"Basic" Beet Borscht

Dee514's Note:

A very "basic" beet borscht recipe. Posted in reply to a message board request.

• Total Time: 55 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 35 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 6-8

Yield: 1.0 Pot of ...

• 5 lbs fresh beets (with the tops on)
• cold water (to cover the beets by at least 4-6 inches)
• 2 -3 large onions
• 3 tablespoons salt
• ¼-½ cup lemon juice , depending on taste
• white pepper (optional/to taste)
• ¼ cup honey (optional)
• sour cream (optional)

Directions:

1. Cut off beet greens from the beets but leave about an inch or two of the tops on the beets.
2. **Option:mince removed beet tops to add later.
3. Scrub the beets well.
4. In a large pot, add beets and cover with cold water (about 3/4 full).
5. Bring the water to a boil and boil this for about 15-25 minutes until the beets are cooked.
6. Remove the beets from the water; save the water from the beets ("beetjuice").
7. Remove the skins from the beets.
8. Strain the"beet juice" (through a cheese cloth lined sieve) into a pot.
9. Peel and grate the onion.
10. Grate the beets (can use food processor for grating onion and beets).
11. Put the grated onion and beets into the pot with the strained beet juice.
12. **Option:you can add the finely chopped/minced beet tops, if you want to use them.
13. Bring all to a quick boil.
14. Add the salt, lemon juice, pepper (optional), and honey (optional), simmer until the honey has dissolved and all is well heated.
15. Serve, garnished with a dollop of sour cream (optional).

Reviews

[Dustbunni]

This is delicious. My husband and I enjoyed it. Actually it was surprisingly good. I didn't expect much. I've had this recipe printed out for a couple of years and never made it.
I'm growing a lot of beets this year and wanted something new to do with them.

I followed the recipe as written. I think that it's important to follow the directions and add the lemon juice and honey at the end. That really brightens up the dish. It tasted a little bland while it was cooking.

I used the food processor to grate the beets and onions. I didn't use any of the beet tops. I did put a dollop of sour cream on the top. Today when I had the leftover for lunch, I used plain, non-fat yogurt instead of the sour cream. It tasted fine.

I'll be making this recipe again. I'm thinking of serving this to my garden group (five of us) at our monthly get together. I think it would be great with chicken salad or grilled salmon and garlic bread or onion muffins.

Thanks for a great new dish.

[pegasus Yourchenko]

My hubby is ukrainian and he says it's tradional to grate the beets.Before you cook them.