The Recipe: Borscht
Soup for Winter
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It is said that Dostoyevsky wrote his darkly tragic and almost indigestible “Crime and Punishment” after eating half a bowl of badly made borscht. Probably also apocryphal, the story is that Tolstoy was inspired to add “Peace” to the title of his classic novel by a sublime rendition of borscht!
There are several types of this popular Jewish/Russian soup. Some are thick and creamy, some thin and brothy. Most are delicious. This vegetarian version falls somewhere in between but it too is tasty and rich. It is the perfect fall/winter soup, countering the cold northern winds.
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons quality oil
(Sesame, virgin olive, and coconut are all acceptable. When cooking with any oil, do not get it so hot that it smokes. Keep it just hot enough to cook the food. Your ingredients should sizzle, but not explosively so when added to the hot oil.)
3 small onions (or one large one, firm not soft) chopped for easy cooking, not too large
3-4 cloves of garlic chopped (Note: You can never be too rich, too thin, or cook with too much garlic!)
3 cabbage leaves from inside the head (not too large, cut into squares)
1 peeled tomato, chopped
(Blanch the tomatoes by dropping them into boiling water for less than a minute and then running them under cold water. The skin will split and come off easily.)
1 large beet cooked and cubed
(Boil the beet with about an inch of the greens left on until a sharp knife inserts easily. Then run it under cold water and rub the peel off with your hands.)
2 Large carrots, peeled, grated or chopped fine
Half tablespoon of sea or Celtic salt.
(It’s “saltier” with more minerals. Find it at a health food store like Whole Foods or Wild Oats.)
6 cups of room temperature water or vegetable broth (more, if needed)
2 bay leaves dried or one fresh.
2 celery stalks, chopped fine or thin so the strings don’t get between your teeth.
green Chili powder (See garlic note, above.)
Process:
Sauté the onion(s) in a saucepan, adding the garlic after a few minutes. Then add cabbage, tomato, beet, and carrots and stir. Season with salt early so the veggies don’t get soggy, fall apart, and lose their color. Add the water and bay leaves and bring to a boil. Simmer over low heat for half an hour. Add the celery last. Season with more salt if necessary and some green chili powder if you like it spicy. Cook for another half hour over medium heat, adding water if necessary.
Your borscht soup can be served in a number of ways. You can blend the entire affair in a food processor until smooth and serve with a dollop of sour cream or yogurt. It will be thick and decidedly non-soupy. Serves five.
You might want to strain the pureed soup and get the fiber of the vegetables out. This is slightly thinner and can also be served with some sour cream or yogurt. This way you can serve it cold. Spicier is better, in this version. Or, you can serve it the way it comes out of the saucepan—thick and chunky. With nice crusty whole grain bread, it’s a meal. However you serve it, garnish with chopped scallions.
Do it well and who knows, you might get a good book out of it. Doing it badly is not worth the trouble!
Karta Purkh Khalsa began his cooking career when he became a vegetarian.
“It’s when I began to care about what I put into my body,” he says. “Before that, the only cooking I did was peyote tea for the commune I was living in.”
He perfected his cooking skills with a couple of stints as head chef (“Just the oldest cook, really,” he says) at the old Golden Temple at Westport and Broadway and at the Arbor Vie on the Plaza.
Most recipes are from cookbooks, but they never come out without some minor (or major) alterations to account for my tastes.
To view more photography by Erika Neola, visit www.erikaneola.com.
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