Secrets of cooking delicious borscht. Beef broth - the basis for borscht, soups and other dishes What ingredients are needed to cook borscht

12.03.2022 Snacks

Products
Classic recipe for a 4-liter pan
Beef on the bone- 500 grams, approximately 400 grams of meat and 100 grams of bone.
Traditionally, bone-in beef is used, as the bone deepens the flavor of the broth. However, sometimes beef is replaced with pork, then the dish will turn out to be more fatty, and, as a result, high-calorie. Less often they cook borscht with chicken or turkey meat. In this case, cook less and, as a rule, is cheaper. In general, it is better to take fresh meat on the bone. If meat is frozen, thaw beforehand.
Beet- 2 medium or 1 large, 250-300 grams
Carrot- 1 large
Cabbage- 300 grams
Potato- 3 large pieces or 5 small ones
It is better to take larger potatoes in borscht to make it easier to peel
Tomatoes- 3 pieces
In the classic variation, put a tomato + vinegar. Sometimes this tandem is replaced with tomato paste. Tomato paste is slightly more acidic than tomatoes, but it helps to preserve the bright color of borscht, as it contains vinegar. Or a few canned tomatoes or juice from canned beans (if it includes tomatoes). Cooking in the same way - fry with vegetables. Or you can cook the tomato paste yourself - peel the tomatoes, chop and boil over low heat until the state of the sauce. It’s good to add bell pepper to such a home-made tomato-borscht paste.
Vinegar 9% - 2 tablespoons
To make the color of the dish become rich red and the taste more spicy. For a 4 liter pot, you need 1 teaspoon of 9% vinegar or 2 teaspoons of 6% vinegar; sometimes a tablespoon of sugar is added along with vinegar. Vinegar in cooking can be replaced with freshly squeezed lemon juice (from half a lemon). Also keep in mind that added canned tomatoes or store-bought tomato paste, if they replace tomatoes, already contain vinegar.
Onion- 2 heads or 1 large
Garlic- 3-4 teeth
Dill, parsley- 50 grams
Salt and pepper, lavrushka- taste

These are products that are added to classic borscht. If you want to break the rules, Here's what else is often added to borscht:
1. Mushrooms and beans. Beans will make the dish much more satisfying, and mushrooms will add flavor.
2. Sugar - then borscht will be especially good with sour cream. If the beets are sweet varieties, then you do not need to add. Sugar is added at the very end, so try it and decide for your particular case whether sugar is needed or not.

How to cook borsch - step by step
Stage 1. Boil the meat broth - cook for about an hour and a half.
Wash the beef, pour 3 liters of water into a 4-liter saucepan, put the peeled onion and peppercorns, bay leaf, put the meat in the water, cook over low heat under the lid for 2 hours after boiling. Salt the water at the beginning of cooking - you need half a tablespoon of salt. After boiling the broth, the meat is slightly cooled and disassembled (cut) into pieces, and returned to the broth. The pot is covered with a lid.

Stage 2. Chop and cook vegetables in the correct order - about half an hour.

Finely chop the onion, rub the garlic or finely chop it, rub the beets or chop them into pieces - here to taste. And similarly with carrots, you can rub it, or you can cut it into semicircles. Someone even grinds in a meat grinder. In the classic recipe, variations are acceptable to your taste. Add vegetables to borscht in this order:
- Cabbage - if ordinary, then in front of the potatoes, and if the cabbage is young and tender, then it can be added 5 minutes after boiling the potatoes. If you like cabbage to be crispy, add it along with potatoes.
- Potatoes
- Vegetable roast with beetroot - to be cooked while vegetables are cooked.

Stage 3. Make vegetable frying and add flavoring additives - 15 minutes.
Heat the pan, fry the onion for 5 minutes over high heat, stirring occasionally. Add carrots and garlic to the onion, fry for 5 minutes. Add the beets, fry for 5-10 minutes over medium heat (some people like it when the beets are fried). Then add tomatoes or tomato paste, pour a ladle of broth from a pan with meat into a pan with vegetables, additionally add sugar and vinegar to taste, simmer for a couple more minutes, add to borscht - all the vegetables in it should already be cooked by this moment. It is better to taste both potatoes and cabbage, at the same time check the broth for salt. Boil the roast in borscht for 3 minutes.

Stage 4. Insist borscht - half an hour. The pot with borscht is tightly closed with a lid, carefully placed on a blanket and wrapped around it from all sides, preferably in several layers.

This completes the preparation of borscht. Now it remains only to pour it into plates and serve with sour cream and fresh chopped herbs.

Borsch is not only a fundamental Slavic dish, it is a centuries-old tradition that originated in Kievan Rus, carefully preserved and supported by contemporaries. Rich, fragrant, with a rich taste, borscht on the table is in the blood with mother's milk, without it the life of the Slavic world is not imagined. Therefore, today we will consider the classic borscht recipe with a photo!

As diverse as the Slavic peoples are, so many-sided are the borschts, which differ in national characteristics. Each is good in its own way. What they have in common is the numerous set of ingredients that provide a rich taste.

Moreover, each hostess has her own borscht, a personal vision of a dish with a unique twist. This is her pride and achievement. Not without reason, after all, a home is certainly associated with the smell of homemade, beloved borscht.

Considering the fact that the caring nurse tries to diversify the menu and is in constant search for new recipes, we offer options for exceptionally delicious borscht. Hoping that they will take their rightful place in the notebook of family recipes and will be able to add variety to your diet.

Borsch according to the classic recipe has an excellent taste, it is surprisingly nutritious and satisfying. The useful qualities of the dish are provided by the richness of vegetables and meat.

The classic recipe implies meat broth, the obligatory presence of beets, despite the fact that in some regions it is not used. We will cook beetroot in such a way that it will not dominate in borscht, but, nevertheless, will bring into it its own vitamins necessary for the body.

To prepare borscht, you need to prepare well, purchase fresh and high-quality products. First of all, it concerns meat.

A rich broth is obtained from beef, it is better to buy it on the bone, then the broth will turn out to be more saturated.

We prepare products for a three-liter pan

Five hundred grams of beef meat on the bone;
300 grams of potatoes;
One beetroot (small);
Two medium carrots (including one for the broth);
Three hundred grams of fresh cabbage;
Two medium onions (including one for broth);
Two sweet peppers, preferably red;
A small package of tomato paste, at least three tablespoons. If you have tomato juice or fresh tomatoes, great. You need about five hundred ml of tomato juice;
Spices, as always, at will and taste (in the form of salt, peppercorns, bay leaf);
50 ml. sunflower oil;
A bunch of dill, parsley.

How to cook classic borscht

We cook the broth

Cooking frying

In a preheated frying pan with oil, place the beetroot slices, stirring, fry it for five to seven minutes.
Then add the onion, fry for three minutes, then lay the carrots and half the amount of pepper. Fry everything together for ten minutes. You don't need to overcook the vegetables. Adjust the time, taking into account the characteristics of your stove.
Vegetables are fried - add tomato paste. Stew vegetables with it for 10 minutes. If using tomato juice, pour in 300 ml. (if there is not enough acid, add after), simmer with tomato for 20-30 minutes over low heat.
Next, you need to peel the potatoes, cut them into medium cubes or straws, as you wish.
Throw the potatoes into the broth.
Cut the meat and send it after the potatoes.
Clean the cabbage from unnecessary leaves, cut it into strips.
As soon as the potatoes are ready, throw the cabbage, the remaining sweet pepper, bay leaf, chopped greens.
Cabbage boiled - add frying.
Let the borscht boil well, taste it, add salt and pepper if necessary. Acid can be adjusted by adding tomato juice, a small amount of lemon juice. After that, the borscht must necessarily boil.
Let the finished borscht stand for thirty minutes.

The scent is all over the house! Seasoned with sour cream, borscht is fragrant with herbs and lavrushka. Invites to dinner. Bon Appetit!

Avid beet lovers are advised by experienced chefs to stew it in sunflower oil separately from frying, with the addition of a small amount of broth or water, tomato juice or paste.

In this case, the borsch will have a more beet flavor.

This is not a dish, but a complete collection of useful elements. Thanks to the properties of sauerkraut, borscht becomes not only tasty and spicy, but also infinitely useful.

In the cold season, hot and appetizing, it will give strength, strengthen the immune system. Check out this wonderful borscht recipe.

Ingredients needed to make 4-5 servings

Pre-boiled broth of five hundred grams of beef;
Three hundred grams of sauerkraut;
Bulb one;
Carrots, one piece;
Beets, one piece;
Two - three potatoes;
Sunflower oil in the amount of two to three tbsp. l.;
Tomato paste - two - three tbsp. spoons.;
Black peppercorns (4 pcs.);
Three cloves of garlic;
Greens, bay leaf.

Cooking borscht with sauerkraut

Peel the beets, chop into strips.
Put the beets in a heated pan, lightly fry in oil.
Here add tomato paste, cabbage juice half a glass, simmer until tender. The fire should be weak, the pan must be covered.
Finely chop the peeled onion, fry until transparent.
Add shredded carrots to the onion, simmer everything together for 5-7 minutes.
Squeeze the cabbage if necessary, add to the frying, simmer well until all the moisture has evaporated.
Put the broth on the stove, boil.
Cut the peeled potatoes into medium cubes, throw into the broth, cook for ten minutes.
Cut the cooked meat, send to the potatoes.
Put stewed vegetables, spices in the form of bay leaves, peppercorns into the broth, boil.
After boiling, taste, add salt if necessary.
Make the fire moderate, simmer until tender. In time it will be approximately 15-20 minutes.
Five minutes before the readiness to add finely chopped garlic.

If you have enough strength, be sure to let the borscht brew. This will make him even better. Season with sour cream, sprinkle with herbs and eat to your health.

Experienced chefs advise to remove excess acid, if any, with a small amount of sugar.

Borsch with chicken meat is very delicate in taste, moreover, it is more dietary and light.

In addition to the unique taste, it has another advantage - it can be cooked faster. After all, chicken does not cook for long, if you do not take into account poultry.

You can use any part of the chicken carcass. In many ways, the choice depends on the time that the tireless hostess has.

If it is not enough, the legs are also perfect, since they cook quickly.

We prepare a set of products for eight servings

Two chicken legs;
Two - three potatoes;
One beet;
one carrot;
Two hundred grams of fresh cabbage;
1 onion;
Tomato paste two tbsp. spoons;
Apple cider vinegar one teaspoon;
Bay leaf two - three pieces;
Salt and black pepper to taste;
Sunflower oil four tablespoons;
A bunch of greens.

Step by step cooking process

First of all, you need to put the broth. Immerse the legs in cold water, which needs two to two and a half liters, put on the stove. When boiling, remove the foam, then add salt, throw in peppercorns, cook over moderate heat for 35 minutes, opening the lid.
There is time for vegetables. Peel and chop the beets, carrots, cabbage into strips, chop the onion into small pieces, cut the potatoes into medium cubes.
Put the beets to stew with the addition of oil, apple cider vinegar. The total time is at least five minutes.
Fry the onion in oil until transparent, add the carrots, fry together for three minutes, send the tomato paste here, stew for another four minutes.
Ready meat take out their broth.
Send the potatoes to the broth, let them cook alone for ten minutes.
Cut the cooled meat into portions, send after the potatoes.
Put the cabbage into the broth.
Add the stewed beets, let it boil.
Lay frying, lavrushka, chopped greens.
Boil, taste.
Boil another seven to ten minutes, remove from heat.
Allow twenty minutes to recover.

Chicken borsch is ready. It is beautiful and fragrant, and I want to try it. Season with sour cream when serving and enjoy!

Borschik in a slow cooker turns out just wonderful - rich, tasty. This is facilitated by the device itself. Here the dish really languishes, which cannot be said about the gas oven.

One involuntarily recalls the Russian miracle - the oven with its many-sided possibilities.

Ingredients for borscht in a slow cooker for seven to eight servings

Five hundred grams of beef pulp;
Four hundred grams of fresh cabbage;
One hundred grams of onion;
150 grams of potatoes;
One hundred gr. carrots;
Three hundred gr. beets;
Three Art. spoons of tomato paste;
Three garlic cloves;
Salt, pepper, bay leaf - as your heart desires;
Three Art. tablespoons of vegetable oil;
Lemon juice two - three tbsp. spoons.

Cooking borscht in a slow cooker

Finely chop the peeled onion.
Turn on the slow cooker for "Baking", put the onion in the bowl and fry in oil.
Peel the carrots, chop, send to the onion. Fry for ten minutes.
Lay the tomato component in the form of a paste. Let it stew in a common cauldron for five minutes. Don't forget to stir.
Peel the beets, grate them, send them to fry along with lemon juice so that the beautiful colors of our favorite dish are not lost. Don't forget to salt and pepper. Let simmer for 15 minutes.
Now you need to cut the meat into portions.
Peeled potatoes also cut into cubes.
Shred the cabbage.
Put meat, potatoes, cabbage, lavrushka, peppercorns in the slow cooker. Pour water up to the maximum mark.
Turn on "Stew, Soup" for one hour and wait for cooking.
When turning off, open the lid, put the garlic, chopped or passed through a press, mix the borscht, let stand for ten minutes.

Borshchik is ready, it's time for the table. Happy you!

For those who like denser cabbage, it is recommended to put it in a slow cooker ten to fifteen minutes before shutting down.

Borsch with beans is good both in meat broth and in a lean version. Beans give the dish a unique zest and some piquancy. Not to mention the mass of vitamins and microelements with which beans enrich your favorite borscht.

This is a great option for those who observe church fasts and those who want to lose those extra pounds. Finally, it's just delicious!

So, we prepare the ingredients for 10 - 15 servings

Broth from 250 grams of beef brisket (those who want to fast, take plain water);
five potatoes;
Two glasses of beans;
One beet;
One carrot;
Three hundred grams of cabbage;
2 sweet peppers;
30 grams of tomato puree;
Two st. spoons of apple cider vinegar;
Vegetable oil for frying, 50 grams;
Spices, herbs.

Cooking borscht with beans

Let's start with beans.

There are two variants of borscht, the choice of which depends on the desire of the cook. Add pre-cooked beans to borscht, or use the broth on which the beans were cooked.

Most use the first option, which has the advantage of a clear broth, while boiling the beans will darken the water, even if white beans are used. We will cook the beans in advance.

To make the beans cook faster, they are soaked overnight, then they are cooked for an hour and a half.

Conclusion - we are going to cook borscht with beans, soak it and cook it in advance. We are well prepared, we have boiled beans.

We continue the process of cooking delicious with beans

Beets should be cut into strips.
Stew it with the addition of water, vinegar, tomato puree. The operation lasts ten to fifteen minutes.
Fry chopped carrots in oil until half cooked.
Put the broth on the stove, add pieces of meat to it, cooked and cut into portions.
Peeled potatoes cut into medium cubes, put in a boiled broth, cook for ten minutes.
Cut the cabbage into strips, send to the potatoes after they boil for the allotted time.
Throw in the diced bell peppers.
Add the beans five minutes before the potatoes are ready.
Now is the time to send carrots and beets to borscht.
After boiling, you need to taste, salt, pepper if necessary.
Cook for another five minutes.
Let the cooked miracle brew for about 20 minutes. The components of the borscht will exchange greetings, this will make the taste much richer and more interesting.

Serve an extraordinary borscht with sour cream and herbs. It's incredibly delicious!

Ukrainian borscht with donuts is a separate story and a chapter in a wonderful book called "Borscht". Rich, with a breathtaking aroma, it will impress even the most sophisticated gourmet.

Dumplings anointed with garlic, next to it is frozen lard - oh, how can you stand it. Let's cook already, just can't wait to try!

For borscht in a four-liter saucepan, you need to prepare

Beef brisket broth with bone (800 grams);
One beet (large);
The fourth part of the average head of cabbage;
Three potatoes;
One onion;
One medium carrot;
Two bell peppers;
One tomato;
3 cloves of garlic;
a third of a lemon;
One bunch of dill and parsley;
Salt, sugar, bay leaf, ground black pepper;
70 grams of vegetable oil for frying.

For making donuts

400 grams of flour;
Glass of water;
One and a half teaspoons of dry yeast;
Half a teaspoon of salt;
1 st. a spoonful of sugar;
2 tbsp. spoons of milk;
6 art. spoons of vegetable oil;
2 cloves of garlic.

Cooking borscht with donuts

We are great, the broth was prepared in advance. We will do the subsequent processes in parallel: fiddling with dough and vegetables.
There is time to do donuts, because it takes time to raise the dough.
You need to take a glass of warm water, dilute yeast, sugar, salt in it. Add butter and 350 grams of flour. The best quality of kneading will be ensured by working with your hands, which we do - first we knead the dough in a bowl, then we transfer the dough to the table.
Mix thoroughly until it turns into a smooth ball. In the process, mix in the remaining 50 grams of flour. Then the dough must be smeared with oil and placed in a bowl, also oiled (so as not to stick). Cover, set aside for an hour in a warm place.
The dough is resting, let's take care of the vegetables that need to be peeled, washed and cut. Potatoes and onions in cubes (small onions), carrots, beets, cabbage and peppers - in strips. Peel the garlic immediately, cut the tail off the tomato.
We do frying. To do this, fry the onion in oil, after five minutes add the carrots.
Five minutes have passed - add the beets, sprinkled with lemon juice first and crushed with a small amount of sugar (0.5 tbsp. L.). Stir the vegetables, do not overcook, for this it is better to immediately reduce the heat.
Add a couple of ladles of broth to the vegetables, let them stew until the beets are ready. By the time it's twenty minutes.
Put the broth on the fire, bring to a boil.
Cut the cooked meat into pieces.
Send meat and potatoes to hot broth.
Potatoes are boiled for about ten minutes, then cabbage and bell peppers are added.
After boiling, the fire must be reduced - let it simmer.
Grind the tomato on a grater, add it to the frying for five minutes.
Next, lay the frying in the broth, stir, let it boil. We taste it, add what is missing. Adjust acidity with lemon juice.
Cut greens and garlic. In order for this splendor to best give its juices to borscht, we grind the mass in a mortar with a pinch of salt.
Vegetables are ready, add greens. Let it boil. And now you can turn it off.

No matter how much you would like to try this fragrant borscht, be sure to let it brew. You will be rewarded! After all, we will still have donuts.

Making pompoms

The dough has now risen and doubled in size. You can start baking.

To do this, grease the form with oil, tear off a piece of dough the size of an egg, make a ball out of it and lay it tightly in the form.
Then you need to cover the form, let stand for fifteen minutes, this process is called proofing.
Then grease the top of donuts with milk, place in a preheated oven (180 degrees). Time - 20 minutes.
To give donuts garlic originality, you need to make a filling.
To do this, pass 2 cloves of garlic through a press, add a little salt, vegetable oil, two tablespoons of water. Stir the filling, slightly whisking with a fork.
Pour still hot donuts directly into the mold with fragrant gruel, let soak for 10 minutes. After that, you can get it out of the mold and serve with borscht.

Finally waited. There is nothing more to say, you need to try! Bon Appetit!

We will be glad if you like our recipes. Share your borscht. Thank you in advance!

All fans of delicious food know for sure that traditional Ukrainian cuisine is not complete without borscht. Every housewife should know the recipe for the most delicious borscht, because this is an excellent first course that can hook the heart of any man. Of course, this is provided that it is cooked correctly, without any errors.

A bit of history

This dish has all the features traditional for Ukrainian and South Russian cuisines, it was prepared by our ancestors - the Slavs. It got its name because the main ingredient in the composition of such a dish is beets, and in ancient times the vegetable was called "borscht". From the territory of Kievan Rus, where the dish was invented, it spread to all the surroundings and even to neighboring states. That is why it is currently in countries such as Poland, Lithuania, Romania and Belarus. This dish was very fond of the Russian rulers Catherine II and Alexander II, as well as the famous ballerina Anna Pavlova, whose name also went down in history.

Varieties of borscht

There are a considerable number of varieties of this soup, and which borscht is the most delicious remains a mystery to this day. This diversity is due to the fact that each nation put something of its own into the obtained recipe, characteristic of the national traditions of their native state - this changed the taste of the finished dish in the crust.

All presented varieties are divided into two large categories: red borscht and cold, which is also popularly called holodnik. Kholodnik is more common in Belarus, where it is eaten with hot boiled potatoes.

holodnik

Preparing such a dish is very simple - it is based on pre-prepared beets, which must first be marinated. As a rule, in such a dish all the ingredients are added raw. All components are diluted with kefir or other fermented milk products, the desired amount of hard-boiled chicken eggs is added to a common pan, and then everything is seasoned with sour cream and served on the table.

There are a considerable number of fans of such a bright and tasty dish in the world. It is prepared mainly in summer or spring, when all the ingredients can be easily obtained fresh.

Red

However, as many gourmets admit, the most delicious borscht is red, which is prepared by thermal processing of products and served hot. Its main ingredients are vegetables, which are initially desirable to take fresh. As a rule, the standard set includes carrots, potatoes, beets, cabbage, tomatoes and greens. If you wish, you can cook lean borscht, but many housewives prefer to pre-cook meat broth from different types of meat. In many step-by-step recipes for the most delicious borscht, it is recommended to use a decoction of chicken or pork. With such a meat combination in the broth, the finished soup turns out to be the most fragrant and delicate in taste.

Before serving the finished dish on the table, it is seasoned with sour cream or mayonnaise. In Ukrainian culture, the tradition of eating such a soup with garlic and bread is especially common.

The most delicious borscht: a step by step recipe with photos

It doesn't take a lot of culinary skills to make a great soup, which is the king of traditional Ukrainian cuisine. It is enough just to understand the sequence of cooking the ingredients, as well as to know how to properly cook a delicious and transparent broth for the future soup.

Step 1. Preparing the broth

Many famous chefs recommend using pork or, in extreme cases, chicken to make the most delicious borscht. In the case of choosing the first option, it is best to take the breast and bones for cooking, which can be bought inexpensively in almost any butcher's shop.

The preparation of the broth should begin with boiling the bones, which should be poured with cold purified water. After that, the pan should be covered with a lid and put to cook on the stove. As soon as the contents begin to boil, you should reduce the heat and begin to gradually remove the resulting foam. Correct actions at this stage will provide a tasty and clear broth.

As practice shows, for the most delicious borscht, the bones need to be boiled for a couple of hours, without turning off the fire and regularly removing the foam. After that, you need to add meat to them in the amount indicated in the selected recipe. In this composition, the pan must be kept on low heat for a couple of hours.

In the event that the broth is made from chicken, it will take about an hour or two to cook it. If this variant of the broth is chosen, it is not recommended to add another type of meat to it, so as not to interrupt the taste.

Ingredients

In the classic recipe for the most delicious Ukrainian borscht, he recommends taking a standard set of ingredients. It necessarily includes bright red beets (called beetroot in some recipes) - a couple of root crops, no more than 0.5 kg of fresh cabbage, a couple of medium-sized carrots, the same number of onions, five potatoes. This is the main soup set, which is designed for broth cooked from 800 g of pork meat.

Step 2. Preparation of ingredients, their pre-treatment

All components of borscht must be washed and peeled in advance. After that, the potatoes need to be cut into medium-sized cubes. As practice shows, root crops cut in this way give the finished soup a special taste.

In a separate plate, grate the beets on a coarse grater. Many people prefer to cut it into strips or sticks by hand, however, the recipes for the most delicious borscht often say that a vegetable chopped in this way gives the dish that original red or even burgundy color in the end result. After the beetroot has been grated, it should be sprinkled with the juice of half a lemon and mixed thoroughly, left in a cool place for 15-20 minutes.

Cabbage needs to be chopped, which most housewives do with an ordinary kitchen knife. However, in the modern world there are a considerable number of devices that can also be used. Some chefs recommend chopping the vegetable into cubes, but this does not change the taste of the soup.

Step 3: Preparing the borscht dressing

Ukrainian borsch becomes the most delicious only if the hostess uses lard grated with garlic as a dressing. To prepare it, you need to take a small piece of this product (about 50 grams) and grind it thoroughly. After this procedure, a couple of cloves of garlic are added to the common bowl, and in this composition the mass is crushed in a mortar until a state of uniformity is formed. When finished, cover the dressing with cling film and refrigerate until needed.

Some experienced housewives advise using old lard, which has a slightly yellowish color, to prepare such a mixture. However, along with them, there are recommendations regarding the use of fragrant bacon with spices.

Step 4. Cooking the fry

Properly cooked frying is the element without which the most delicious borscht will not turn out. Photos depicting bright red borscht are made to clearly convey the color that the dish should have if the frying was properly prepared for it.

At the very beginning, you need to heat up the pan, preferably with a non-stick coating, on which you should pour a small amount of sunflower oil. After it heats up, you need to put grated carrots, as well as chopped onions, into the pan. After that, 3-4 tomatoes, previously peeled, or 2-3 tablespoons of tomato paste should be sent to them. Mix vegetables well while frying. After some time, you need to add beets to them and mix well. Everything that is in the pan is covered with a lid and stewed for 10-15 minutes.

Step 5. Cooking borscht

First you need to heat the cooked broth to boiling water, into which prepared potatoes and chopped meat should be sent. In this composition, the dish is cooked for 10 minutes, after which you need to add chopped cabbage to it, continuing to cook over high heat for a short period - about 10 minutes.

After the vegetables begin to become more or less soft, the fire should be reduced and the prepared frying should be added to the pan. In this composition, everything is boiled until the vegetables are fully cooked, dressing made from lard and garlic, as well as finely chopped greens, salt, pepper and other seasonings are added to the borscht. Without fail, 1-2 bay leaves should be added here, which give the dish not only a pleasant aroma, but also a certain piquancy.

Tips for making borscht

Any good housewife should know how to cook the most delicious borscht. This dish can become special if you follow the basic instructions and know some little tricks in the process of creating it.

A big part of success lies in choosing the right products. To prepare borscht, do not be afraid to take too fatty pieces of meat - the juiciness and softness of the broth, as well as its richness, have never harmed the finished dish. A separate trick lies in the choice of beets: it is better to take small sizes. In such root crops, a smaller number of veins is observed, which ensures greater juiciness of the fruit and, as a result, a brighter color of the finished borscht.

In the event that the potato chosen for cooking is too boiled, it can be cut larger - by the time the cabbage is cooked, the potatoes will not have time to boil to a puree state. In some families, they prefer to pre-fry it before laying it - the vegetable is not only dense, but also especially tasty.

In the general composition of the ingredients, you can use bell pepper - it will add some zest to the taste of the finished borscht. This vegetable is the best choice in the market. A green fruit is ideal and rather unsightly in appearance - this will be the most fragrant and saturated with useful components.

In the event that different types of meat are used for cooking borscht, it is best to take it in a 1: 1 ratio.

As a dressing, you can use not only lard and garlic. For a change, at the final stage of cooking the soup, you can use ghee, fried cracklings or plain sour cream with a maximum percentage of fat content.

In order for the soup to turn out to be as fragrant as possible, after cooking, it is advisable to wrap the pan with it in a towel and leave it to infuse for six hours - the result will pleasantly surprise you.

The recipe for the most delicious borscht (with photo), which is presented here, is not a standard. It can be varied in any way at the request of the hostess. Some people add their secret ingredients to such a soup, which improve the quality of the finished dish. An example of such can be legumes, mushrooms or some special spices.

There is sometimes more controversy around borscht than around politics. In fact, no one knows what the right borscht is. It should be delicious - that's the main rule, - says Ilya Lazerson, President of the St. Petersburg Guild of Chefs. - Personally, I do not like it when there are potatoes and sweet peppers in borscht. In my version, they are not, and this is my right. Someone loves sauerkraut, and pre-boil or bake beets. I prefer raw beets. I cut it into thin strips, add a little sugar, water, vegetable oil, after 5 minutes - tomato paste. Then I add the carcass of beets and ready-made ones at the very end of cooking into the pan. 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?

Vegetarian borscht does not require meat broth. But, if you are a fan of the classic soup, then you need to cook a rich broth. For him, you can take beef brisket, chicken or pork and beef in a 1: 1 ratio. For flavor, it is better to pre-fry the pieces of meat. Or immediately put the meat on the bones in cold water and put on fire. 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 fully cooked. Then the broth must be filtered, remove the meat from the bones, chop and return to the pan.

2. Stew beets separately!

If you put the beets in a common pan and then cook for about an hour, all the color from the vegetable will go away and the borscht will turn out faded. To avoid this, you need to grate the root crop 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 tablespoons of wine vinegar or lemon juice), this will help the root crop retain its color. Put the beetroot on the fire and simmer until it becomes soft.

3. Or maybe cook?

The second popular option for preparing beets for borscht is to boil it in advance. It is important that before you lower the vegetable into the water, rinse it thoroughly without cutting off the roots and top, otherwise the juice will “leave” into the pan. For better preservation of a 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 crops are usually cooked for 20-30 minutes, old ones - 1-1.5 hours. However, today most chefs advise not to boil, but to bake beets. To do this, wrap the fruit in food foil and send it to the oven for 30-40 minutes (the 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 cooking method is considered the most successful.

Borscht classic Photo: shutterstock.com

Ingredients:

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

How to cook:

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

4. Don't Forget the Cabbage

Many people call borscht beetroot soup. In fact, they are different soups. There is cabbage in borscht, but not in beetroot. Most often, fresh white cabbage chopped into strips is used for borscht. But there may be variations on the theme. For example, you can put red or Savoy in a saucepan - outwardly it looks like a white head, but it has a bright green color and corrugated bubble leaves. There are even variants of borscht with cauliflower and Brussels sprouts, but with them you still get a soup that is far from the classic one. Someone likes to add sauerkraut instead of fresh. It must be washed, cut, stewed separately until soft and only then added to borscht.

5. Unsweetened couple: onion and carrot

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

6. Vegetables - to taste

In addition to beets, carrots, onions and cabbage, other vegetables are put into borsch 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 the same. You can use any color of pepper: green, yellow, red, orange. The main thing is to keep the proportion: there should be a lot of beets and cabbage in borscht, and potatoes, tomatoes and peppers - 2-3 times less.

7. Who is first in line?

Borsch, like most other soups beloved by Russians, belongs to the filling first courses. It is in the West that pureed soups are preferred, but we should have a broth in which various tasty additives float. In order for these additives to harmoniously combine with each other and get the right consistency (and not when one product is overcooked and the other crunches on the teeth), it is necessary to observe the correct dressing of the soup.

First of all, shredded cabbage should go into the pan, it is cooked longer than others. Then - sweet peppers and potatoes. At the very end, you need to put browned onions with carrots and tomato paste in the borscht, and in the final - ready-made sour beets. After that, cook the soup should be no more than 5 minutes. If you cook borscht with sauerkraut, it must also be added in the final. If you put sour beets or cabbage first, and then potatoes, the latter will cook for a very long time (acid will interfere).

8. The final touch - lard with garlic

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

9. Pampushki lush, ruddy

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 put the broth on to boil, because the yeast dough should 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 put them on a baking sheet, but remember that the donuts will rise during baking. If you want to get perfectly rounded buns, place them at a decent distance from each other. However, even if they stick together, they can be separated hot and sprinkled with garlic dressing. For dressing, take vegetable oil, crushed garlic, chopped dill with parsley and a little water. Mix everything and pour on freshly baked puffy donuts.

10. Without sour cream anywhere!

If a soup tureen has been gathering dust on the shelf of your sideboard for a long time, take it out and use it for its intended purpose - it is in this beauty that it is customary to serve borscht for a large company. Next, put the appropriate supplements and snacks for the dish - donuts, bread, chopped herbs and, of course, fatty sour cream. Well, what a borscht without sour cream!

Borscht with beans Photo: shutterstock.com

Borscht with prunes and mushrooms

Ingredients:

Prunes - 200 g
Dried white mushrooms - 20 g
Potatoes - 4 pcs.
Fresh cabbage - 300 g
Beets - 3 pcs.
Onion - 1 pc.
Carrot - 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 mushrooms for 2 hours. Then boil for 1 hour. Remove the mushrooms, chop, save the broth.
Rinse prunes, pour 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, carrot and parsley root into strips and sauté with butter, tomato and flour for 5 minutes.
Dip the cabbage into the boiling mushroom broth, after boiling add the potatoes and cook for 15 minutes.
Put stewed beets and sautéed vegetables in a saucepan. Add mushrooms, boiled prunes along with the broth. Salt, pepper and cook for another 10 minutes.

Garlic donuts Photo: shutterstock.com

Garlic donuts

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:

Warm milk to room temperature. Add dry yeast, mix.
Put 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.
Put on the table and let rise for another 1 hour, covered with a towel.
Make 7-8 round donuts, grease the top of the buns with yolk and bake for 20 minutes at 180°C.
Grease still hot donuts with crushed garlic, mixed with a small amount of vegetable oil, salt and water.

There are a few hard rules to follow. Beef broth is best cooked in enamel or ceramic dishes. If necessary, the broth is added only with boiling water, since cold water significantly worsens its taste.

A good beef broth directly depends on the quality of the meat. The most important condition for its quality is freshness. Do not buy meat that has lain on the counter for more than two days. Purchased meat is washed under running, cold water.

To obtain a strong fat, chopped meat is dipped in cold water. In this case, the meat juice will be easier to stand out from the meat. In the case when beef is cooked for main courses, and the broth will later be used to cook something else, the pieces of meat are dipped into boiling water. The meat boiled in this way will be juicy inside.

When beef broth is cooked, the amount of meat will have an important influence on the taste of the planned dish, since the concentration of meat juice and fat in the broth depends on it. On a five-liter pan, you can take from 2 to 4 kg of meat. If you have little meat, in extreme cases, you can add a little. They will give the missing fat. When calculating the amount of water needed, it should be borne in mind that during the cooking process, the broth is boiled down by almost half.

From beef, so that it is tasty, and the meat is tender and soft. Cooks advise cooking meat for 3 to 4 hours. At the beginning of cooking, put the pot with meat on a strong fire so that the broth boils faster. The pot should be covered with a lid, just make sure that the water does not “run away” from the pan. After the water boils strongly, the fire is slightly reduced. The best broth is the one that was cooked on low heat.

During cooking, an unpleasant-looking foam will constantly form on the surface of the broth, which must be constantly removed with a spoon or slotted spoon. Some people do not remove this foam, believing that it is in it that the real taste of the broth lies. To collect foam or not - depends on your preferences. The best option in this case is to collect the foam in a separate container, into which 0.5 liters of broth are added. After a while, the broth will infuse and then you need to strain it and add it to the main pan.

Depending on what dish you intend to cook on the basis of this broth, you can add ingredients such as roots (carrots, parsley, celery, swede), vegetables (onions), mushrooms and other products to it.

The recipe of which is intended for and soups is prepared as follows: salt, peeled roots (2 carrots, 1 parsley, half celery), a whole onion are added to the boiling broth. All vegetables are boiled for 3 hours, after which they are removed from the broth and continue cooking the dish further.

After the meat is ready (it can be easily pierced with a knife or fork), a little cold water (20-30 ml) is added to the broth, the meat is removed and allowed to stand for 20-30 minutes. The fat formed on the surface is carefully collected separately, and the broth itself is filtered through a fine sieve. The pre-collected fat is added to the strained broth and everything is brought to a boil again. Such a broth can be used both as a base for other dishes, and as an independent dish. In this case, it is served in portioned plates or broth cups, after sprinkling with herbs.

Salt is added to the broth to taste, as it often differs in concentration. It is better to add salt to the broth gradually, but if you still oversalt the broth, place a handful of rice wrapped in cheesecloth into it. Rice tends to absorb a lot of salt, so you can remedy the situation.