Borscht
Grated beetroot sweated with the aromatics, cabbage in late, and vinegar at the very end to hold the colour.
- Prep
- 25m
- Cook
- 50m
- Total
- 1h 15m
- Serves
- 6
- Effort
- Moderate
Method
Tap a step number to mark it done. Tap an ingredient once for got it, twice for need it.
| 30 g | Sweat the grated beetroot with the aromatics and tomato purée 15m Grated, not diced. More surface means the colour and sugar come out in a quarter of the time. | Add the stock and potato and simmer until soft 20m | Add the cabbage and simmer until it is just tender 12m Late, so it keeps some bite. Cabbage cooked for an hour smells like a school corridor. | Stir in the vinegar and dill off the heat, then taste for sweet against sour 3m The acid goes in last. Simmered with the beetroot it cooks away and takes the colour with it. | |
| 1 | |||||
| 1 | |||||
| 2 sticks | |||||
| 600 g | |||||
| 2 tbsp | |||||
| 1 tsp | |||||
| 1.5 l | |||||
| 2 | |||||
| 2 | |||||
| 6 | |||||
| 2 tsp | |||||
| 250 g | |||||
| 2 tbsp | |||||
| a large handful | |||||
| 1 clove | |||||
| to serve | |||||
-
Sweat the grated beetroot with the aromatics and tomato purée
15m- butter 30 g
- onion 1
- carrot 1
- celery 2 sticks
- raw beetroot 600 g
- tomato purée 2 tbsp
- caster sugar 1 tsp
Grated, not diced. More surface means the colour and sugar come out in a quarter of the time.
-
Add the stock and potato and simmer until soft
20m- from 1 Sweat the grated beetroot with the aromatics and tomato purée
- vegetable stock 1.5 l
- floury potatoes 2
- bay leaves 2
- allspice berries 6
- salt 2 tsp
-
Add the cabbage and simmer until it is just tender
12m- from 2 Add the stock and potato and simmer until soft
- white cabbage 250 g
Late, so it keeps some bite. Cabbage cooked for an hour smells like a school corridor.
-
Stir in the vinegar and dill off the heat, then taste for sweet against sour
3m- from 3 Add the cabbage and simmer until it is just tender
- red wine vinegar 2 tbsp
- dill a large handful
- garlic (optional) 1 clove
- soured cream (optional) to serve
The acid goes in last. Simmered with the beetroot it cooks away and takes the colour with it.
Why the vinegar waits
Beetroot’s colour comes from betanin, a pigment that is stable in acid and degrades steadily with heat and time in a neutral pot. Simmer everything with the vinegar in from the start and you spend that stability during the long cook, ending up with a brownish soup. Adding acid at the end, off the heat, sets the crimson exactly where you want it and keeps its brightness on the tongue too. The teaspoon of sugar is there to give the vinegar something to push against.
Notes
- Grate the beetroot on the coarse side of a box grater and wear an apron you do not care about.
- It deepens overnight, but re-acidify with a splash of vinegar when reheating.
- Serve with rye bread and soured cream, or leave the cream out and let the dill and raw garlic carry it.