This classic Borscht recipe is healthy, nutritious, and comforting soup for colder season. It’s a traditional beet soup from Ukraine and loved all over Russia and many other Eastern European counties. This rich and delicious soup is made with cabbage, beef, and many other vegetables. Beets give this borscht a beautiful color and a beautiful flavor.
Borscht Soup
This cabbage soup is a staple in every Russian household, it’s what I grew up eating, and it’s one of the first recipes that people learn how to make. It was definitely one of the very first recipes that I learned.
Being a total potato lover, learning how to make potato recipes was a priority to me but I dove into soups right after that.
I remember using my mom’s old cookbook, where she wrote recipes while she was in culinary school, to practice making recipe. It’s too bad I didn’t bring that book with me when I moved to United States but I was way too young to appreciate keepsakes like that.
I’ve been making this soup for almost 20 years now and it comes out slightly different each time. The reason for that is simple and it’s because you can play around with using different veggies. Sometimes, I add mushrooms, which I love, sometimes I make it slightly healthier and leave out potatoes.
Either way I make it, it’s always perfectly comforting and delicious.
What is Borscht Soup?
Borscht soup is a traditional Ukrainian soup made with beef, cabbage, beets, and other vegetables. It’s known for the beautiful ruby-red color that comes from adding beets.
The main ingredients that always go into borscht recipe is cabbage, beets, and beef. You can variate some other veggies that you put into it. Mushrooms and potatoes could be left out if you wish to make the soup healthier or just don’t like mushrooms. Try adding leek and parsnips to your soup.
There are a couple of other variations of Borscht too. One is white Borscht that has no beets. White Borscht has a lot more of a cabbage taste and is a little more on a sour side.
Another popular version of Borscht is one that is made with sorrel and no beets. Sorrel is a sour herb and it looks somewhat similar to spinach. I adore sorrel and it’s juicy, sour taste. It gives a great taste to soups. Unfortunately, it’s not a popular herb where I live so it’s extremely hard to find.
How to make Borscht Soup?
Here are a few tips:
When choosing beef for soup, I usually go for stew beef. It’s inexpensive and since meat will be cooked for a long time, it will be tender.
For better stock, you can add a few bones when preparing the stock. Bone marrow provides more flavor, richness, and a lot of nutrients to the stock. (If you don’t see bones in the store, make sure to ask the butcher. They often keep bones in the back.)
To make this soup, begin by preparing simple homemade beef stock. Cook beef (and bones) in a pot of water over low heat for 2-4 hours. Flavor stock with coriander, bay leaves, and a few whole peppercorns while cooking.
Cook whole (not peeled) beets in the pot with stock over the last couple of hours. Time for cooking beets will depend on their size. Take them out and set aside once cooked through.
Strain stock and discard bones, bay leaf, coriander, and peppercorns. Keep the beef and stock, of course.
Start by sauteing veggies over medium heat before adding meat and stock.
Do not add beets until the very end.
Don’t forget sour cream and fresh dill weed for the most authentic experience.
If you like this soup, you will love some more:
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The BEST Borscht Recipe
Ingredients
Beef stock:
- 2 lbs stew beef
- 1 lb beef bones (marrow bones) optional
- 2.5 quarts water
- 2 large bay leaves
- 1 tbsp coriander
- 1/2 tbsp whole peppercorns
Soup:
- 3 medium beets about 1.5 lbs
- 1 medium yellow onion
- 2 medium carrots
- 1 head of cabbage
- 2 medium Idaho potatoes
- 8 oz baby bella mushrooms
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1/4 cup tomato paste
- 1 tbsp sugar
- Salt
- Fresh cracked black pepper
- 3 tbsp fresh dill weed minced
Topping:
- Sour cream
- Fresh minced dill weed
Instructions
Beef Stock:
- Preheat the pot over medium-high heat. Add a little bit of canola oil.
- Cut big, hard chunks of fat off beef, if any. Add beef and bones to the pot and seat for a couple of minutes.
- Add water to the pot and bring it to simmer.
- Add bay leaves, coriander, and whole peppercorns. Lower the heat to low.
- Loosely cover with a lid (so that there is a good amount of room for steam to escape) and cook for 2-4 hours.
- About half way through of cooking meat, add whole, unpeeled beets to the pot. Cook until done, take out and set aside.
- Strain off the stock and discard bones, bay leaves, coriander, and peppercorns. Set meat and beef aside.
Borscht soup:
- Prepare your veggies: slice onions, mushrooms, and cabbage thinly. Grate carrots on a large grater, and cube potatoes. Peel garlic and set aside. Set whole cooked beets aside to cool.
- Using the same pot, set the heat to medium and add a couple of tablespoons of canola oil to the pot.
- Add onions and carrots and saute until softened. Smash garlic, mince and add to the pot. Stir well.
- Add potatoes and mushrooms. Cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add cabbage, stir and cook until cabbage softens.
- Add tomato paste, sugar, salt, and black pepper. Stir well until tomato paste is evenly mixed.
- Break apart beef and add it to the pot. Stir and start adding stock. Add enough stock to completely cover the veggies. (You can add more if you want more broth.)
- Cook over medium heat for 25-30 minutes. Stir occasionally. Taste to make sure you have enough salt and pepper. Adjust to taste.
- Stir in dill weed.
- Peel beets and grate them into the soup on a large cheese grater. Stir and your soup is ready to eat!
- Garnish with some sour cream and fresh dill weed.
Notes
Nutrition
Adgar says
I’ve never knows the vinegar trick and it totally worked! My soup was beautiful!
Olga says
Lyubo, I never made Beet Borscht before. I always made the tomato one from my moms recipe. This one is rocking. My husband loves, he too never had the beet with, he loves it. Thank you so much for sharing the recipe.
Richard says
I. LOVE. THIS. RECIPE.
Thank you, dear Lyuba, for sharing you family’s own recipe for borscht. I came down with a cold over the weekend and everybody reminded me to eat/drink hot soup! Coincidentally, we had nearly everything on hand to make this recipe. Go ahead and laugh, just don’t kill me, but I substituted beans for beef — we are a vegetarian/vegan household here.
I now have my head immersed in a large bowl of very delicious steaming hot borscht, thanks to you, and I feel so much better already!!
LyubaB says
Thank you for your kind words, Richard! I love hearing that you liked it so much! 🙂
Heather Baylis says
Hi, I’m just back from St. Petersburg (Russia) where i tasted the BEST borst… it contained beets, onions, meat, potatoes (small-diced), cabbage and small-diced TOMATOES instead of tomato paste and dill.
What’s your opinion on using tomatoes instead of tomato paste?
Chad says
Why would you leave out mushrooms to make it more healthy? Mushrooms are good for you.
LyubaB says
HI, Chad! I think you miss read that. I said “Sometimes, I add mushrooms, which I love, sometimes I make it slightly healthier and leave out potatoes.” I sometimes leave out the potatoes to make it healthier! Hope you try it! 🙂
Roksolana says
Hi, you have one mistake. Borscht is a Ukrainian traditional dish, not russian
Marina says
It looks good on the picture, but Russians make it different way.
Although everyone has its own way to make. We usually boil potatoes and cabbage.
But beets better to sauté with onion and carrots, and tomato paste.
Charissa Walters says
We love borscht and this looks like a very good recipe. I am growing red sorrel for the first time this year. When should I put it in the soup?
Ihor says
Good recepie!
lyuba says
Thank you! 🙂
Ihor says
Please check your information about this dish!
Actually it is ukrainian dish.
I would be pleased if you edit this.
lyuba says
Hi Ihor,
Borsch did originate in Ukraine, but I named my recipe based on the one I learned from my mom and where I grew up. There are many, many versions of borscht now that differ in one ingredient or another and they all have a specific name. Rather that get technical, this is the recipe that I make at home and that I learned from my family, that’s why I name it this way.
Jennifer Bell says
Should the coriander be ground or whole?
lyuba says
HI Jennifer! I’m so sorry that I missed your questions. Coriander is actually whole while preparing the broth.
April says
So good! Thanks for the amazing recipe!
lyuba says
Thank you, April!