar and spices to taste. Cook everything together for another 5 minutes and remove from heat. Serve to the table, seasoned with sour cream and sprinkled with fresh herbs.

10. Any borscht will seem even tastier if you serve it not with plain bread, but with fresh, hot donuts - yeast dough buns with garlic sauce. It's not hard at all to prepare them. Dilute a teaspoon of dry yeast with a little warm water with a pinch of sugar. Let stand 10-15 minutes. Pour the risen yeast into a bowl, add a glass of warm milk, a teaspoon of salt, a tablespoon of sugar and 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Gradually add 3 cups of flour and knead a soft dough. Knead it thoroughly, grease with vegetable oil and leave warm for one hour. The dough should double in size. Punch down the risen dough and cut into small round buns. Put the buns on a baking sheet, let them rise for 15 minutes, brush with a beaten egg and bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 20-25 minutes. While the buns are baking, prepare the garlic sauce. Crush six cloves of garlic with a teaspoon of salt, add a tablespoon of vegetable oil and mix thoroughly. Then add a tablespoon of water and stir until smooth. Remove the buns from the oven and dip hot in the garlic sauce. Serve immediately with a plate of hot, fragrant borscht.

We sincerely hope that our advice will help you more than once to please your friends and loved ones with a real, tasty and excitingly fragrant borscht. And "Culinary Eden" on its pages is always ready to offer you many new and interesting ideas and recipes on how to cook borscht, this is a favorite, tasty and satisfying dish.

Borscht is one of the most popular first courses in our country. Every housewife should be able to cook delicious rich red borscht. No man can resist this dish! There are many options for preparing borscht, but all of them are united by the main feature of borscht - it is a bright red color (not raspberry, like beetroot) and a special sweet and sour taste.

Classic Ukrainian borscht is cooked in a strong meat broth. The longer you cook, the richer and more flavorful the soup will be. On average, cooking takes at least two hours. To make the color more saturated, you can sprinkle the beets with lemon juice, or boil them separately, unpeeled, adding 1 tbsp to the water. a spoonful of vinegar. The ingredients are for a 4 liter pot.

Cooking Ingredients:

• Beef - 1 kg, on the bone;
• Potatoes - 3-4 pieces;
• Cabbage - 300 g;
• Carrots - 2 pcs;
• Beets - 3 pcs;
• Onion - 1 pc;
• Tomato paste - 3 tbsp;
• Vinegar - 1 tsp;
• Bay leaf - 3 pcs;
• Garlic - 3 cloves;
• Vegetable oil - optional;
• Salt, pepper - to taste;
• Greens - to taste;
• Sour cream - to taste;

Cooking steps:

1. Wash the meat, add water, cook for 1.5 hours (periodically removing the foam).
2. In the meantime, prepare food. Peel the beets, cut into cubes (I use a special nozzle in a blender for this).
3. Cut the onion. Peel carrots, grate. Shred the cabbage.
4. Fry the beets in vegetable oil for 3-5 minutes.
5. Add tomato paste and vinegar, simmer for about 7 minutes. Sometimes the paste comes across very thick, in which case I dilute it with water.
6. In another pan (or wash this one), fry the onion for 3 minutes.
7. Then add carrots, and fry everything together until soft.
8. When the meat is cooked, take it out and cut into pieces. Strain the broth and put the chopped meat into it, bring to a boil.
9. Now peel the potatoes, cut into cubes and put in a boiling broth, salt.
10. When the broth boils, add cabbage, cook for 7 minutes.
11. Add beets, cook for 10 minutes. Then add onions and carrots, cook for 3 minutes.
12. Add bay leaf and garlic through a garlic press. Taste, add salt and pepper if needed. Let it brew for 15 minutes. Serve with sour cream and herbs!

Before you cook the most delicious borsch, you should know the basic subtleties of the correct preparation of the first dish of this type. Let's start with the necessary set of products.

• What do you need for borscht
• Classic Ukrainian borscht
• Borscht without meat with beans

What do you need for borscht

The traditional set for any kind of treat of a similar category remains:

Beet;
cabbage;
onion;
carrot;
vegetable or meat strong broth;
tomato paste or juice;
fresh or dried herbs;
fragrant spices.

At will and taste, some housewives like to add various flavorings and other products when cooking borscht:

Fresh garlic crushed into gruel;
vinegar;
sugar;
prunes;
mushrooms;
beans of various varieties.

Advice: legumes should be added to the dish only in a pre-boiled form, since all varieties of beans are cooked for a very long time, preferably with pre-soaking overnight.

How much to cook cabbage for borscht

It all depends on the type of vegetable. So, early young varieties are prepared instantly and therefore you need to add it at the very end. If you plan to lay mid-season and late varieties of vegetables in the dish, you will have to cook cabbage shavings from 2 to 12 minutes - it all depends on the taste preferences of each. Some people like it if the plant crunches slightly when tasting, while others prefer well-cooked vegetables.

Which borscht is tastier - lean or with meat

Traditionally, this kind of first course is cooked in meat broth. At the same time, there must be bones in the protein supplement - in their structure there are substances that give a special taste to the finished soup. If vegetarianism has become the main lifestyle, you should not give up a full-fledged borscht. There are many recipes for lean dressing soups that have a rich taste and can saturate no worse than their meat counterpart.

Advice: lay chicken, pork or beef on the bone only in cold water - this will help fill the broth with a full palette of all flavor combinations.

Do I need to stew the beets separately

Here again, it all depends on taste preferences. If the pronounced taste of the root crop has its supporters in your family, you should stew the vegetable cut into thin strips with a small amount of water and sugar separately until half cooked. Beetroot always cooks longer than other ingredients, this trick will help bring it to the state of "al dente". That is, all vegetables will have the same degree of readiness.

If you want to keep the color of the potatoes in the red dressing soup, the beets are stewed with fried onions and carrots over low heat, and only then tomato paste and vinegar are added. In this case, it is better to grate the root crop on a fine grater.

It should be remembered: in an acidic environment, all foods take longer to cook, so the dish should be brought to a state of readiness immediately before adding citric acid, tomato paste or vinegar.

Several recipes for the most delicious borscht

There are a lot of cooking options for the first course, which is popular throughout the post-Soviet space. At the same time, each home has little tricks that make its own way of using products unique. We recommend several proven recipes, with the help of which even inexperienced housewives can cook excellent borscht.

Classic Ukrainian borscht

A traditional dish that does not have clear boundaries of belonging to the national cuisine of one or another Slavic people.

Ingredients:

5 liters of purified or drinking water;
700 g of meat on the bone (beef or pork);
white cabbage - the amount depends on one's own preference;
4 medium potatoes;
1 small beet;
2 onions of medium size;
2 small carrots;
2 tbsp. l. tomato paste;
fresh tomatoes and bell peppers - to taste and desire;
1 clove of fresh garlic;
a bunch of your favorite fresh herbs;
ground black pepper, salt and bay leaf - to taste.

Cooking:

1. Rinse the meat, pour cold water over it and send it to a strong fire under the lid.
2. As soon as it boils, reduce the fire to a minimum, remove the foam with a slotted spoon.
3. Cook until cooked, 10 minutes before laying vegetables, salt the finished broth to taste.
4. While the meat is cooking, peel and chop all the vegetables: potatoes in cubes, onions in small pieces, root vegetables and cabbage in thin strips.
5. Remove the cooked pork or beef from the broth, cut into portions.
6. Add potatoes to the broth with meat, cook until tender.
7. While the potatoes are cooking, fry the onion in lard or refined oil until transparent, put carrot chips on it.
8. As soon as the orange blank becomes soft, send the beets there, mix and cover.
9. After a few minutes, add pasta, diced peppers and tomatoes to the pan with vegetables, simmer until thickened.
10. Dilute the borscht dressing with a small amount of broth, simmer over low heat until the vegetables are fully cooked.
11. As soon as the potatoes become soft, put the cabbage in the broth, cover with a lid. Simmer over low heat until the desired readiness of the vegetable.
12. Pour the dressing into a saucepan with broth, mix. Add all spices except herbs and garlic.
13. Keep after boiling over low heat under the lid for about 5-7 minutes. Add crushed garlic and remove bay leaf.
14. When serving, flavor each serving with a large spoonful of homemade sour cream and generously sprinkle with chopped herbs.

Advice: you can’t leave a bay leaf in the finished dish - the spice will give all the necessary aromas in a few minutes, and then it can spoil the borscht with wormwood bitterness.

Borscht without meat with beans

This option will certainly come in handy for anyone who prefers not to use the meat of slaughtered animals for food.

Ingredients:

1 kg of white cabbage;
800 g of peeled potatoes;
2 medium table beets;
2 small carrots;
2 onions;
200 g boiled or canned beans in their own juice;
5 st. l. refined oil;
1-2 bay leaves;
2-4 tsp table salt;
favorite greens - to taste.

Cooking:

1. Pre-soak beans overnight. Boil until tender in a separate saucepan.
2. Pour 2.5 liters of purified or drinking water into a five-liter refractory container, cover with a lid and put on fire
3. Chop the peeled onion into a cube, fry in vegetable oil until transparent, remove with a slotted spoon into a separate container.
4. Remove the peel from the washed carrot, grate it on a coarse grater or chop it into strips and send it to the heated oil. Keep on low heat until a golden hue appears along the edges of the chips, send to the onion.
5. As soon as the water in the pan boils, put the fried vegetables in boiling water, cover and reduce the heat to a minimum.
6. Grate the washed and peeled beets on a coarse grater or chop into thin strips, fry in oil for up to 10 minutes. Send the root crop to the broth.
7. After 15 minutes, add diced potatoes to the general company.
8. Chop the cabbage into large chips. Spread the vegetable in the soup 10 minutes after boiling the potatoes.
9. Simmer on the slowest fire under the lid for another quarter of an hour (15 minutes).
10. Put beans in borscht. Add salt and pepper to taste.
11. After 10 minutes, season the dish with finely chopped herbs, cover and set aside for half an hour.
12. Serve with sour cream or crushed garlic clove.

Advice: the dish turns out to be slightly sweet, therefore, for lovers of the traditional sour taste, it is better to stew fried onions with carrots and a small amount of tomato paste, add to the dish after cabbage.