My beet recipes
December 18th, 2010 in Hot Soups, Soup Recipes by Julia Volhina One of the challenges when cooking classic beet root soup, borscht, is to get all vegetables (and there are quite few) cooked till perfect readiness at the same time.
Considering different vegetables require different cooking time it is sometimes hard to achieve. For borscht you need to make sure beens are soft, while potatoes are not over cooked and beets don’t lose their color.
So, to make this happen: I cook beens in a separate cooking pot (just until they are soft and ready), cook beets skin on (like for salad) in separate pot in advance, and add these two to the main cooking pot at appropriate times.
By the way, using of canned beets and beens instead of cooking them yourself is an option (which I never did, but it may safe you some time).
Tags: bean, beet, bell pepper, borscht, cabbage, carrot, celery root, dinner, onion, parsley root, potato, russian, soup, tomato, ukrainian, vegetables
November 13th, 2010 in Salad Recipes by Julia Volhina Beet salad with prunes, walnuts and onions dressed up with mayo or sour cream or both is one of the traditional salads of ukrainian cuisine.
Also, this dish is one of the not many dishes which uses beets as a main ingredient.
It is very important to use sweet and rich red color beets for this salad. So, when buying beets scratch their skin with a nail: dark red pulp under skin is a sign of good beet, not pink and not white.
It is also important to use good quality walnuts; taste before you buy them: old walnuts can be bitter and using such will make you salad taste bitter as well.
Tags: beet, mayo, no meat, nuts, onion, prune, salad, shallot, ukrainian
June 26th, 2010 in Cold Soups, Soup Recipes by Julia Volhina Are you suffering from hot weather like me? When outside feels like in the oven there is no better food to eat than cold soup. Lithuanian borscht is a nice refreshing buttermilk based cold soup you can put together without any extra hassle and then enjoy it sitting on the patio.
The real trick to Lithuanian borscht is to find good kefir – it should be original kefir which hasn’t been flavored with any tastes, not salted and not sweetened. I used plain unsweetened kefir (can be replaced with buttermilk) from Lifeway and it worked out perfectly.
The rest of ingredients: vegetables (beets, cucumber and greens) and hard boiled eggs, are easy to get and not pricey at all. And btw, even though this soup is called a “borscht”, the only thing it has in common to other borschts, I guess, is the color.
Tags: beet, borscht, buttermilk, cucumber, dill, green onion, hard boiled egg, kefir, lithuanian, no meat, soup, sour cream, vegetables
December 12th, 2009 in Hot Soups, Soup Recipes by Julia Volhina In a lot of countries Christmas Eve dinner gathers whole family around one big table. Borscht with mushroom dumplings is the one of 12 dishes which usually are on that table by tradition in West Ukraine (by the way those dumplings are called “vushka” in ukrainian, which means “small ears”, I guess because of the shape).
Of course, because that is the Christmas Eve and Nativity Fast isn’t finished yet there is no meat used to prepare it: just vegetables and dried mushrooms. This borscht like the rest of the Christmas Eve’s traditional food is lenten, it is very tasty and isn’t heavy at all – most of the vegetables are used to prepare clear broth only and don’t get served with the borscht itself.
At first glance, it may look like cooking it is a bit of a hassle and time spending: so many steps (I’ve prepared 34 step-by-step pictures for this recipe!) and so many manipulations with different cooking utensils. However, you can complete preparation steps a day in advance – for example soak mushrooms, boil them or/and boil beets, you can even make dumplings a day before, freeze them and prepare the borscht next day. And then, nobody said you need to make everything yourself: involve your family into helping you! And have a Marry Christmas!
Tags: beet, borscht, carrot, celery root, christmas food, dinner, dumplings, kohlrabi, lenten, mushroom, onion, parsley root, polish, soup, ukrainian
June 27th, 2009 in Salad Recipes by Julia Volhina To prepare russian herring salad, “Herring Under Fur Coat”, you need to have whole salted herring. And of course you need to know how to fillet it, so read this post if you don’t.
Herring Under Fur Coat is a word-to-word translation of russian name of this salad: “Seledka pod Shuboj”, which represents salted herring under a “coat” of boiled vegetables. So, as you’ve probably guessed, you will also need boiled vegetables (potatoes, carrots and beats) and green onions. In the rest this is 5-layers salad with a lot of mayonnaise.
This salad requires some time and agility to assemble it, also it needs at least 12 hours for layers to soak after it is assembled. So make sure you have enough time if you decide to make it.
Tags: beet, carrot, fish, green onion, lunch, mayo, potato, russian, salad, sea food, ukrainian, vegetables
May 31st, 2009 in Hot Soups, Soup Recipes by Julia VolhinaBorscht (borsch, borshch) or beet root soup is very popular in a Eastern and Central Europe countries. Who of you didn’t hear about russian or ukrainian borscht?
It is one of 3 common things which usually come to people minds when they are asked about Russia or Ukraine. Well, other 2 would be: good looking girls and vodka, of course.
As you’ve probably noticed, this blog is about cooking (not about dating or drinking), so I will show you how to make Borscht (Beetroot Soup) in this post, please use Google to find more info on slavic brides or famous russian alcoholic beverages if you feel like this.
Tags: bean, beet, borscht, broth, cabbage, carrot, meat, onion, potato, russian, soup, tomato, ukrainian, vegetables
December 26th, 2008 in Tips, Advices & How-to by Julia VolhinaSometimes you need to boil vegetables such as potatoes, carrots or beets for your salad. This article will help you to to make it in the right way. Make sure your vegetables still contain all important nutrients after boiling.
Tags: beet, carrot, how-to, potato, vegetables
