Creamy Beet Borscht Food

BEET BORSCHT

Steps:

• In a saucepan, bring the beets, carrots, onion, water and salt to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Add broth, cabbage and butter; simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Just before serving, stir in lemon juice. If desired, top each serving with sour cream and chives or dill.

"BASIC" BEET BORSCHT

Steps:

• Cut off beet greens from the beets but leave about an inch or two of the tops on the beets.
• **Option:mince removed beet tops to add later.
• Scrub the beets well.
• In a large pot, add beets and cover with cold water (about 3/4 full).
• Bring the water to a boil and boil this for about 15-25 minutes until the beets are cooked.
• Remove the beets from the water; save the water from the beets ("beetjuice").
• Remove the skins from the beets.
• Strain the"beet juice" (through a cheese cloth lined sieve) into a pot.
• Peel and grate the onion.
• Grate the beets (can use food processor for grating onion and beets).
• Put the grated onion and beets into the pot with the strained beet juice.
• **Option:you can add the finely chopped/minced beet tops, if you want to use them.
• Bring all to a quick boil.
• Add the salt, lemon juice, pepper (optional), and honey (optional), simmer until the honey has dissolved and all is well heated.
• Serve, garnished with a dollop of sour cream (optional).

BEET BORSCHT

Steps:

• Place beets, onion, potatoes and cabbage in a soup pot. Add enough cold water to cover the vegetables completely. Add all other ingredients except sugar and vinegar. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for an hour and a half or so. Adjust seasoning to taste, add sugar and vinegar and simmer for a few minutes more. Serve with a dollop of sour cream.

CREAMY BEET BORSCHT

Steps:

• In a large saucepan or soup pot, heat the oil or butter over medium-high heat. Add the onion and sauté for 5 minutes or until soft. Add the garlic and vinegar and cook until most of the vinegar evaporates, about 3 minutes. Add the chopped vegetables, bay leaves, stock or water and half of the lemon juice. Bring to a boil, immediately reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30 to 40 minutes or until the vegetables are very tender. Add more stock or water as desired. Once the vegetables are cooked, remove the soup from the stove, stir in the remaining lemon juice, and let cool for 5 minutes.
• While the soup is cooking, combine the sour cream with most the chopped dill, reserving a little dill for garnish, and set aside.
• Once the soup has cooled down a bit, purée with an immersion blender or in batches in a food processor or countertop blender until smooth. Return the soup to the stove and gently heat over low heat. Season with salt and black pepper and serve warm or chilled in bowls with a dollop of the sour cream and dill mixture. Garnish the bowls with the remaining chopped dill.

A BETTER BORSCHT (BEET) SOUP

Steps:

• Place pork hocks in a stock pot and cover with 6 cups cold water (or enough to really cover them. Cover and place over fire until the hocks come to a boil.
• While this is coming to a boil, chop your onions, celery, carrots and beans.
• When the pot has boiled there will be a lot of foam at the top of the pot, Pour everything out and rinse the pot and meat well, then move to step 4. This is so that you don't have floaty things in the soup later (personally I often miss this step and don't mind the results at all). If you decide to miss cleaning everything just move straight to step 4 right away. Otherwise, you need to add 6 cups (or more, you need enough to cover them) clean cold water before step 4.
• Add the garlic, seasonings and the chopped vegetables.
• Bring the pot back to a boil, turn down and simmer 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until the pork hock is loosened and tender.
• Remove the pork hock from the pot and cool. Return the stock to the fire and continue simmering until you've moved to the next step. While the pork hock is cooling, chop the potato and prepare the first four beets.
• To prepare the beets, peel them, cut them lengthwise in half (through the stem and top), turn cut side down and slice into 1/8" thin slices across the width of the beet. Lay the slices down and cut these into 1'8" slices across the width of the beet. This method gives the prettiest presentation.
• Add the potato to the pot and return the soup to a slow boil, then add the beet slices. DO NOT LET THE SOUP BOIL ONCE THE BEETS ARE ADDED OR IT WILL LOSE IT'S COLOR.
• While this is coming up to heat, clean the pork hock and return them to the pot. Make sure to get all the ugly bits and fat, but leave the meat as whole as you can, better to shred it in you bowl! Trust me!
• Leave this to simmer very slowly until the potato is cooked and the beets are tender. Meanwhile, chop the beet stalks (if they are tender) and the leaves; and peel and grate the final 2 beets.
• Add the peas and tops/leaves to the pot. When the peas are cooked add the grated beets (this is more to thicken the soup and add back any color that may have been lost before; and also DH loves the addition of shredded beat to this cause that's the way his mom made borscht). Continue to cook VERY SLOWLY.
• Once everything is tender you can finally add the dill and 1/2 teaspoon of sour salt. Tasting is important here, I usually add about 1 1/2 teaspoons of sour salt myself, but I prefer it a bit sour.
• I taste all the way through because I love the way the flavor builds, but it is very important at the end. Adjust the dill, salt and sour salt carefully, with some practice you'll find a soup that everyone loves.
• Add more water if this soup begins looking dry, but it is a thick soup so doesn't require a lot of broth - cream will be added at the table.
• You can park the soup overnight in the fridge and remove all the fat that rises the next day. This soup is excellent on day 1 but even better day 2, and healthier when the fat is removed.
• The broth shouldn't be sweet (the sweetness will happen with every bite) and it should have a bit of a sour tang (I like mine quite sour)and a taste of dill (and quite dilly). The soup SHOULD NEVER be salty because the meat may call for some seasoning in the bowl.
• This soup is better the next day, and may be put in jars and canned (10 minutes in a water bath) or frozen (but I find the beans go off when it's frozen so would leave them out in this case).
• Add sour cream or whipped cream at the table as a garnish. More fresh dill is pretty and tasty as well.
• Ask my friend Katlin - he loves this soup!

CREAMY BEET SOUP WITHOUT ALL THE CREAM

Steps:

• Heat the oil in a dutch oven or large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and sauté 3 minutes or until tender.
• Add broth and next 6 ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered 20 minutes or until the beets and potato are tender. Be sure to discard bay leaf at this point.
• Puree mixture using an immersion blender. You may also use a blender or food processor, being sure to process in 3 batches. The blender will probably give the smoothest results, but I thought the immersion blender gave satisfactory results (plus was easy to use). Return pureed mixture to the pot if necessary. Warm soup over low heat 5 minutes. Remove and stir in lemon juice.
• Remove 1/2 cup of the soup and transfer this into a small bowl. Combine it with the sour cream, stirring with a whisk.
• Ladle the soup into individual bowls and top each serving with one tablespoon of the sour cream mixture. Using the tip of a knife, swirl the sour cream, making a pretty design.
• This recipe makes 8 servings (3/4 cup each) at 74 calories.