Our Supper Was Hacked By The Russians!

Russians!  We have had a nice crop of beets this year.  Almost too many to eat. We've been pickling them and roasting them.  We were looking for another recipe to use up some of the bumper crop of beets and I happened to be talking to someone I work with who lived in Ukraine while she was a missionary.  She began telling me that she developed a taste for a Russian dish while there called Borscht. One of the main ingredients is beets and she promised me she would send the recipe.  Sooo....

I picked 3 medium beets.  These are bull's blood beets.

The recipe she gave me does not call for the tops so those go to the chickens.  They ate up the beet tops quickly.

I came in and peeled the beets.  I love the deep red color of beets.

I was told that there are many variations of borscht, but this one is the one that my friend got from the mission in Ukraine.  Here are the rest of the ingredients besides beets:
1 whole chicken, deboned (you can also use beef shank or pork roast)
1/2 cabbage shredded
2 large carrots
3 medium potatoes
Onion
3 cloves of garlic
2 bay leaf
1 can tomato paste
salt
sunflower oil
fresh dill chopped
sour cream

Make broth by placing the chicken in a large pot and bringing to a boil, reduce heat, cover until meat is tender, approximately 1 1/2 hours.  Debone the chicken.  Clean the beets and put in a pot with water covering them.  Boil until tender, once done grate them and set them aside.

A very important thing to do while cooking borscht is to make a zazharka (fry up). While the meat is boiling, saute in sunflower oil, grated carrots & chopped onion, adding the tomato paste to the vegetables after they are tender.

Zazharka

Chop up the chicken after de-boning and put into the pot of broth along with potatoes and cabbage.  When the cabbage is tender, add the carrot mix back to the broth, along with the grated beets.  Add bay leaf, garlic, chopped dill and salt. Simmer for 1 1/2 hours.

This is a VERY RED dish!

I served mine up in a white bowl.

We were told by my friend at work to add a dollop of sour cream to the bowl.  Tricia really likes sour cream, so she added it and stirred.

Borscht is a hearty, tasty soup.  We like trying new things and this helps us to use up some of our inventory of beets.  It was my first time eating borscht and I must say I was surprised and I really liked it.  It seems to get better each day.  I can see how this is a dish, like gumbo, that is extra tasty and nourishing on a very cold day.

Next beet recipe we'll try is a roasted beet hummus...