“I’m always blown away and inspired by how the most humble, simple ingredients – like potatoes, onions and beetroot – can be transformed into to something so rich, nourishing, beautifully complex and delicious.

I grew up eating my babushkas’ borsch – the three of my babushkas that I was lucky enough to have in my life growing up, all made their own versions of this beautiful, earthy, nostalgic dish… and here is my own; a riff off of all the babushkas and mama’s before me.

Trust me when I say it’s not at all difficult – and the best thing is that it just gets better and better in the fridge. This celebration of winter vegetables is something you absolutely must try”. Enjoy, Larissa Sewell.

Borsch Method:

1.  Create your stock (you can skip this step if you’re using a very good quality store bought stock – you’ll need 3 liters of stock for this recipe and jump to step 5)
2. To create stock, fill a large pot with 3L of water.
3. Cut short rib off the bone, cut meat into chunks – removing any major sinew – season both bone and rib generously with salt and pepper – (the bones will be used for the stock and removed later – leaving the tender chunks of meat in the broth for the soup)
4. Brown the short rib bones and chunks of beef – add celery sticks, 2 carrots, 1 quartered onion, 2 cloves of smashed garlic, a few springs of dill, small bunch of parsley and 3 of the bay leaves – simmer for minimum of 1 hour, or until the beef chunks are tender
5. Once the stock is ready, you can either strain it into another pot, or just remove the bones and vegetables; leaving the tender chunks of beef. Add 2 fresh bay leaves.
6. Shred or julienne the beetroot, and fry off in a 2 tablespoons of olive oil
7. Once the beets are mostly tender – add 2-3 heaped tablespoons of tomato paste and cook until dark, rich and aromatic (this may take another 5-10 mins on medium to low heat) – add 2 crushed garlic cloves, season with a generous pinch of salt and little pepper
8. Add beetroot mix into the soup stock
9. Shred or julienne the carrots, and dice the onions
10. In the same pan as the beetroot was cooked in, heat 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil and fry the grated or julienned carrots and diced onions – the goal is to cook these long enough that they’re sweet and rich, without browning. Add 2 cloves of crushed garlic and continue to cook until lightly caramelised – season with a generous pinch of salt and a little pepper
11. Add carrot mix to the stock base with the beef and beetroot and stir well
12. Peel + cut potatoes into thick batons – add to the soup and allow to simmer on low for 10-15 minutes, or until cooked through
13. Add a generous squeeze of lemon juice to the pot – taste for balance. You may find that you need to adjust the seasoning by adding more salt – and add some fresh pepper
14. Finely chop fresh dill and generously sprinkle into the borsch
15. Serve with sour cream, and dark rye bread slathered in cultured butter and maldon salt flakesNote: Borsch will always taste better the second (or third!) day, after the flavours have time to meld – so keep it in the fridge and enjoy for days to come 🙂
16. Watch Larissa creating her Borsch here!