Vegetarian borscht

Shopping with my Mum is a dangerous thing, she encourages me to spend way too much. We're just back from traipsing through all the main shops in town, as I was looking for a new top. I'm going to London on Saturday to have a master-class on Southern Italian cooking, and I want to look "naice". Rather than buy one top, I bought three in White Stuff, especially that they have a 20% off event today. Did I really need three new tops? Probably not, but I blame my Mum for the shopping spree.
It's been lovely to have Mum staying with us this month, but the time is ticking, and in just over a week she'll be heading back home. We see each other once a year, and try to make the most of it when we are together.
Every time Mum comes for a visit, I ask her to cook some of my favourite dishes. This time Mum offered to cook a vegetarian borscht.

Vegetarian borscht
Ingredients:
3tbsp vegetable oil
2 medium carrots
2 medium beets
2 big potatoes
1 small parsnip
1 sweet pepper
1/2 small white cabbage
1/3 green Chinese cabbage
2 tomatoes
2tbsp tomato paste
1 cube of vegetable stock

Chop all the vegetables.

First add the chopped beets to the frying pan with 2tbsp of vegetable oil (sunflower or rapeseed).
Cook on low for about 10-15 minutes, sweating the veg and stirring frequently. This brings the sweetness out, and the beets acquire a deeper flavour.
I have mentioned already in the other borscht recipe posts that you might skip the frying bit and put all the sliced vegetables together, but you won't get the same depth of flavour. Remove the cooked beets and add them to the big cooking pot.
Repeat the process with the chopped carrots, add a bit more oil to the frying pan. Slightly fry them with the finely sliced parsnip and sweet pepper.
Plunge whole tomatoes in the boiling water, then into cold one, so that you can peel them easier. Chop the tomatoes. Add the tomatoes to the pan with the tomato paste. Add the chopped cabbage and potatoes as well as the stock cube.
Pour enough water to cover all the veg and about 2cm over. Cook for about 20 minutes.

When cooking a borscht, I like to add a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste. Though Cirio is an Italian brand famous for its tomato products, and this is a Russian recipe, Cirio tomato paste is an excellent ingredient for the Russian soup.

If you're an omnivore and don't care much for vegetarian recipes, I have a couple of posts for meat-based borscht which Mum cooks - see Mama's borscht (with chicken) and Mama's borscht with meatballs. Both are delicious.

Disclosure: I received a selection of Cirio products for using in recipes.

Vegetarian Borscht with Beet Leaves

Last week we had a farmers' market in town. It happens once a month ( we have a usual weekly fruit & veg market too, but it's not necessarily selling local produce), and whenever I have a chance, I enjoy buying locally grown veggies as well as freshly made butter, cheese and other food products.
This time I bought a delicious Cotswolds honey, a block of Cheddar and Farmhouse butter, plus a bag of fresh peas in pods as well as spring onions and beets.
I was lucky to find very fresh beets at the farmers' market, it would have been a sin not to use the fresh leaves when they looked so good. They taste wonderful in soups, and make a great substitute for cabbage.

I haven't cooked borscht for a while, and really fancied some. You can make it a vegetarian or vegan. And if you're a meat eater, then there is a variety of meat-based borscht recipes too.

Vegetarian borscht with beet leaves
Ingredients:
2 small beets
a big bunch of beet leaves (from 4 small beets)
2tbsp olive oil
1 medium carrot
1 clove of garlic
1 tomato
1 heaped tbsp tomato puree (I used Supercirio double concentrated tomato puree)
1 big potato
1tsp vegetable stock (powdered)

Peel and chop the beets (first in quarters, then slice thinly). Thoroughly wash the beet leaves, and chop them finely as well.
Heat up 2tbsp of olive oil in the frying pan and fry the beets for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the finely chopped garlic and carrot, cook for another couple of minutes before adding a chopped tomato and cooking for 2-3 minutes more.
Put the contents of the frying pan into a medium sized pan, cover with water and cook for about half an hour.
Add the peeled and chopped potatoes in the last 20 minutes of cooking, while the beet leaves should be cooked no more than 5 minutes.
Add a tablespoon of tomato puree and a bit of a vegetable stock too. Season well.

Serve hot, with freshly chopped spring onions or flat leaf parsley. A spoonful of soured cream or Greek style yougurt wouldn't go amiss, and you might also add a halved hard-boiled egg too.

It is a lovely spring soup, full of flavour and colour.

I used a Supercirio double concentrated tomato puree from Cirio, an Italian brand known for its tomato products. But if you don't have this particular brand of tomato puree, any good quality similar product would do.

You could also try a different version of this beetroot soup, cooked with new nettle tips - see my recipe for Vegetarian borscht with the nettles.

If you're a meat eater, have a look at my Mum's borscht recipe.

Sharing my recipe with a few foodie linkies - Recipe of the Week

Tasty Tuesdays

Mama's borscht

It's that time of the year, when Mum comes to visit us. Every time she stays with us, I ask her to cook a few of my favourite Russian dishes, like borscht, pirozhki or cutlets. Mum's culinary repertoire is very much Southern Russian rather than the Northern one which is local to my home town. I was born and grew up in a big city in the North East of Russia, called Perm. My parents were sent there as young specialists when a new chemical factory was open in Perm in the late 1960s. You might know my home town featured as Yuryatin in Doctor Zhivago. My Mum brought her love of Southern food and recipes with her, as well as her Southern accent, which was a cause of amusement for the locals. 

There are as many recipes for borscht as there are cooks, and even my Mum varies her borscht, depending on the season and also on which meat she cooks with. She makes a vegetarian version or two as well..
This time she cooked a borscht with meatballs.

Borscht
Ingredients:
400g minced beef
1 medium egg
3 medium potatoes
3tbsp vegetable oil (e.g. sunflower oil)
3 medium carrots
2 beets
3 big tomatoes
1 sweet pepper
1/2 cabbage (about 300g)
beet leaves from 2 beets, finely chopped
1/2 onion
1tbsp tomato paste
salt, pepper

First make the meatballs by mixing the minced beef with a raw egg and a peeled and grated potato. Roll into meatballs about 4cm in diameter, the size of a walnut. Cook the meatballs in salted boiling water for 10 minutes, then remove them with a slotted spoon. Filter the broth in which the meatballs where cooked via a mesh strainer.

Chop all the vegetables. First add the chopped beets to the frying pan with 1tbsp of sunflower oil (you can use the olive oil as well, or the rapeseed oil). Cook, stirring, on low for about 10-15 minutes, sweating the veg. This brings the sweetness out, and the beets acquire a deeper flavour.
You might skip the frying bit and put all the sliced vegetables together, but you won't get the same depth of flavour. Remove the cooked beets and add them to the broth.
Repeat the process with the chopped carrots. Slightly fry them with the finely sliced onion and garlic.
Plunge whole tomatoes in the boiling water, then into cold one, so that you can peel them easier. Chop the tomatoes. Add the tomatoes to the pan with the tomato paste.
All the vegetables in the pan should be immersed in broth. If there's not enough liquid, add some hot water. Cook for half an hour.
Add the chopped potatoes and chopped beet leaves, cook for another 10-15 minutes.

Serve hot, with a few meatballs in each serving and a generous spoonful of soured cream.

Borscht with beet and carrot greens

I'm happy to try anything once (that is anything reasonably appetizing, so no insects, snakes or animal eyes, brain, or private bits). Recently I talked to my Mum on the phone and mentioned that I cooked a soup with beet leaves. She asked me if I ever prepared any meals with carrot's green tops. No, I haven't, and to remedy that I googled for recipes. Apparently they are edible, and that prompted me to cook a borsht with beet and carrot greens. I found a lovely bunch of carrot at the local market.

Borscht with beet and carrot greens
Ingredients:
2 beets
2 carrots
1 onion
3tbsp olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
2 tomatoes
1 apple
1tbsp vegetable stock powder
2 big handfuls of beet leaves
a handful of carrot greens
2 potatoes
1tbsp chervil
2 spring onions

Chop the onion finely and fry with 1tbsp of olive oil until the onion gets translucent. Remove the fried onions from the frying pan and set aside in a bowl. Add more olive oil to the pan and fry the peeled and chopped beets and carrots for about 5-7 minutes, stirring regularly. Add a chopped garlic to the vegetables and fry for another couple of minutes.
Put the fried vegetables in a deep pan with the chopped tomatoes, apple, chopped carrot greens and vegetable stock, pour enough water to cover the veggies well. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes, then add chopped potatoes to the pan, and cook for another 10+ minutes until the potatoes are cooked. Add the chopped beet leaves in the last 5 minutes of cooking. Add more water as the soup is cooked, so it does look like a soup rather than a stew. Though it is quite a thick soup. Season with salt and add some herbs, like chervil and spring onions.
Serve hot with a dollop of soured cream or Greek style yogurt.
This is a vegetarian version of the soup, you can of course, cook it with the beef or chicken stock.

Now, what about the flavour of the carrot greens? I love the beet leaves in soups, but cannot feign much enthusiasm for the carrot greens. They were OK, edible, but that's about it. There's probably a good reason why they are not as popular in cooking. They might be super healthy, but I didn't like the texture, and flavour didn't convince me either. I was glad that I satisfied my curiosity.
I suppose when the food is scarce then you would eat anything, and this is a Russian equivalent of the cucina povera.
Have you tried cooking the carrot greens?