home → First meal The borscht should be as red as it should be. How to cook classic red borscht according to a step-by-step recipe with photos. Why do beets lose color in borscht?

The borscht should be as red as it should be. How to cook classic red borscht according to a step-by-step recipe with photos. Why do beets lose color in borscht?

Do you want to please your household with delicious beetroot borscht, but don’t know a proven recipe? In this article, you will find a comprehensive answer on how to cook delicious red borscht quickly, satisfyingly and very appetizing.

Red borscht recipe

Little tricks

To cook this dish correctly, you need to know and remember to use small tricks. Not every housewife can make delicious borscht, a real red or rich burgundy color.
In order not to spoil the overall impression of aromatic dish pale yellowish tint; when frying beets, you need to add a little vinegar or lemon juice. Acid is an excellent protector of beet color. Beets should also be added at the very end of cooking, 10–15 minutes before, so that all the beauty does not boil down and disappear.
The secret of the unique aroma of real borscht lies in the addition of fresh garlic to the prepared dish before serving. It will help to strengthen and decorate it fresh herbs, possessing a fragrant and deep bouquet of tastes and smells.
In order for the cabbage in borscht to cook well and be tasty, you need to chop it, add a little salt and mash it with your hands until the vegetable releases a little juice. Only after this add her cooking soup.
To avoid strange aftertaste, cook carefully. meat broth, you need to thoroughly descale it. If you cook meat in a multicooker, then you should strain the resulting broth, since gray meat protein really likes to stick to the wall and bottom of the multicooker bowl. Read more: .

Amazing recipe classic beetroot borscht

Taking note of these tips, you can consider in detail the step-by-step recipe for traditional borscht with meat. To bring it to life you will need the following required ingredients:

6 pcs. medium potatoes;
4.5 liters of plain water;
1–1.5 kg of young pork on the bone;
2 pcs. small beets and onions;
1 PC. medium carrots;
3–4 cloves of garlic;
1 boiled egg;
2 pcs. scarlet tomatoes;
The amount of shredded cabbage should be more than half the volume of chopped potatoes. For our recipe, half a medium fork is enough;
Refined sunflower lard and oil for frying;
Tomato – 2 tbsp. spoons;
Spices and fresh herbs to taste;
1 teaspoon each of vinegar and sugar.

Step by step recipe

Cooking process

First of all, we clean all the vegetables, having finished with this dirty business, wash the meat thoroughly, put it and 2 whole potatoes in a saucepan, fill it all with water. Cook until the meat is done.

We scald fresh tomatoes with boiling water and easily remove the skin and mode. Chop all the vegetables into strips in advance and chop the garlic. Now you can start the most important thing - frying vegetables.

Fry the lard until it turns into lard, remove them and add a little oil. Fry the garlic and add onions to it, bring everything to a golden color, followed by carrots and beets. Here we remember our first little trick about adding lemon juice or vinegar essence.

Add tomatoes and tomato to this delicious dressing, fry it all, stirring gently. Season this delicacy and simmer until the water completely disappears. Turn off and set aside.

By this time our meat and potatoes were probably already cooked. We take it out, separate the pulp from the seeds and put it back into our broth. Grind the potatoes thoroughly until smooth and send them after the meat; here we cook the remaining shredded potatoes.

When it is cooked, add the roasted beets and grated boiled egg. Immediately add salted cabbage and fresh herbs. Bring to a boil, turn off and let it brew under a closed lid for about 20 minutes. Congratulations, you have prepared the most delicious family dinner!

Chicken borscht with beets in a slow cooker

If you are not a fan of fatty broths, and you don’t have time to cook at the stove, you can cook wonderful borscht with chicken in a slow cooker. So, what do we need to take for this:

Chicken broth – 2 liters;
3 pcs. medium potatoes;
1 piece each beets, carrots and onions;
Garlic;
Oil for frying;
Cabbage;
Sweet pepper, preferably red;
Dried tomatoes, salt, pepper, tomato, herbs - everything to taste.

Peel, wash and chop all the vegetables. We make gravy from onions, peppers and carrots in the “Frying” mode. Add potatoes, chopped boiled meat, shredded cabbage and fill everything with broth, add a little salt, and place the beets in the steam rack.

Set the “Soup” mode for 1 hour. At the end of the program, grate the beets and place the prepared borscht on the floor. Season with all spices except tomato. We set “Soup” again for the same time. About 10 minutes before complete readiness, add the tomato, finely chopped garlic and herbs. In “Maintain temperature” we infuse the soup for another half hour.

Don't be put off by the long cooking time. All vegetables will be cooked perfectly without being overcooked. It is this recipe that makes the borscht incredibly tender and flavorful.

Finally

Bon appetit!

How to cook red borscht

Ingredients for a 3-liter saucepan:

half a small head of cabbage,
beets - 1 piece (large),
bell pepper- 1 PC,
tomato - 2 pcs.
carrots - 1 piece,
onion - 1 piece,
potatoes - 2-3 pcs,
piece of meat on the bone - 300-400 g (beef or pork),
garlic - 1-2 cloves,
greens (parsley, dill),
salt,
hot red pepper - 1 piece,
ground black pepper to taste,
vinegar or lemon juice- 1-2 tbsp.,
sour cream for serving.

Preparation: for the broth, put the meat in a saucepan, pour cold water and put on fire. When it boils, reduce the temperature a little so that the broth simmers slightly, do not forget to skim off the foam, and cook for about an hour and a half. At the end of preparing the broth, put the bay leaf in the pan and add salt.

In order for red borscht to have a beautiful bright color, you need to choose and prepare the beets correctly. It should be strong and dark in color. Wash the beets, peel and cut into thin strips. Pour vegetable oil into a frying pan and put the beets, then add a little water, vinegar or lemon juice and sugar and simmer for 20 - 30 minutes under a closed lid over moderate heat.

Remove the cooked meat from the pan (it should be soft - check with a knife or fork - if the meat is pierced easily, it means it’s ready), let cool. Then remove from the bones, cut into pieces and return to the pan.

Prepare the remaining vegetables for the borscht - wash and peel the carrots and onions. Place grated carrots and finely chopped onion into a frying pan with almost ready beets, stir and cook for another 10 minutes.

Wash and peel the potatoes, wash the bell peppers.

Cut the potatoes and peppers into pieces, shred the cabbage, put everything in a pan with the prepared broth.

After about 15 minutes, add the stewed beets to the pan.

Cut the tomatoes into small cubes and add them to the pan.

Crush the garlic clove, finely chop the greens, wash the hot red pepper and add everything together 5 - 7 minutes before the end of cooking. borscht

Turn off the heat, let the borscht stand on a warm stove for 20-30 minutes and serve, topped with sour cream.

Submit separately Rye bread, lard and garlic.

In some regions, crushed lard and garlic are added to a pot of borscht; I think this is also very tasty. You can also serve borscht with garlic dumplings or ears - dumplings made from egg dough with filling. So choose the borscht recipe and the method of serving it that suits your taste and heart the most.

Bon appetit!

There are a lot of borscht recipes. Eat Ukrainian borsch, Lithuanian, Polish, Russian. In each region, borscht is cooked differently - with or without the addition of meat, with beans and sweet peppers, with mushrooms and beet kvass, there are recipes for making borscht with fresh cabbage and potatoes, with crushed lard.

But the main component of any borscht is beets; it is they that create the special taste, color and aroma of borscht. Beets for borscht are pre-processed - baked, boiled or stewed, always with the addition of acid - citric or acetic acid to preserve color.

In the summer they serve cold borscht, called beetroot soup (in Belarus this kind of borscht is called kholodnik).

You put the beets into the boiling broth along with the rest of the raw vegetables.
You cooked the soup too long until the ingredients were completely softened.
You heated the red borscht on the stove and boiled it just in case.

Needless to say, beet varieties with bright yellow, yellow-red and completely white pulp are not able to color the broth burgundy? In addition, the dish can be spoiled by the wrong vegetable. Too large, overgrown beets will not part with coarse fibers, which will be felt even when steamed, fried or boiled.

How to make borscht red

If you cook borscht correctly, the beets will not turn pale, and the soup will retain its juicy red color. There are two nuances here that should not be overlooked. First. Cook the root vegetable separately from the soup; the red color will appear in all its glory. Second. IN vegetable preparation add acid and the result will remain in the broth.

Preparing beets

How to prepare root vegetables for seasoning borscht? First of all, choose the right vegetable specimens. Young vegetables of medium and small sizes will bake faster and will taste more tender than their older counterparts. Beets can be boiled in their skins, baked whole in the oven, or microwave oven, fry in crushed form in a frying pan.

The classic cooking option is to boil it in plain water. To prevent the product from losing its juiciness and brightness, leave it in the peel, without disturbing the integrity, with a tail. You can check readiness with a knife or wooden toothpick;
In the oven, the root vegetable will turn out sweeter and richer. The process will take an hour and a half, provided that you wrap the unpeeled beets in foil;
in a microwave oven the product will reach softness in 50-60 minutes at a temperature of 190 degrees. Don't forget to use a baking bag;
simmer the chopped vegetable in a frying pan for 30-40 minutes, without a lid. As the moisture boils away, add a little broth.

No matter how the ingredient is prepared, it must be brought to a soft state. After combining with the rest of the vegetables, the soup should be removed from the stove and infused without heat treatment.

On a note!

Beets will cook faster if you put them in boiling water. Another way to speed up the process is to quickly cool it after boiling for half an hour. The temperature difference will “bring” the product to readiness in 45 minutes.

Adding acid

What acid, in what volume, when to add to the broth? Only the last question can be answered unequivocally: at the end of the process. The choice of acid depends on the preferences of the housewife.

Acetic acid, apple cider vinegar. Add a teaspoon of acetic acid (9%) or 10 ml apple cider vinegar(up to 5%) into the frying pan with the beetroot bars. If the ingredient is boiled, pass through a grater and pour the acid directly into the soup.
Juice from tomatoes. Follow the proportion of 200 g of juice - 1 liter of broth. It’s better to take the homemade option, or at least homemade tomato paste. It is enough in the amount of 1 teaspoon per liter. Add along with the sautéed vegetables to a pan of boiling broth.
Beet kvass. Fill half a glass container with grated beets, pour boiling water and add 5 g of sugar (for liter jar). Cover the neck loosely and place it near the battery to infuse for 4-5 days. To enhance fermentation, add yeast and a handful of rye crackers. For 3 liters of soup there are 250 g of drink.
Lemon acid. Add 10 g lemon juice to a three-liter pan of broth. It must be completely dispersed before adding the beets.

Some housewives prefer to use grated acid as acid. sour apple, Pineapple juice, ketchup and pickles. Reviews from famous chefs confirm the riskiness of such an undertaking, although experiments in the kitchen can open up new options long ago famous dishes.

Step-by-step recipes

There are a great many recipes for making red borscht. They are prepared on the basis of lean or meat broth, with the addition of mushrooms, beans, apples and other products to the main composition. They have one thing in common: the coloring vegetables are stewed (boiled, fried, baked) separately from the first course and added to the rest at the final stage. This approach allows you to cook borscht so that it is aromatic and red; step-by-step recipes are further proof of this.

Classic borscht

The familiar and beloved red borscht requires patience and time. But the result, if you strictly follow the recipe, lives up to your expectations. On the second day, the soup becomes truly tasty: rich, aromatic, nutritious.

Ingredients:

beef on the bone – 1 kg;
potatoes - 6 medium tubers;
cabbage forks - 0.5 kg;
medium beets - a couple of pieces;
tomato paste (homemade) – 40g;
carrots - a couple of pieces;
onion - one turnip;
garlic – 2 cloves;
vinegar - 6 grams;
vegetable oil – 35 g;
salt - to taste;
parsley leaves, fresh dill;,
spices.

How to cook:

Prepare the meat, cut it. Place in a container of cool water and bring to a boil. Remove the foam and simmer for 2 to 2.5 hours. Add salt 13-15 minutes before turning off. Cut the finished meat into small pieces. It is better to add beef to the soup before serving: it will remain rich in meat juices, without the aftertaste of vegetables.

On a note!

Broth for borscht is good from any meat: veal, pork, lamb, poultry, pieces of meat on the bones. To make the broth rich, after boiling, reduce the heating power and cook over low heat for 2 to 2.5 hours. To prevent the broth from becoming cloudy, do not forget to skim off the foam.

While the broth is being prepared, remove the skins from the boiled vegetables. Peel the garlic and onion. Chop the beets into long segments, carrots, onions and potatoes into squares. Shred the cabbage using a shredder or cut it by hand. The smaller it turns out, the more tender it will be in the soup.

It’s convenient if two frying pans are heated on the stove at the same time: in one fry the beetroot strips, in the other – carrots, onions, and tomato paste. Place the last vegetables on the heated surface in this order. Don't forget to add a tablespoon of sunflower oil to each fry. After 15 minutes, pour vinegar into the beetroot dressing.

Place the potato cubes into the boiling broth, after 5-7 minutes add the chopped cabbage. After 10 minutes, you can transfer the carrot-onion mixture into the broth from the frying pan, after 15 minutes - beetroot dressing. Pass the garlic through a press, through a grater or finely chop with a knife. It should be in the soup 5-6 minutes before turning off. Remove the dish from the stove, add chopped herbs. In 30 minutes you can call your family for lunch.

With chicken broth

The combination of chicken broth and fresh sorrel gives unique taste, which is especially noticeable in the summer version of the familiar borscht. The good thing about this recipe is that there is no acetic acid. Sorrel and tomatoes will prevent your favorite soup from losing its stunning red color.

Products:

chicken gherkin – up to 500 g;
beets – 2 small or 1 medium;
carrots – 1 pc.;
onion - half a large turnip;
sorrel – 35 g;
tomato paste – 35g;
salt to taste;
herbs, spices.

How to cook:

Rinse the bird, remove the entrails, and place on the stove. Add salt after a quarter of an hour from the moment of boiling. After 30-35 minutes, remove the chicken. When cool, separate the meat from the bones. Peel the vegetables, chop everything except the carrots. Grind it using a grater.

Place the beetroot cubes in boiling water, after five to six minutes it will be the turn of the potatoes. Fry the carrot-onion mixture in oil, add tomato paste and dried herbs. Salt it a little.

Finely chop the sorrel, mix it with the rest of the ingredients and add to the pan. After 8-10 minutes, finish cooking. When pouring into plates, do not be lazy to add sour cream, herbs and, of course, gherkin meat.

Lean

During Lent, you want to treat yourself to a rich soup. The Lenten version with green beans and mushrooms will come in handy in this case. You can use canned legumes for this recipe, but it’s better to choose frozen ones. green beans. Porcini mushrooms, chanterelles or boletus mushrooms can be taken dried, frozen or fresh. The recipe shows the dosage of the latter.

Ingredients:

porcini mushrooms – 230 g;
green beans – 100 g;
cabbage fork – 1/3, approximately 150-170 g;
beets, onions, carrots - one each;
potatoes and tomatoes - a couple of pieces each;
apple cider vinegar – 17 ml;
olive oil – 35 ml;
salt;
dried herbs.

How to cook:

Boil the porcini mushrooms in salted water for 20-25 minutes. Chop the root vegetables and cabbage leaves. Pour the potatoes into a container where the borscht is boiling. After seven to eight minutes you can add the cabbage.

Saute beetroot strips in olive oil, sprinkle with acetic acid a couple of minutes before the end. Heat the carrot-onion mixture in a preheated saucepan until soft. Add defrosted beans, chopped tomatoes, and spices. Lightly salt. Add the contents of both pans to the broth. Wait until it boils and immediately turn off the heat.

Add chopped green celery, cilantro and parsley. Close the lid and let the soup brew for an hour and a half.

On a note!

Mushroom is no less tasty. Soak the beans in water for half a day, then boil them in fresh water (30 minutes is enough). For the remaining half hour, the beans are cooked in vegetable broth. The broth left after the beans should be poured into borscht. Next, cook according to the recipe given above.

Cold borscht

Cold beetroot is good in the hot summer. It is prepared without cabbage and always with celery. You can use the mixture as broth bread kvass and beet broth. But the first course will be much tastier if the base is pork ribs broth. Serve beetroot soup with half a boiled egg and sour cream.

Products:

rack of pork ribs- 1 kg;
beets – 1 pc.;
carrot – 1 pc.;
onion – 1 pc.;
potatoes - two tubers;
tomatoes – 2 medium;
dried celery (root) – 1 tsp;
pepper – 4 peas;
bay leaf – 2 pcs.;
vinegar – 1 tbsp;
garlic – 2 shares;
salt, herbs.

Cook the broth using prepared meat (washed, chopped) with the addition of onions, celery and spices. Simmer the grated beets in a saucepan with vinegar and water (about a third of an hour). Add the remaining chopped vegetables to the broth. Add salt and simmer the contents of the pan over low heat for 15 minutes. Then add garlic and herbs. Close the lid and set the table after 40 minutes.

Borscht in Ukrainian

known all over the world. What is the secret of its popularity and excellent taste? Experts say it's all about one ingredient. Without it, the famous dish will turn into regular soup. Lard is the main highlight of the recipe.

lard – 50-60 g;
pork ribs– 500 g;
potatoes - 6 tubers;
sugar – 2 tsp;
cabbage - 250 g;
ghee – 15 g;
onion - a couple of turnips;
vinegar – 1 tsp;
garlic cloves – 5 pcs.;
Bell pepper- a couple of pieces;
carrots – 2 medium;
greens and parsley root;
laurel – 1 leaf;
tomato – 3-4 medium;
flour – 30 g;
salt.

Make pork broth. Cut carrots, peppers and beets into strips, potatoes into cubes. Grate the cabbage on a shredder. Fry the carrots in a frying pan (in melted butter). Add the beets seasoned with vinegar to the pan. After 6 minutes, transfer the mixture to the soup pot. After 10 minutes of cooking over low heat, add the remaining vegetables and cook for another 1/6 hour.

Melt lard in a heated frying pan, fry onions, herbs and spices. Sauté until done with the addition of flour. Then arrange the tomatoes, add sugar. Place in the pan for 5 minutes and combine with the rest of the ingredients. Add salt, bring to a boil, remove from heat. Press the garlic and herbs into the soup. Serve with sour cream.

With beef

Those who are watching calories in their diet will need: nutritious and not fatty. The good thing about this recipe is that it requires a minimum of ingredients.

Ingredients:

beef – 700 g;
herbs for broth;
traditional vegetables from the above recipes;
salt, sugar;
wine vinegar – 1 tsp;

The broth is made from meat with thyme and tarragon. Saute chopped carrots, beets, and onions. Season with salt and add a little sugar. Shredded cabbage and potatoes go straight into the soup. Add the vinegar to the broth, and only then transfer the dressing from the frying pan to the pan. Add garlic and turn off heat.

Borsch with sauerkraut and pickled beets

Red borscht can be made extremely useful for the body, filling it with vitamins. You can increase the amount of vitamins C, K, and B using sauerkraut. It contains lactic acid, sodium, zinc, phosphorus and other minerals.

Products:

meat broth – 2500 g;
sauerkraut – 200 g;
pickled beets – 400 g;
carrots, potatoes, onions - 1 pc.;
tomato - a couple of pieces;
garlic – 2 shares;
sugar – 15 g;
salt - to taste;
vegetable oil - 2 tbsp.

Chop the vegetables. Place potatoes and pickled beets into the boiling broth. After 10 minutes, add tomatoes, cabbage, garlic and spices. Add some salt. Fry on sunflower oil carrots with onions and separately – cabbage with sugar. Combine the products and keep on low heat for 10 minutes. Leave the soup to steep for half an hour.

The options proposed above are easy to improve. Lightly fry the potatoes instead of immediately boiling them in the broth. Combine two types of meat for a decoction, 50 x 50. Grind allspice in a mortar. Wrap the finished dish in a blanket so that it sits like in an oven, and serve it with country sour cream, pampushki and a plate of fresh herbs. Try any of the suggested recipes, and the happiness of your loved ones will be your reward.

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Kitchen appliances and supplies: pans - 2 pcs., blender (chopper), frying pan, bowl, spoon, board, knife.

Ingredients

Meat broth	2 l
Beetroot (large)	1.5 pcs.
Carrots (small)	1 PC.
Sugar	1.5 tbsp. l.
Onion (small)	1/2 pcs.
Salt	taste
Cabbage (small head)	¼ pcs.
Oil for frying	50 g
Garlic	4 cloves
Tomato paste	1.5 tbsp. l
Pepper	a couple of pinches
Salted lard	50 g
Wine or apple vinegar	1 tbsp. l.
Bay leaf	1-2 pcs.
Sour cream for serving	6 tbsp. l.

How to choose the right products

Choose beets that are dark burgundy in color, oval-spherical in shape, up to 10 centimeters in diameter. Do not use fodder beets for borscht - they are larger in size and have a lighter shade. Such beets are tougher and may contain a lot of nitrates.

Choose high-quality vegetables, without signs of rot or sprouting, and not limp. The green parts of carrots and potatoes must be cut off, as they contain solanine, which is hazardous to health.

Step-by-step preparation

Peel the beets (one and a half large or two medium ones) and cut into strips.
Transfer it to a saucepan, pour half a glass or a glass of water (the water should cover the beets), add one and a half tablespoons of sugar and tomato paste. Simmer the beets until softened.
Peel one small carrot and cut it into strips.
Cut half a small onion into half rings.
Sauté vegetables in oil until softened for a few minutes.
Cut a quarter of a small head of cabbage into strips (shred).
Put it in broth (2 liters), bring to a boil, add salt (half a teaspoon).
Add sautéed vegetables. Cook for 5-7 minutes.
Peel the garlic (4 cloves), put it in a blender, add a little pepper, 50 grams of finely chopped lard and grind.
Add a tablespoon of wine or apple cider vinegar to the pan with cabbage and vegetables. We add vinegar so that the beets do not lose their color and the borscht is red-raspberry in color. Also, thanks to vinegar and sugar, its taste will be sweet and sour.
Transfer the stewed beets and add a bay leaf.
Add lard and garlic to the borscht. Mix and taste. If necessary, add more salt, spices, seasonings.
Let the borscht brew for 15-20 minutes.

Innings

Borscht is served in deep plates. Place a spoonful of sour cream in the center (no need to stir it). You can sprinkle with finely chopped herbs. The borscht is served with bread, chopped lard and garlic, or you can make a pate of lard and garlic by grinding them in a blender and spreading it on bread.

Did you know? You can also bake donuts to go with the borscht. To do this, prepare yeast dough: for 1 serving, take 80 g of flour, 35 g of water, 5 g of sugar, 3 g of yeast (fresh), a teaspoon of vegetable oil and a little egg for greasing the donuts.

Place yeast, sugar, a pinch of salt, flour in warm water and knead the dough thoroughly. We give him an hour and a half to come. We form balls weighing 30 grams, place them on a greased baking sheet close to each other. To make them easier to separate from each other after baking, grease them on the sides with vegetable oil. Let it sit a little longer, brush with egg and bake for 7-8 minutes at 180 degrees.

We prepare gravy for the donuts - grind the garlic with salt in a mortar, add a little boiled water and vegetable oil. You can pour the gravy over the donuts, or you can dip them in it.

Video recipe for classic borscht

In this video, a professional chef will tell you how to cook borscht and share his culinary secrets.

To make the borscht richer and thicker, add potatoes to it., cut into medium cubes. When to add it depends on how long you cook the cabbage in the borscht. If the cabbage is chopped very finely, add the potatoes first. Boil it for 10 minutes and then add the cabbage. If the cabbage is cut into checkers (squares), add it along with the potatoes.
You can also add beans, pre-boiled until tender, to the borscht.
The beets can be pre-cooked or baked in the oven. This will shorten the cooking time of the borscht. Beets prepared in this way need to be peeled, chopped and added to sautéed vegetables. Fry everything together with the addition of sugar, vinegar and tomato paste. Pour some water and simmer for another couple of minutes. These vegetables should be added to the borscht 5-7 minutes before the end of the cooking process.
If, despite adding vinegar, the borscht still loses its color, add a little beet juice (half a glass) at the very end of cooking. Boil the borscht and turn it off. The color is also lost from long and vigorous boiling, so it is very important to observe the cooking time.
Broth for borscht can be cooked with meat(with pork, beef), as well as meat and bone (with pieces of meat and with ribs, in this case, first cook the ribs until half cooked, and only then add the pieces of meat). Add onion and carrots to the broth for taste, which we remove after cooking. You can also cook it.

Other cooking options

It cooks even faster, using fewer utensils for cooking, and, accordingly, less time spent on cleaning.

If you like exotic things, cook Thai or Chinese. These first courses are not difficult to prepare, and the result will exceed all expectations.

I hope you enjoyed my recipe for classic red borscht. I tried to tell you everything I know about its preparation. If you have your own secrets of delicious borscht, share them with me in the comments, I will be grateful. Prepare borscht according to my recipe, and the path to your partner’s heart will be shortened several times!

There are sometimes more controversies around borscht than around politics. In fact, no one knows what proper borscht is. It should be tasty - that’s the main rule,” says Ilya Lazerson, president of the St. Petersburg Guild of Chefs. - Personally, I don’t like it when there are potatoes and sweet peppers in borscht. In my version there are none, and that is my right. Some people like sauerkraut and pre-boil or bake the beets. I like it more raw beets. I cut it into thin strips, add a little sugar, water, vegetable oil, and after 5 minutes add tomato paste. Then I stew the beets and add them to the pan at the very end of cooking. Thanks to this, the soup acquires a rich, appetizing shade. And this is just one of the secrets of delicious borscht.

1. With or without broth?

For vegetarian borscht, meat broth is not needed. But if you are a fan classic soup, which means you need to prepare a rich broth. For it, you can take beef brisket, chicken or pork and beef in a 1:1 ratio. It is better to pre-fry the pieces of meat for flavor. Or immediately put the meat on the bones in cold water and put it on fire. As soon as it boils, remove the foam, add salt, bay leaf, a few peas of black and allspice and cook for 2-3 hours until the meat is completely cooked. Then you need to strain the broth, remove the meat from the bones, chop it and return it back to the pan.

2. Stew the beets separately!

If you put the beets in a common pan and then cook for about an hour, all the color will disappear from the vegetable and the borscht will turn out faded. To avoid this, you need to grate the root vegetable on a coarse grater or cut it into thin strips with a knife. Then add water, a teaspoon of sugar and be sure to add a little acid (a couple of spoons wine vinegar or lemon juice), this will help the root vegetable retain its color. Place the beets on the fire and simmer until they become soft.

3. Or maybe cook?

The second popular option for preparing beets for borscht is to boil them in advance. It is important to rinse the vegetable thoroughly before immersing it in water, without cutting off the roots and top, otherwise the juice will “go” into the pan. For better preservation of the bright shade, do not salt the water, but pour 1/2 tsp into it. vinegar or citric acid. Cooking time depends on the size of the fruit and the season - young small root vegetables are usually cooked for 20-30 minutes, old ones - 1-1.5 hours. However, today most chefs advise baking beets rather than boiling them. To do this, wrap the fruit in food foil and place it in the oven for 30-40 minutes (time depends on the size of the tuber) at +180°C. In baked beets, the taste and color do not “dissolve” in water, so this method of preparation is considered the most successful.

Borsch classic photo: shutterstock.com

Ingredients:

Beef brisket - 500 g
Pork - 500 g
Carrots - 1 pc.
Onions - 1 pc.
Beets - 2 pcs.
Cabbage - 300 g
Sweet pepper - 1 pc.
Potatoes - 200 g
Tomato paste - 1 tbsp. l.
Bay leaf, pepper, salt - to taste

How to cook:

Place the meat in a saucepan, add 3 liters of cold water, bring to a boil, cook for 2 hours.
Cut the carrots into strips, the onion into half rings, fry until golden brown. Place in a saucepan along with the chopped peppers.
After ten minutes, add cabbage, then potatoes.
Cut the beets into thin strips, simmer for 10 minutes, then add tomato paste, cover and cook for another 20 minutes.
Place in borscht 10 minutes after potatoes. Cook for another 10 minutes.
Add bay leaf, salt and pepper. Remove from heat and let steep for 20 minutes.

4. Don't forget the cabbage

Many people call borscht beetroot soup. In fact, these are different soups. Borscht has cabbage, but beetroot soup does not. Most often, fresh chopped into strips is used for borscht. White cabbage. But there may be variations on the theme. For example, you can put red cabbage or savoy cabbage in a pan - it looks similar to white cabbage, but has a bright green color and corrugated, bubbly leaves. There are even variants of borscht with colored and Brussels sprouts, but with them you still get a soup that is far from the classic one. Some people like to add sauerkraut instead of fresh cabbage. It must be washed, chopped, simmered separately until soft and only then added to the borscht.

5. Unsweetened couple: onion and carrot

Nutritionists are against all sorts of sautés that add calories to the dish. But if we speak from the point of view of taste and gastronomic rules, then borscht without sautéing is not borscht. First on vegetable oil You need to fry the onion into strips, then add carrots cut into strips. When the vegetables acquire a golden hue, add tomato paste and simmer everything together for a few more minutes. Some housewives believe that it is better to use tomatoes instead of pasta - fresh or in own juice. Nevertheless, many professional chefs insist: only paste has the concentrated taste that is so necessary for the soup, which will give the borscht a beautiful color and pleasant sourness.

6. Vegetables - to taste

In addition to beets, carrots, onions and cabbage, other vegetables are added to the borscht to taste: potatoes, tomatoes and fresh sweet peppers, which are also chopped into strips. In general, do not forget that all products in the soup should be cut approximately equally. You can use any color of pepper: green, yellow, red, orange. The main thing is to maintain the proportion: there should be a lot of beets and cabbage in the borscht, and 2-3 times less potatoes, tomatoes and peppers.

7. Who is first in line?

Borscht, like most other soups beloved by Russians, is a filling first course. It is in the West that they prefer pureed soups, but we should have a broth in which various tasty additives float. In order for these additives to be harmoniously combined with each other and to obtain the correct consistency (and not when one product is overcooked and the other crunches on the teeth), it is necessary to observe the correct seasoning of the soup.

The first thing to go into the pan is shredded cabbage; it takes longer to cook than others. Then - sweet peppers and potatoes. At the very end, you need to add sautéed onions, carrots and tomato paste into the borscht, and finally, ready-made sour beets. After this, cook the soup for no more than 5 minutes. If you are preparing borscht with sauerkraut, it also needs to be added in the finale. If you add sour beets or cabbage first, and then potatoes, the latter will take a very long time to cook (the acid will interfere).

8. The final touch - lard with garlic

Many borscht lovers simply cannot imagine this soup without garlic and lard dressing. It gives the dish a bright juicy taste and a very appetizing garlic aroma... For the dressing you will need skinless lard, garlic and fresh herbs: dill and parsley. The products must be cut and crushed in a mortar or blender until pureed. Then this fatty mush with a delicious aroma is added to the prepared hot borscht, the lid is closed, and the soup is infused for at least 15 minutes. After this, you should not boil the contents of the pan, otherwise the aromas of garlic and herbs will disappear.

9. Lush, rosy donuts

We say “borscht”, and the word “pampushka” comes to mind! Pampushka is a round bun made from yeast dough. It is better to start cooking it immediately after you set the broth to cook, because the yeast dough must rise properly and have time to bake. Water, egg, salt, sugar, vegetable oil, yeast, flour - the ingredients for buns are simple. When the dough has risen, roll the balls and place them on a baking sheet, but remember that the donuts will rise during baking. If you want perfectly rounded buns, place them at a decent distance from each other. However, even if they stick together, they can be separated while hot and poured with garlic dressing. For dressing, take vegetable oil, crushed garlic, chopped dill with parsley and a little water. Mix everything and pour onto freshly baked plump donuts.

10. You can’t go anywhere without sour cream!

If a tureen has been gathering dust on the shelf of your sideboard for a long time and has not been used, take it out and use it for its intended purpose - it is in this beauty that borscht is usually served on the table for a large company. Place additives and snacks corresponding to the dish nearby - donuts, bread, chopped herbs and, of course, rich sour cream. Well, what would borscht be without sour cream!

Borscht with beans Photo: shutterstock.com

Borsch with prunes and mushrooms

Ingredients:

Prunes - 200 g
Dried porcini mushrooms - 20 g
Potatoes - 4 pcs.
Fresh cabbage- 300 g
Beets - 3 pcs.
Onions - 1 pc.
Carrots - 1 pc.
Tomato paste - 2 tbsp. l.
Sugar - 1 tbsp. l.
Parsley root - 1 pc.
Flour - 0.5 tbsp. l.
Vegetable oil - 3 tbsp. l.

How to cook:

Soak the mushrooms for 2 hours. Then cook for 1 hour. Remove the mushrooms, chop, and save the broth.
Rinse the prunes, add 2 cups of water, add sugar and cook until soft for 10 minutes.
Cut the beets into strips. Heat half the oil in a frying pan, add beets, 1 tbsp. l. tomato paste and mushroom broth, simmer, stirring, over low heat for 15 minutes.
Cut the onion, carrots and parsley root into strips and sauté with butter, tomato and flour for 5 minutes.
Into the boiling mushroom broth lower the cabbage, after boiling, add the potatoes and cook for 15 minutes.
Place in a saucepan stewed beets and sautéed vegetables. Add mushrooms, cooked prunes along with the broth. Add salt and pepper and cook for another 10 minutes.

Dumplings garlic photos: shutterstock.com

Garlic dumplings

Ingredients:

Wheat flour - 200 g
Rye flour - 120 g
Milk - 200 ml
Eggs - 2 pcs.
Yeast - 7 g
Vegetable oil - 50 ml
Sugar - 1 tsp.
Flax seeds - 50 g
Garlic - 4 cloves
Salt - a pinch

How to cook:

Heat the milk until room temperature. Add dry yeast, stir.
Add sugar, 1 egg, vegetable oil, a little sifted flour and flax seeds. Mix.
Add the remaining flour, knead the dough and leave it to rise for 1 hour.
Place on the table and let rise for another 1 hour, covering with a towel.
Make 7-8 round donuts, brush the tops of the buns with yolk and bake for 20 minutes at 180°C.
Grease the still hot pampushki with crushed garlic mixed with a small amount of vegetable oil, salt and water.

The most popular dish in some countries is rich red borscht. Many national cuisines are fighting for the title of his homeland, but still classic version real borscht is considered Ukrainian. This dish has long become a household name, symbolizing home comfort and an efficient, skillful, wise housewife. Every man's dream is a large plate of thick, tasty borscht, without which lunch would not be real. Its irreplaceable attribute is beets (another name is beet). It is this that gives the finished first dish its rich red color. But not all cooks are able to cook red borscht the way it should be. Incorrectly cooked beets, or placed at the wrong time, or the wrong type spoils the appearance of the soup. What is the secret of red borscht, how to cook it so that at the end of cooking it remains red and beautiful?

There are rules and methods for introducing beets into borscht that should not be violated. To prevent it from discoloring, it should not be placed raw in a pan with the borscht being prepared, but must first be sautéed in a frying pan in vegetable oil. You can fry it separately from onions and carrots, or together with them. Second secret: after adding beets to the soup, it should be cooked for no more than 5 minutes. If the vegetable pieces are boiled for a long time, they will lose their red color. After 5 minutes, turn off the soup and leave to simmer for at least another half hour. You know that the most delicious borscht happens on the second day? This is a dish that is not served almost immediately, piping hot. The ingredients should mix well and exchange flavors and colors. Of course, in order for the beets to not remain hard and turn brown in the finished dish, they must be cooked at the stage of stewing in a frying pan.

To add zest and piquancy to the finished soup, you need to add mashed garlic and chopped herbs at the very end of cooking.

Why does borscht lose its red color?

Firstly, there are different varieties beets. It is clear that for borscht you need to choose an intense, dark red color. But it happens that the raw beets were dark, and the borscht from them still turned out not red. Someone says that only the one that has no veins is suitable. Some insist that light veins do not affect the color of the soup. If you grow it yourself, then pay attention to the following varieties: “Bordeaux”, “Cylinder”, “Red Ball” - they guarantee a beautiful red color.

Secondly, the main reason for discoloration does not lie in the variety. You can take the desired variety, but prepare the borscht incorrectly and lose its brightness. The main reason why borscht turns out orange and not red is that this red vegetable is cooked for too long. When boiled for a long time, it boils down and loses its natural bright ruby hue. This means that you need a recipe according to which the beets will not cook for a long time in the pan. This is exactly the recipe for borscht dressing that you will see in the steps below.

Thirdly, the nuance of the age of the beets - young or already seen in storage. Many people write that the young one gives a brighter color than the old one. But have you really never bought old, flabby, “tired” beets, which gave such brightness of colors that any young beets would envy them? So age is not the main thing.

How to cook red borscht so that the beets do not lose color

Let's look at one correct step-by-step recipe, thanks to which you will definitely prepare bright red borscht. This dressing recipe is suitable for any type of soup: with meat - pork, beef, chicken, lean - with beans, sauerkraut. To preserve the color, you need to understand the principle of preparing borscht dressing.

How to cook borscht with red beets: a step-by-step recipe for the correct dressing

Chop vegetables according to your preference: into strips, on a grater or in a blender when you don’t have time. You can cook with tomato paste or ketchup, but during the harvest season it is better to add fresh tomatoes, it tastes better.

Ingredients:

beets - small 2 pcs.;
carrots - 1 pc.;
onion - 1 pc.;
large tomato - 1 pc.;
garlic - 1-2 cloves;
lemon juice - 1 tsp;
salt, pepper to taste;
Sunflower oil - 2 tbsp.

Dressing preparation process

The roast is ready!

What to add to borscht so that the beets do not lose color

Now that you understand the principle proper preparation red borscht, let's look at other ways to preserve the colors of the soup.

How to properly cook borscht with beets and vinegar so that it is red

The acid fixes the dyes. Therefore, even when washing clothes, vinegar is added to the water to prevent them from fading. In Soviet times, to prevent cotton fabric from fading, it was immediately washed in vinegar water, this was a guarantee of maintaining its bright color.

The same technique applies to classic borscht. Beets are one of the few vegetables that contain betacyntin, a natural pigment that gives them a dark burgundy color. This natural dye, just like all the others, responds to the effects of vinegar and does not fade during heat treatment.

Therefore, you can add vinegar to the borscht, or rather, to the same dressing. It doesn't have to be acetic acid! It can be natural, not chemical, vinegar - apple or grape, which have a lower strength level. For apple it is 4-5%, for grape (wine) it is usually about 6%. It is also worth paying attention to rice vinegar, which is now sold in many stores. Look for it on the shelves with ingredients for making sushi. Its strength is only 3%.

To compensate for the sourness that vinegar will add to borscht, sugar is added to the dressing. It will smooth out the taste of the dish. As you know, together with salt, sugar is one of the main taste regulators.

As for the quantity, for a 3-3.5 liter pan, 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon will be enough, depending on what type of vinegar you use.

Lemon or how to make borscht red without vinegar

If you do not want to use vinegar for medical or other reasons, take another acid - citric acid. Well, if we’re going to use it, then, of course, it’s better to take it in its natural form, that is, lemon juice. For 4-5 liters of soup, 1 tablespoon of juice will be enough, which you will get from about 1/3 of a fresh lemon.

Pour the juice into the roast immediately before frying it and, in the same way as vinegar, compensate with sugar.

Cook the beets separately and in advance so that the borscht turns out richly red

Another interesting way to preserve the color of beets is to boil them until tender in advance. Everyone probably cooked it in its uniform for herring under a fur coat or another salad? You can do the same for borscht.

The “uniform,” or rather the peel, will retain the coloring pigment inside and prevent it from going out into the water. But there is one “but”. Under no circumstances cut off either the “butt” or the “tail”! Having damaged the “uniform” with your own hands, you will make an exit for the pigment to the outside, through which part of it will escape. Therefore, rinse the vegetable very well, using a brush or the hard side of a dish sponge.

What to do if the vegetable is large and you don’t need as much? Once you cut the beets, you can no longer cook them in water. But it can be baked in the oven. It is believed that this method is even more useful. Well washed, wiped dry, unpeeled red vegetable is wrapped in foil, put in the oven and baked there at a temperature of 180-200 degrees. Check readiness with a toothpick. In the same way, you can bake not the whole, but any part of it.

To summarize: the secrets of red borscht with beets

The more beets, the richer the color of the dish, so you should take 1.5-2 times more of them than other vegetables. Add other “red” ingredients to the broth: tomato paste or fresh tomatoes, dried paprika. Leave a small piece of raw beets, grate it on the finest grater and add to the broth just before the end of cooking.

If you absolutely do not want to fry vegetables, pour boiling water over the grated beets, then start preparing the borscht. 7-5 minutes before the end of cooking, drain the water and place it in the pan.

And most importantly, do not boil or cook it for a long time, then you will not have a question why borscht with beets loses its red color.

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