Ultimate Borscht 
This recipe is very close to me... its my go to favourite for a wonderful, flavourflul, and colourful soup. I worked on this recipe with different measurements for the last 3 years. A few months ago, with the help of my fiance (an authentic Russian!) I settled on my perfect Borscht recipe. I am going to spill the beans and share it with you my friends, because great food should be shared! The beauty of this soup is the flavour becomes even more unbelievably delicious after a day of sitting in the fridge.
Be warned, this makes a lot of soup! My fiance and I eat it for a few days, every meal, so scale it back.
Ingredients:2tsp olive oil
1/4 head of cabbage, sliced and diced
1 onion chopped (I used red today because it was the only onion I had left... shame)
2 large beets, sliced
3 potatoes, diced
4 carrots, diced
5 cloves of garlic (or more... garlic, who doesn't love more garlic)
1 12oz can diced tomatoes
6 cups Veggie broth
salt and pepper to taste
3 bay leaves
optional garnish: green onions, dill, sour cream (so or otherwise non veggies)
Directions:1. In a sauce pan boil some water and put your beets in there to boil away until they can be pierced with a fork. This helps them retain their colour once they are thrown into the soup, and makes them much easier to peel and chop later.
Also save the beet water once done!2. Meanwhile, in a stock pot toss in your carrots, onion, garlic and potatoes with the olive oil.
3. Saute for 10 minutes, stirring often, do not let them brown
4. Remove beets from their pot, peel and cut them up
(Prepare for this to look like you lost a fight... badly. If you are wearing something you don't want to be pink for the rest of its life, put on an apron or change... seriously, you may want to wear gloves... I find if i work with the beets while they are still warm and wash my hands as soon as I am done cutting them, my skin isn't dyed pink.) 
5. Add tomatoes, beets and stir...
... then add broth, cabbage, salt, pepper, and bay leaves, top off with the water you boiled the beets in until everything is covered.
6. Stir it all together bring to a boil, reduce heat and let bubble away for 30-40 minutes, or until potatoes and carrots are tender.
7. Serve hot with your optional garnishes.
I put dill on mine... tons!!!
and Denis like green onion, or if there is any around "sour cream" and dill and green onions.
Comments (2)
Looks wonderful, I love the color, it's so intense!
@chow - I know! Can you imagine people never try this masterpiece because it's "pink" and thats "weird?" Terribly sad really.