Borsch is the main first dish of Ukrainian cuisine, there are many varieties of it. Depending on the area, it is cooked with different ingredients: beans, smoked meats, cabbage is not added to some types of borscht (in Belarusian cuisine). Today I want to tell you about some of the secrets of cooking Ukrainian borscht, how to cook the broth and make the dressing. The main component is beets, thanks to which the dish acquires a characteristic taste and aroma. Thanks to a step-by-step recipe with a photo, cooking borscht will be easy and simple!

To prepare borscht, you will need the following ingredients:

3 liters of water
300 – 400 g of meat (pork or beef, or pork ribs) or poultry
2-3 medium potatoes
150 g cabbage
150 g beets
100 g carrots
2 medium onions
750 ml of tomato juice (or 2 tablespoons of tomato paste diluted with water)
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper
Vegetable oil
Before you cook borsch, you need to properly cook the broth – this is the first and important stage in cooking. A few tips on how to do this. These rules apply not only to the preparation of borscht broth, but also to other first courses in meat broth.

1) the broth can be cooked both from pork or beef meat, and from poultry. The broth can be made meat, meat and bone or bone. With the addition of bones, the broth is even more rich.

2) As for the duration of cooking the broth, you need to know that the broth is cooked longer from pork and beef (2-3 hours) than from poultry (1-1.5 hours).

3) The meat is poured with cold, but not hot, water. And, of course, you should not lay the meat in boiling water.

4) The meat for cooking the broth can be immediately cut into pieces and boiled, or you can cook the broth from a large piece (meat or poultry), and after being ready, remove it from the broth and cut into pieces, then put it back into the boiling broth, boil a little.

5) It is possible to prepare a vegetarian (or lean) borscht – in this case, we do not cook the broth from meat or poultry, but immediately lay vegetables and dressing.

6) It is also necessary to take into account that during the cooking of the broth the liquid evaporates, the losses are approximately 5% per hour (with moderate boiling) of the original volume.

7) During the cooking of the broth, it is necessary to remove the foam – the dissolved coagulated protein, so that the broth is more transparent.

Ukrainian recipe borscht:

1. Rinse the meat, cut into pieces, pour cold water and cook for 2-2.5 hours if it is pork or beef. If the bird, then cook for less time – 1-1, 5 hours.
2. While the broth is cooking, we will make a dressing for borscht. To do this, let’s separately let the beets, simmer the onions and carrots separately.

Finely chop the onion, grate the carrot. Pour vegetable oil or put a piece of fat into a preheated pan, pour onions and carrots, fry a little. Then add tomato juice or fruit drink to the vegetables, or dilute the tomato paste with water. Simmer over low heat for 15-20 minutes
3. Cut the beets into strips or cubes. To save time, you can also grate, but it will be right to cut it. Pour into a heated pan with vegetable oil, fry a little. Then add a small amount of water and simmer (stew) for 20 minutes. And here is one point: if you want the beets not to lose their color in the process, add a little vinegar. But I do not add – then the color of the borscht turns out to be more saturated.
4. Peel potatoes and cut into cubes or sticks.
5. When the broth is ready, put the potatoes in it. Cooking time depends on the size of the cut potatoes and on their variety, on average 15 minutes.
6. Chop the cabbage into strips and, when the potatoes are almost cooked, put them in the broth. Boil 3-4 minutes.
7. Then we pour our dressing – stewed onions with carrots and tomatoes, as well as beets into the broth with vegetables. Salt, pepper. Add bay leaf, you can add greens. And turn off. Let it brew a little.
I recommend serving borscht with garlic donuts, sour cream and herbs!

Enjoy your meal! :)