UKRAINIAN BORSCHT

with beans and cherries

Portions (1 portion – 400ml):	6
Time:	50 minutes
Difficulty:	/*
Price per portion:	3,65 PLN

Shopping list:

500 mL PISKOREK sour beet soup
1.2L water
3 carrots
2 parsleys
1 small celery
1 kg beetroots
100 g tomato paste
500g potatoes
Bunch of parsley
Bunch of dill
4 cloves of garlic
5 onions
240 g red kidney beans
500 g pork shoulder w/o bones
300 g drilled cherries
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons butter
Black pepper
Salt
3-4 allspice berries
3 bay leaves

Preparation:

Step 1.
Wash vegetables (except beetroots).

TIP: if there is no need to peel, do not do it, vitamins are concentrated in
the peel;)

Dice washed vegetables.

Dice the pork shoulder (2 x 2 cm), put the meat and vegetables in a pot, then pour everything with cold water, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat.

Cook until tender for about 40 minutes.

Step 2.
Cut the beetroots into thin strips, then place them in a saucepan with butter, a tablespoon of oil, honey, salt and tomato paste.

Fry at low temperature, add some broth and cook until tender.

Step 3.
Place the beetroots in a pot with broth, add cherries (drilled) and spices and cook for 20 minutes.

Step 4.
Heat butter in a frying pan, add flour, fry, add broth and immediately add the resulting roux to the borscht. Cook for 5 minutes.

Step 5.
Lastly, add the squeezed garlic, strained beans and beetroot sourdough. Do not cook, only heat up to 900C. Set aside for 3 hours.
Serve Ukrainian borscht with a large amount of thick sour cream and chopped parsley.

Ukrainian borscht is a dish that can hardly be called a soup. It is a thick soup (‘Eintopf’) which, apart from its unique taste, provides a lot of vitamins and microelements. The combination of sweet vegetables, sour fruits and unusual aroma of borscht based on sour beets is as unique as the history of the nation from which this borscht originates.
It is true that there is no one and unique recipe for Ukrainian borscht. There are as many recipes as houses with their housewives and hence a multitude of flavours, and this is probably the extra beauty of this delicious dish wrongly called soup.