Borscht Soup

Ingredients

• 500 g beetroot
• 500 g white cabbage (or 1/2- 1 cup sauerkraut, chopped small)
  
• 200 g potatoes
  
• 200 g carrots (2-3 carrots)
  
• 1 leek
  
• 1 onion or 2 shallots
  
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 2 Tbs oil
  
• 1 bay leaf
• Salt and pepper
  
• 2-3 Tbs balsamic vinegar or fresh lemon juice (you can skip this if you use sauerkraut)
• Extra: 1 cup chestnuts, cooked
  

Garnish

Sour cream

Dill for garnish

Preparation

Clean, wash, peel and cut the beetroot, potatoes and carrots into small chunks.

Peel onions and garlic, chop finely and fry in oil.

Add beetroot and saute briefly.

Add water (or vegetable stock) and bay leaf.

Add the potatoes and simmer for about 5 min, while you clean the leek and cut it in thin stripes.

Clean the cabbage, remove the stalk, cut in quarters, then in small pieces.

Add the rest of the vegetables, salt and pepper, vinegar and cook for another 25 min.

Add the cooked chestnuts, cut in half, 5 min before serving.

Serve

Serve stew in soup plates, add a spoon of sour cream and garnish it with dill.

Tip: Some regional recipes do not use cabbage, or use instead of cabbage half a cup of sauerkraut. The heart of the recipe are the beetroots, the other veggies in the recipe you can vary in quantity to your liking or which veggies you have already in your fridge.

We were cooking vegetarian Borscht in the black Forest in winter time. The hot soup felt so good that we cooked a variation even two times, and enough to warm it up!  We made once a variation with added chestnuts, fresh lemon juice, without cabbage but sauerkraut instead.