Vegetarian Borscht.
Not the sort of thing you'll find on a lot of recipe sites, but a fairly authentic reproduction of my original хозяйка's борщ. Forget the Madeleines in A La Recherche du Temps Perdus, this recipe transports me straight back to a grotty little Krushchev-era flat which I really enjoyed living in, and looking out at the Gulf of Finland in the middle of a snowstorm, warmed by this soup.
Damn tasty, filling, and best enjoyed with a wine-glass of decent straight-out-of-the-freezer vodka.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Righto, get yourself (roughly; I tend to do it by eye),
Olive/Vegetable oil.
A large onion.
A couple of fair-sized carrots.
4-6 Beetroot (I use the pre-cooked ones, just because they're easier to locate)
About half a large white cabbage. (Savoy doesn't really work.)
Red wine vinegar.
Lemon Juice.
Dice the carrots, onions, and beetroot to roughly 1cm cubes, apart from the carrot and cabbage, which ought to be into thick strips about 3-5cm long.
Whack everything (apart from the cabbage) into a frying pan with plenty of olive oil, and let it soften the vegetables for about ten-fifteen minutes.
That almost done, bring the kettle to the boil, put a couple of stock cubes in the bottom of a soup pan, and add roughly a litre of water, (Though obviously you can add more later) medium heat on the hob, and whack the cabbage in there for five-ten minutes.
That done, add the veg from the frying pan, two tablespoons of red wine vinegar, and nearly half a lemon's juice, put a lid on, and leave it for half an hour or more on a simmer, adding more water if the vegetables are noticeably protruding from the top. This is a fairly watery soup, and if you add too much, take the lid off and let a bit boil off.
In terms of serving, garnish with dill (compulsory) to taste and sour cream, (optional) similarly. But more than a heaped tablespoon is overdoing it a bit. A bit of proper black bread, or if you can't get that, toasted wholemeal, on the side.
This'll sort out about four portions. To bulk it out, just use the remaining cabbage. I've noticed that it improves slightly as leftovers, but perhaps that's just me linking the pleasure and thriftiness centres of my brain.
What was I saying? Oh yes.
Enjoy.
Not the sort of thing you'll find on a lot of recipe sites, but a fairly authentic reproduction of my original хозяйка's борщ. Forget the Madeleines in A La Recherche du Temps Perdus, this recipe transports me straight back to a grotty little Krushchev-era flat which I really enjoyed living in, and looking out at the Gulf of Finland in the middle of a snowstorm, warmed by this soup.
Damn tasty, filling, and best enjoyed with a wine-glass of decent straight-out-of-the-freezer vodka.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Righto, get yourself (roughly; I tend to do it by eye),
Olive/Vegetable oil.
A large onion.
A couple of fair-sized carrots.
4-6 Beetroot (I use the pre-cooked ones, just because they're easier to locate)
About half a large white cabbage. (Savoy doesn't really work.)
Red wine vinegar.
Lemon Juice.
Dice the carrots, onions, and beetroot to roughly 1cm cubes, apart from the carrot and cabbage, which ought to be into thick strips about 3-5cm long.
Whack everything (apart from the cabbage) into a frying pan with plenty of olive oil, and let it soften the vegetables for about ten-fifteen minutes.
That almost done, bring the kettle to the boil, put a couple of stock cubes in the bottom of a soup pan, and add roughly a litre of water, (Though obviously you can add more later) medium heat on the hob, and whack the cabbage in there for five-ten minutes.
That done, add the veg from the frying pan, two tablespoons of red wine vinegar, and nearly half a lemon's juice, put a lid on, and leave it for half an hour or more on a simmer, adding more water if the vegetables are noticeably protruding from the top. This is a fairly watery soup, and if you add too much, take the lid off and let a bit boil off.
In terms of serving, garnish with dill (compulsory) to taste and sour cream, (optional) similarly. But more than a heaped tablespoon is overdoing it a bit. A bit of proper black bread, or if you can't get that, toasted wholemeal, on the side.
This'll sort out about four portions. To bulk it out, just use the remaining cabbage. I've noticed that it improves slightly as leftovers, but perhaps that's just me linking the pleasure and thriftiness centres of my brain.
What was I saying? Oh yes.
Enjoy.
No comments:
Post a Comment