Borscht: one name, a thousand recipes

Borscht is a wonderful meal when you travel in Eastern Europe and Russian-influenced Asia. It's nutritious meat, healthy vegetables, hot, and generally very cheap. There are many local variations, so it will never become boring. I ordered it in nearly every buffet we stopped at during our expeditions across Russia, and I was never disappointed. The more west you travel, the more uninspiring the meal is, so in the Czechia, I do not recommend that you order it in a restaurant. But the locals often know how to prepare a good one.

It's quite common to distinguish "Russian" and "Ukrainian" borscht, but in fact, the situation is much more complicated. My Russian teacher is from Moscow and she was shocked that I use sauerkraut for the meal. But she should be quiet because she uses chicken.

My favourite version is based on borscht served in one restaurant in Gornoaltaisk. As the name suggests, it's a city under the Altai mountains in central Asia. This is the one with sauerkraut. There is a few photos of the kitchen and cooks from the restaurant so you can get a picture of how authentic the borscht is.

Sauerkraut borscht

beef, beetroot, sauerkraut

CuisineRussian

Ingredients

• 500g beef with bones
• salt
• peppercorns
• bay leaf
• 100g carrot
• 100g parsley root
• 1 onion
• 2 beetroots or 700 ml sterilized beetroot
• 500g sauerkraut
• 500g potatoes
• 300g tomatoes
• sour cream

Instructions

1. Put meat into 3l of cold water and boil it. When it's boiling, decrease the temperature and simmer. Remove the foam created during cooking.
2. Approximately 10 minutes before the meat is done, add salt, peppercorns, bay leaf, grated carrot, parsley root and chopped onion.
3. Pull the meat out, remove the bones, cut the meat into small pieces and return it into the broth.
4. Add potatoes and beetroot cut into small cubes. If you use sterilized beetroot, make sure the pieces are small. Let it boil until the potatoes are soft.
5. Add tomatoes cut into small cubes and sauerkraut. Let it slowly boil for 10 minutes.
6. Serve with a soup spoon of sour cream on the top.

Recipe by

Simona Poláková