Passport & Plate - Doukhabor Borscht
Russian Federation | Friday, March 14, 2014 | 2 photos
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Ingredients
Servings:
This recipe yields enough to feed a large and hungry family.
Please note:
Much of this recipe is quantified by vegetables and not measurements, such as cups or ounces. This is how my grandmother gave the recipe to me. Luckily, the recipe is not a strict order, but is resilient enough for variation. If your potatoes or beets are very large, you may use half the number recommended. The recipe also has been slightly updated to take advantage of the modern convenience of frozen vegetables.
Ingredients:
6 small potatoes, cut into ½” cubes
6 small beets, cut into ½” cubes
1 onion, diced
3 spines celery, diced
3 carrots, diced
14 oz. canned peeled tomatoes, diced
16 oz. frozen mixed vegetables, such as a combination of peas, carrots, corn, green beans, etc.
8 oz. of frozen baby lima beans
1/3-1/2 head of cabbage, shredded
1 32 oz. container of sour cream
Dill, fresh or dried, to taste
Salt and Pepper, to taste
8 Tbsp. butter
Water
Fresh Bread and Butter to accompany
How to prepare this recipeInstructions:
1. Set aside 1/3 of the cubed potatoes in a small saucepan, cover with water and boil until tender. Drain the potatoes and mash with several tablespoons of butter. Set aside.
2. In a large soup pot, sautee the diced onion in 3 Tbsp. butter over medium low heat. Take care that they don’t brown.
3. When the onion is translucent, add celery and carrot and continue sauteéing. Add more butter as needed, and continue to keep the heat low so that the vegetables do not brown.
4. After 10-12 minutes, add the beets, potatoes, tomatoes, cabbage and lima beans. Add enough water to cover everything. Allow to simmer over medium heat until vegetables are tender.
5. Add frozen vegetable mix.
6. Blend in the mashed potatoes. This will thicken the broth.
7. Season with dill, salt and pepper, to your taste. Allow to simmer until the flavors have blended.
8. Serve hot, topped with a dollop of sour cream and a sprig of dill. Accompany with generously buttered wedges of fresh, warm bread.
This soup tastes even better on the second day, so feel free to prepare it in advance of your occasion.
Yech Nasdarovia!
(Eat to your health!)
The story behind this recipe Stomping snow from our boots, shaking the icy wind from our scarves, we stumble into the fire lit dining room to discover the welcoming signs of the season-a glittering tree, the family gathered to celebrate, and, for each of us, a vivid bowl of beet Borscht, the scarlet heart of our white winters.
On any other day of the year, we’d happily enjoy a traditional roast goose or turkey, with a feast of accompanying side dishes. But Christmas calls for mercy. We must feed the heart as well as the belly. The best way we can do this is with this simple vegetable stew.
My grandmother, Tina, is the source of our tradition. Grandma, an elegant and industrious woman, now lives in California, where she has transformed the back yard of her suburban home into a miniature Garden of Eden, complete with a vegetable plot and abundant fruit trees. In a way, she has recreated her rural upbringing, when she lived close to the land, a member of the spiritual sect, the Doukhobors. The Doukhobors fled Tsarist Russia to seek a life of freedom and simplicity in Canada. Because of their pledge to nonviolence, they kept a vegetarian diet.
Enter the borscht. Surviving the notoriously cold winters of both Russia and Canada requires serious nourishment. No light vegetable dish, this soup is a hearty meal. Potatoes, cabbage, carrots and a host of other vegetables are first sautéed in butter, then slow cooked until soft and melting. Everything is stained deep red by the audacious beet, the sweet and bright Valentine of the root world. Finally, in remembrance of the far off summer, the soup is seasoned with dill, and garnished with sour cream. Pair it with a wedge of buttered bread, and you will hunger for no meat.
Beets, like rubies, are mined from the dark of the earth. Borscht captures the magic of cooking, wherein the whole exceeds the sum of the parts, and the humblest of ingredients come together in a sumptuous celebration, a symbol of passion and compassion, a bowl of jewels.
