Borscht Soup

I made this again the other day with a few omissions and additions and it was still delicious. I had no carrots, celery or potatoes, so I left those out. Instead, I chopped up a bunch of cabbage and added that to the soup during the last half an hour or so. That is one of the great things about learning how to make soup, you have the freedom to tweak recipes to either, what you like, or what you have on hand.

Again, why Kosher salt? Why not say sea salt? or pickling salt? We trust your school to be non religious and you come up again and again with those. Sea salt please, I hate all form of food restriction on religious ground and Kosher salt is one of them.

It has nothing to do with religion by any means. For more information on this see the response to your last post that was made regarding kosher salt. If you don't want to use it, then use sea salt or any other salt, but you will see Kosher salt on many of our recipes because it's great. Happy to refund your money if you like.

That's what I gonna cook next time. I'm Ukrainian, and Borshch or Borscht how You pronounce it, authentically has no thyme nor celery, because in Ukraine these are "imported", new ingredients. But it sounds so novice, and kind of modern Borshch. I will definately cook it for the next family meeting! You gave me fresh overview of Borshch. Thank You!:-)

OMG. This was so good. Here's how I tweaked it: half leek/half onion, roasted the beets beforehand, 4 c turkey stock + 3 c water, cabbage instead of potato. I'm proud to say the leeks and beets came from my garden - root vegetables winter well in the ground on the BC south coast, also the thyme, bay and (frozen) dill were from my garden. And I had the turkey stock (from Thanksgiving) in my freezer. My Ukrainian mother used to make it with a ham bone. The bacon makes a nice substitute.

This was a big hit! I served this to 30 people for a good friends baby shower .....borscht was her request. I was nervous because I have not cooked borscht before and never even eaten it! This was served in Abbotsford and there are tonnes of great Mennonite cooks here and Borscht is a very popular soup...the pressure was on! I had so many people request "my" recipe....many even said this was the best they had ever tasted! Sorry Grandmas :) Thanks so much for you remarkable recipes I know I could depend on you guys!

My wife is Polish and this is a staple in their culture so the fact that she was impressed with my Borscht really says something. She loved that I added the green tops of the beets with the stems (finely chopped, edible, and healthy for you) they were both aesthetically pleasing and delicious. She love the non-traditional approach to the soup, the bacon just sent her over the edge (lol). Her mother says the traditional way to make this is to extract the flavor and color of the beets, and add dumplings, however she said that every Eastern European family makes some variation of this just like they do with Goulash.

Can this soup be served puréed? And the next question, should it?

Indeed this soup can be served puréed. In fact, it often is. It really just depends on what one prefers. I say this because my partner Joe would not like it puréed, yet I wouldn't mind it. You could even purée some of it and then add it back to the soup. Let us know how it goes. Cheers!

Thank you, Dawn. I did purée about 2/3 of it and reheated and it was perfect... well almost. I love beets, but I'd never made Borscht before. In fact, I don't think I've ever had it before, but it turned out to be one of my guest's favourite soups, one that he makes often. He enjoyed this one, his only complaint that the pieces of beet were a tad too big. I did find myself cutting them in half with my spoon. But the flavour was fantastic!

Is this a soup that could be froze?

Hi Lucy - great question. You could freeze this soup but upon defrosting, it might need to be reduced a bit to intensity the flavor; while the soup thaws from being frozen, additional moisture could dilute it's flavor profile. I hope this helps. Thanks for learning with Rouxbe! Chef Kirk

For some reason I never thought about the added moisture diluting the flavor! Thank you Lucy for that question and thank you Chef Kirk for the great explanation! My soups that are frozen are now going to be full of so much more flavor now! Huge Thanks!

Bacon is mentioned in the comments, but I do not see it in the recipe. When do I add it?

Brad, render bacon with the onions and celery. Eric