Who among us doesn’t like to eat delicious food? There are probably no such people at all. Even representatives of the fair sex who carefully monitor their figure will not refuse a tasty and healthy dinner or lunch. What distinguishes lunch from a regular meal? That's right - the first course. It may vary.

Why is it beneficial to include liquid foods in your diet?

Even if someone doesn’t like soups, they still need to eat liquid dishes from time to time, because broth is good for the stomach. It helps digest food better and protects against unpleasant diseases such as stomach ulcers, gastritis or inflammation of the pancreas, which is called pancreatitis. All these misfortunes can be avoided if you regularly include, for example, soup in your diet. But in our article we will tell you about preparing such a hearty and tasty first course as borscht. Each housewife has her own way of preparing the best borscht. A simple recipe with a photo, which is given in the text, will make the cooking process understandable and accessible.

A little about the options for a delicious first course

It is in vain that borscht is believed to be a rich, fatty soup that adds pounds. Of course, real Ukrainian borscht is like this - hearty, buttery, and even with donuts. But there is also a lean version of borscht, which contains the bare minimum of high-calorie ingredients; sometimes it is cooked without meat at all. Those people who strictly observe fasting know how easy such borscht can be. Below are the most interesting recipes for delicious borscht, prepared both in a saucepan and in a slow cooker.

Simple with chicken

To prepare this dish you need to prepare:

• approximately 3 liters of water;
• chicken leg or 3 chicken thighs, or you can take a whole chicken;
• potatoes - 5-6 tubers;
• half a head of cabbage;
• carrots - 1 piece;
• onion - 1 piece;
• herbs, salt, vegetable oil;
• tomato paste 75 grams or 2 tomatoes.

A simple borscht recipe begins with preparing the broth: to get a tasty dish, you first need to defrost the chicken and boil it by dipping it in boiling water. The whole chicken must be cut into small pieces in advance. After the water boils, you need to pour it out and add cold water again. This will be the basis for our borscht broth. The chicken should be cooked until half cooked. While the process is going on, you need to wash and peel the potato tubers, carrots, cabbage and onions. Then you need to put potatoes, cut into not too large pieces, into the saucepan with the half-cooked chicken. Finely chop the onion and grate the carrots. When the water boils again after adding the potatoes, add finely shredded cabbage to the broth.

How to make delicious fried borscht: continuation of the previous recipe

At the same time, we are preparing the frying, the recipe for simple borscht, although, excuse the tautology, is simple, it still cannot do without this important stage - fried vegetables are much tastier and more aromatic than raw ones. To do this, you need to fry carrots and onions together in a frying pan; all this is done in sunflower oil. When the frying takes on a golden hue, add tomato paste or finely chopped tomatoes to the pan. When the roast is ready, transfer it to a saucepan with broth. Stirring the borscht periodically, add salt or your favorite spices to taste. To prevent the borscht from losing its richness, you can pour a spoonful of vinegar into it. This is a little trick. A few minutes before turning off the heat, you can sprinkle the contents of the pan with herbs. Before serving the dish, season the borscht with sour cream or mayonnaise.

A simple recipe for borscht in a slow cooker: necessary ingredients

The multicooker has recently become a faithful assistant for housewives in the kitchen. More and more women prefer cooking in this miracle of technology, saving their time and effort. She cooks porridge, bakes muffins, and prepares pilaf.

You can cook borscht in it, it will turn out absolutely as tasty, no worse than cooked on the stove in a pan. So, the products for the future borscht:

• pork with ribs - 300 grams;
• water - 2 liters;
• fresh cabbage - 200 grams;
• beets - 2 pieces
• carrots and onions - 1 piece each;
• potatoes - a couple of tubers;
• fresh tomatoes - 2 pieces;
• melted butter - 1 spoon, 2 cloves of garlic;
• seasonings, salt, chopped herbs.

Let's start cooking

Perhaps this is the simplest borscht recipe that even a novice housewife can do; it won’t cause much trouble. First, you need to peel the beets, carrots and onions, then grate the carrots and beets on a coarse grater, and finely chop the onion with a knife. Finely chop the fresh cabbage, finely chop the tomatoes, and either chop the garlic finely or pass it through a garlic press. Place onions and carrots in a multicooker bowl, lightly greased with oil, set to “fry” and fry the vegetables for about five minutes. Mix it all with a silicone spatula so as not to scratch the coating of the bowl. There is no need to close the multicooker lid. After about five minutes, add the pork ribs and tomatoes to the vegetables and fry for another 5 minutes. After this, you need to put half of the grated beets, cabbage, and potatoes into the bowl. For taste, you can sprinkle everything with a little granulated sugar. Salt and pour hot boiled water from a kettle over everything. Then select the “stew” program (if there is a special “soup” program, then you need to select it). Cooking time - 60 minutes. After this, close the multicooker lid until it clicks. At the same time, pour a glass of boiled hot water over the other half of the beets, add a little lemon juice and bring to a boil. This broth must be filtered through gauze or bandage. Then pour the broth into the multicooker container, add garlic, seasonings and finely chopped herbs. On the multicooker program panel, set the “Warming” mode and leave for 10 minutes. Separate the finished meat from the bones, return the pieces of meat back to the borscht. The bones can be thrown away. It is best to serve borscht with sour cream.

Classic borscht with beets: ingredients

And now we bring to your attention a simple one. In general, each housewife has a different recipe, many use several types of meat or even replace it with stew. In cookbooks you can find recipes with dumplings, with smoked ribs, and many other different cooking methods. And all this will be a variation on the theme of classic borscht.

We present to your attention a recipe for simple borscht, which will not take much time from the housewife. To prepare you need to take:

• 1 kilogram of beef;
• half a kilogram of potatoes;
• 300 grams of fresh cabbage;
• 300 grams of beets;
• 200 grams of carrots;
• 200 grams of onion;
• 3 small jars of tomato paste (metal);
• 3 garlic cloves;
• bay leaf, salt, allspice or any spices;
• greenery.

Cooking process

First you need to wash the meat. If it was frozen, it must first be thawed. Next, fill the meat with water and put the pan on the fire for an hour and a half. Once ready, remove it from the pan, cut it into pieces or sticks and put it back into the meat broth. Finely chop the onion and grate the carrots on a medium-sized grater. Chop the cabbage into strips. Beets are also cut into small pieces or grated. You can chop it, like cabbage. Fry the beets in a frying pan with the addition of sunflower oil. Pour a tablespoon of vinegar into it (to preserve the color) and tomato paste. If you don’t have tomato paste at home, you can replace it with finely chopped tomatoes. Mix everything and simmer for 5-7 minutes. In a separate frying pan, fry the carrots and onions in oil. When they acquire a beautiful golden hue, remove the pan from the heat.

Sequence of ingredients

The recipe for simple borscht implies, like other similar ones, the sequential addition of ingredients. Cut the potatoes into pieces and place them in the boiling broth. During cooking, taste the dish and add salt to taste. After the broth boils again, add the cabbage to it. It should be cooked over low heat for about five minutes. Then add the beets to the pan and cook for another ten minutes. At the last moment, add the fried carrots and onions (the so-called frying), as well as the bay leaf.

If necessary, add a little more salt and pepper. After this, add garlic to the almost finished borscht, which was previously squeezed through a garlic press. Almost ready - remove the pan from the heat and let it sit for about twenty minutes. Pour the aromatic, beautiful and tasty borscht into deep plates and serve, sprinkling with herbs and adding sour cream. It will be no less tasty if you put mayonnaise or a thick sauce with spices on the plate instead. And with black rye bread you will get almost a culinary masterpiece. A plate of this first course will give you energy for the whole day. Now you know how to cook borscht. A simple recipe and its variations are given in our article; you just have to choose the one that suits you and your family members more.

Borscht is the king of soups. But this is not just a tasty, satisfying and nutritious dish. Real red borscht with meat broth - this is medicine. Yes, yes, don’t be surprised, it’s been tested by generations of our family. If you are exhausted by the routine at work, if the leaden winter sky makes you sad, if your relationships with loved ones are not going well and nothing in life makes you happy, start cooking and eating borscht...

You will need:

• potatoes 4-5 pcs
• carrots 1 pc (100 g)
• beets 1 piece (100 g)
• cabbage 200 gr
• vegetable oil 100-120 ml
• bay leaf 2 pcs
• sugar
• garlic 2 cloves

The weight of vegetables is approximate. There may be less of something, more of something. The main thing is that all these vegetables are present. Instead of fresh bell pepper, you can use canned pepper (lecho); it must be crushed using a blender.

If you use tomato paste, dilute it with broth (1.5 cups). Be careful when choosing tomato paste. Modern manufacturers actively use pumpkin puree, coloring it and adding artificial flavors. There is nothing bad in pumpkin itself, but it is not a friend of borscht. Can also be used canned peeled tomatoes, they need to be crushed in a blender. Well, in the summer season use fresh tomatoes- cut them in half and grate them, discarding the skin.

Step-by-step photo recipe:

First of all cook the broth. It's best to boil it beef brisket, but another piece of beef with a bone will also work. If there is a piece of pork in the house, or some pork knee is lying around in the freezer, feel free to throw it into the pan, borscht really likes this kind of proximity. But you can do without pork.

Meat put in a saucepan (5 liter) and pour cold water(3 liters), bring the contents to a boil. Don't miss the moment when it begins to form on the surface. foam. It should be scooped up with a spoon and thrown away.

Place in a saucepan 1 peeled onion, 2 bay leaves, salt. Wait for the water to boil and reduce the heat. Cover the pan with a lid, leaving a gap for steam to escape, and cook for 2 hours. Make sure that the broth does not boil too much, let it gurgles slightly then it will turn out transparent.

But now I’ll tell you a secret: real borscht is not boiled, it is fried in a frying pan. The taste of frying determines the taste of the finished dish. Therefore, while the broth is cooking, focus all your attention on her.

Peeled vegetables ( onions, bell peppers, carrots, beets, parsnips) cut into strips or use a grater. I usually cut onions and peppers with a knife, and grate carrots and beets on a Borner grater.

These vegetables must be fried in a frying pan in oil and simmered over low heat. The best frying turns out to be refined sunflower oil, but you can use any other one, but it must be refined. My grandmother fried it in fragrant sunflower oil (refined oil was not produced then) or lard (pork fat). Frying vegetables in fat at low temperature is a necessary procedure. During it, fat-soluble vitamins and aromatic substances are extracted from them, which contributes to their better absorption by the body.

Fry the onion over low heat until approximately translucent 10 minutes. Stir to avoid burning.

Add Bulgarian pepper and fry with onions 10 minutes.

Add to pan carrot and parsnips (if using) mix well.

Immediately after mixing, add beets, stir and cook 10 minutes. Add to stir-fry salt and sugar, keep cooking some more 10 minutes. Vegetables should not be very soft, let them crunch slightly.

Add tomato juice, stir and taste. Add more salt and sugar if necessary. It must be delicious! Cook the fry together with the tomato juice for another 15-20 minutes.
Advice:frying borscht is a completely independent dish. It is very tasty when served cold and can be used as a side dish. It can also be frozen and later used to prepare borscht.

Remove from broth and discard onion and bay leaf. Get it meat.

Bring it on broth to boil and put it in potato, cut into cubes. After the broth with potatoes boils again, reduce the heat and cover the pan with a lid, leaving a gap for steam to escape. Boil potatoes for 20 minutes.

Remove the meat from the bones and cut into portions.

When potato will be cooked add meat into the broth and when it boils add chopped cabbage
Advice: h You can add it to borscht- it will give the borscht a brighter and richer taste. Be sure to try it! Sauerkraut has a sour taste, so add more sugar to the borscht. Real borscht is a balance of sour, salty andsweet taste, so don't neglect sugar.

Brew cabbage 5 minutes.

Add to broth frying y, stir well and, while the borscht is boiling again, chop with a knife garlic with lard until smooth. Shredded add garlic and lard to the borscht at the very end, after you taste it again and add, if necessary, salt and sugar - this technique is borrowed from Ukrainian cuisine, but you don’t need to add lard.

At the very end add finely chopped greenery and as soon as it boils, cover the pan with a lid and turn off the heat. Let the borscht rest and steep for at least 30 minutes. Eat it with sour cream, and with great joy - you have cooked real homemade borscht, you have achieved your goal - smile!Mom's borscht. Brief recipe.

You will need:

• beef with bone 1 kg (brisket)
• potatoes 4-5 pcs
• 2 medium onions (for broth and frying)
• carrots 1 pc (100 g)
• beets 1 piece (100 g)
• parsnips 1 piece (100 g) (can be omitted)
• red bell pepper 1 pc (100 g)
• cabbage 200 gr
• tomato juice 0.5 l (or 2-3 tbsp tomato paste)
• vegetable oil 100-120 ml
• Bay leaf
• sugar
• garlic 2 cloves
• lard or raw smoked bacon 20 g

Place the meat in a saucepan (5 liters) and fill with cold water (3 liters) . Bring to a boil, skim off the foam, add the onion, bay leaf, salt and simmer over low heat for 2 hours.
In a frying pan with vegetable oil, fry the vegetables, cut into strips. Onions - 10 minutes, then peppers - 10 minutes, then carrots, parsnips and beets - 15 minutes, add salt and sugar. Pour tomato juice or tomato paste diluted with broth into the roast and fry for another 15-20 minutes. Taste the frying and adjust it to the final taste by adding salt and sugar.
Remove the meat from the broth, remove from the bones and cut into portions.
Place the potatoes in the broth and cook for 20 minutes. Add pieces of meat and cabbage, cook for 5 minutes.
Add the fry to the borscht, stir, bring to a boil and until the final taste is achieved, adding salt and sugar. At the very end, add chopped garlic with lard and finely chopped herbs to the borscht, bring to a boil, cover with a lid and turn off. Let the borscht brew for 30-40 minutes.

In contact with

Borscht with beets is deservedly considered one of the main traditional Russian dishes. Tasty, satisfying, healthy - it wins the heart of everyone who tries it for the first time. True, in order to truly enjoy borscht with beets, it is very important to prepare it correctly. Not all housewives succeed in this. This article will present the 7 best step-by-step recipes for classic borscht, which will not leave anyone indifferent, and readers will finally get the answer: how to cook borscht with beets to definitely please your husband.

Classic recipe for borscht with beets and cabbage

Perhaps this is the most popular step-by-step recipe for classic borscht with beets in Russia. It is also present in the cuisines of other countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Union.

If you want to know how to cook borscht with beets, the housewife should first of all get acquainted with the list of what she will need:

• 300 grams of pork or beef depending on taste preferences;
• Cabbage fork;
• 300 grams of potatoes;
• Bell pepper;
• 200 grams of carrots and beets;
• Greens, bay leaves, salt, sugar and other flavorings are added at the discretion of the housewife.

The first thing the housewife should do is finely chop the meat. It is with this action that the step-by-step recipe for classic borscht begins. The chopped meat is sent to cook.

As soon as the broth boils, a bay leaf is added to it. Cooking should continue for about 30 minutes, but this does not mean that the hostess is inactive. At this time, she cuts the remaining ingredients, adding chopped vegetables to the meat.

Borscht with beets cannot do without this vegetable. While cooking continues, beets and carrots are fried on all sides in vegetable oil. Onions, peppers, granulated sugar and paste made from fresh tomatoes are added to the same container. The resulting “cocktail” needs to simmer for about 20 minutes.

After this, the finished frying is sent to the meat and begins to cook with it until the dish is completely prepared.

A good housewife should not only know how to cook borscht with beets, but also how to serve it correctly.

The dish poured for consumption should be decorated with chopped herbs. This will have a positive effect on both the appearance of the borscht and its taste.

Traditional step-by-step recipe for classic Ukrainian borscht

Ukrainian women believe that they know better than anyone in the world how to cook borscht with beets. I must admit, there really is logic in this.

Ukrainian women insist that in order to know exactly how to cook borscht with beets, you should purchase the following list of ingredients:

• At least 700 grams of meat;
• Cabbage fork
• 2 potatoes;
• 3 tomatoes;
• 3 tablespoons of tomato paste;
• large head of garlic;
• A piece of lard;
• Spices are added to taste.

The key difference from the first recipe in the Ukrainian analogue, of course, is the presence of lard. Well, really, how to cook borscht with beets and cabbage and not use lard? There is nowhere in Ukraine without him...

To know how to cook borscht with beets in Ukrainian, the first step is to thoroughly rinse the meat and place it in a three-liter cooking pan. Quickly chopped vegetables are sent there too. After the broth has reached a boil, you should reduce the heat to low, but continue cooking for another couple of hours.

To determine whether the meat is ready, Ukrainians recommend simply poking it with a fork. When the meat seems soft enough, it can be removed and finely chopped.

The shape of the cut potatoes is of fundamental importance. It needs to be cut into cube-shaped pieces, but cabbage can be finely chopped without thinking about its shape.

Vegetables along with peppers are fried on the stove, while tomato paste is added to the frying pan before them, which guarantees the borscht a particularly rich taste. Stewing continues for at least 15 minutes, and the most chopped greens are added to the vegetables.

When the frying goes to cook along with the meat, it is worth continuing cooking for some more time without turning up the heat. All flavoring additives are added to the borscht after the heat is turned off.

Everyone who tried the result of a step-by-step recipe for classic borscht, common in Ukraine, admitted that Ukrainian women really know a lot about how to cook borscht with beets.

Recipe for borscht with beans and beets

The recipe for borscht with beans has been criticized more than once, but in the end it still gained wide popularity. For it the owner will need:

• Cabbage fork;
• 2 potatoes, 2 tomatoes;
• 100 grams of carrots and beets;
• 3 heads of garlic;
• Red beans;
• All spices and various flavoring additives are added to the dish at the discretion of the hostess.

The word “vegetarian” immediately makes it clear that the recipe for borscht with beans involves the absence of meat in the dish.

First of all, the beans are soaked for several hours before preparing the borscht. If for some reason you don’t have time to soak them, it doesn’t matter - you can always use store-bought beans canned in special jars.

After this, the beans are sent to a pan of water set on fire. When the water boils, the fire level drops to the minimum level. At this time, chopped vegetables are added to the pan: first potatoes, then slightly fried beets.

At the same time, the vegetables are fried in a frying pan. When they go into the pan, it’s time to stew the tomatoes and cut the garlic heads into small pieces.

Vegetables are chopped and added to the borscht with beets only as a last resort. In order for the dish to have a rich taste, housewives who know well how to prepare borscht with beets and cabbage influence its taste with the help of tomato paste. Yes, yes, you can’t do without it even in a recipe for borscht with beans, which also has a strong effect on the taste of the dish.

After all the ingredients are in the pan, cooking continues for a couple more minutes. Then the fire is turned off, and the borscht continues to infuse for at least an hour. Without this, the recipe for borscht with beans will lose a lot in its taste.

How to cook borscht in a slow cooker?

Housewives who know the step-by-step recipe for classic borscht love to experiment with preparing this dish. Using a slow cooker in the process is a great way to show everyone how to cook borscht with beets in a truly original way.

The list of ingredients is not at all similar to the one in the recipe for borscht with beans. It is much more similar to the classic recipe for borscht with beets or its Ukrainian equivalent.

For cooking you will need:

• 300 grams of meat;
• 2 tomatoes, 2 garlic heads;
• 200 grams of cabbage;
• 4 potatoes;
• 1 beet, 1 onion;
• Various flavorings and spices are added at the discretion of the housewife.

This version of borscht with beets does not imply that the meat needs to be cut in a strictly defined way. You can use your imagination during the cooking process, but it is better to cut the meat into small pieces - this way it will receive uniform processing on all sides.

The “Baking” mode is turned on in the multicooker, and the meat is kept in it for at least 20 minutes. At the same time, vegetables are cut, onions and garlic are carefully chopped. The chopped ingredients are sent to the slow cooker and stewed along with the meat for another quarter of an hour.

Then tomatoes and tomato paste are added to the dish, and after another 15 minutes, finely chopped vegetables are added. At the last stage of frying, water is added.

The borscht with beets and other ingredients remains in the multicooker for another hour with the “Stew” mode turned on.

Experiment with sauerkraut

For this type of borscht you will need:

• Half a kilogram of meat - exclusively beef, pork is not suitable;
• 200 grams of sauerkraut;
• 100 grams of beets, onions and carrots;
• 2 potatoes;
• Vinegar;
• Spices, vegetable oil and salt are added to taste.

Few housewives know how to cook borscht with beets and cabbage. Many women are afraid to take risks when cooking and prefer fresh cabbage to sauerkraut. But it can very well refresh the boring perception of borscht.

The meat is cut into small pieces and sent to the stove for cooking. When the water boils, the fire is reduced, but not to the minimum level, but to medium. This fire is maintained for another 1.5 hours. Salt is added a few minutes before the dish is completely cooked.

The housewife can cut all the vegetables to her taste. If in the recipe for borscht with beans their size and shape really played a big role, then here they are not important.

Sauerkraut is washed with running water; excess moisture should be squeezed out with bare hands. The cabbage, cleaned in this way, is sent to a frying pan with vegetable oil and tomato paste, where it is processed for about 5 minutes.

After this, the cabbage is finally combined with all the vegetables. Frying, cabbage and spices are added to the broth with meat in strict order. After this, the borscht is cooked for another 20 minutes, and it can be considered ready.

A step-by-step recipe for classic borscht suggests that you can serve borscht with sauerkraut, sprinkling it generously with herbs.

Beef as the main ingredient for borscht

Next, the reader is offered another recipe for classic borscht with meat. As with the previous dish, pork is not suitable for this dish. The only meat that will complement this recipe is high-quality beef.

To prepare, the housewife will need:

• 500 grams of beef left on the bone;
• 2 potatoes, 2 beets, 2 onions;
• 1 carrot;
• 1 tablespoon vinegar;
• Spices and various flavoring additives are used at the discretion of the housewife.

The key difference between this recipe and the previous one is that the beef in it is not separated from the bone. Before starting culinary work, you should carefully rinse the meat with running water and pour boiling water over it. This not only disinfects the product, but also saves the housewife from having to remove foam from the pan every 5 minutes of cooking.

The processed meat is placed in 4 liters of cold water, in which bay leaf, onions and spices are already floating. After the broth is brought to a boil, it is worth keeping it on reduced heat for another 4 hours.

At the same time, large beets are divided into 2 halves and boiled in a separate container along with vinegar and sugar.

When the beets are ready, you should remove them from the pan, but do not rush to get rid of the beet broth - at the final stage of cooking, it can be added to the borscht if there is not enough water in it. This trick is familiar only to women who know the recipe for classic borscht with meat in great detail.

When the main work on the borscht with beets is completed, you should move on to heat treatment of the carrots and onions. They are cut into small pieces and fried in a frying pan for 5 minutes.

After 4 hours, the meat is removed from the future soup and also cut into small pieces, and then returned back to the fire along with the potatoes, fried and bay leaves. All this is generously salted and kept on the stove for at least 7 minutes.

A step-by-step recipe for classic borscht suggests that it is better not to cut the beets with a knife, but simply grate them. Next, it is processed over medium heat, mixed with tomato paste and added to the borscht. The broth simmers on the stove for another 15 minutes until the potatoes are completely cooked.

Garlic is added to this borscht after cooking. The chopped garlic head is evenly distributed throughout the broth, and the borscht is left to soak and be saturated with flavors for 30 minutes.

Navy borscht is an even more unique recipe than soup cooked in a slow cooker, or a recipe for borscht with beans.

To make it you will need:

• Bones with a thin layer of meat;
• 200 grams of beets and carrots;
• 2 tomatoes, 2 onions;
• Cabbage fork;
• 4 potatoes;
• Bacon;
• Vinegar;
• Bay leaves, herbs and granulated sugar are added at the discretion of the hostess.

Many cooks refuse this recipe due to its excessive specificity. Using meat bones instead of regular meat is a truly bold experiment.

Housewives who don’t know how to cook navy-style borscht with beets think that this dish will never satisfy their men, not realizing that the small amount of meat on the bones here is compensated by the presence of bacon, and in order to add the required fat content to the dish and nutritional value, even bones cope well.

The step-by-step recipe for classic naval borscht is very simple.

Pour 2 liters of cold water over the meat bones mixed with vegetables. You should wait until the broth boils. Most likely, a lot of foam will appear on it - it should be carefully removed. Ultimately, the fire level is reduced by 50%, and the broth is not removed from it for at least an hour.

After 60 minutes, bacon and salt are added to the broth. To understand that the borscht is almost ready, you should pry off the bones with improvised means - if the meat fibers separate from them, then the bones can be removed. It is at this stage that the meat is separated from the bones, and the broth is slowly strained through a colander.

To process beets according to this recipe, you do not need a grater. It would be best to cut it into thin strips and place it in a frying pan onto which vinegar and vegetable oil have already been poured. Strained broth is also added there. The mixture simmers on fire for at least 60 minutes.

At the same time, vegetables are cooked in another frying pan. Then both roasts are combined, sugar is added to them, and the whole thing is simmered over the fire for another 20 minutes.

Cabbage and potatoes go into the broth next to last. Bay leaves and frying are added to the borscht after it has been brought to a boil again. The dish is kept at the minimum heat level for another 15 minutes.

Before serving borscht, it is decorated with herbs.

This article presented only 7 borscht recipes. Housewives who are well versed in this issue know many more ways to cook borscht with beets, how to cook borscht with beets and cabbage, how to diversify the recipe for borscht with beans, and not disappoint your man.

Since ancient times, there has been a saying in Rus': “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” You can pave this route with a variety of culinary creations. However, according to men, it is borscht with beets that is the favorite dish for many of them. To have reason to be proud of herself, a woman must definitely learn how to cook it. Whether she uses one of the recipes described above for this or invents her own way of preparing borscht with beets is up to her.

Today I will tell you how I cook borscht. Probably every housewife has a dish with some kind of history associated with it. My dish is borscht.

I don’t know why, but my borscht stubbornly didn’t work out. I studied a sea of ​​cookbooks; in those days there was no Internet where you could find all the information you needed. Even though I didn’t follow all the rules for preparing borscht according to cookbook recipes, I ended up with, as my husband says, Stolovsky Borscht.

All this lasted until I watched Andrei Makarevich’s “Smak” program, which was released in those years. In the studio, Larisa Dolina showed and explained all the intricacies of making borscht. Like a good student, I wrote everything down and went to the kitchen to prepare my favorite dish. And lo and behold, I finally got the kind of borscht I’ve never had before. Since then, I have never been ashamed to treat my friends to my borscht. Of course, over the years I added something to the cooking process, but this did not change the taste.

So, let's begin. To prepare we will need:

• Meat is better drumstick with bone - 1 kg.
• Cabbage - 1/2 fork
• Onion - 1 or 2 pcs
• Carrots - 1 pc.
• Beetroot - 1 piece
• Bell pepper - 1 piece
• Tomatoes - 2 pcs or tomato paste
• Garlic - 2 - 3 cloves
• Table vinegar - 1 or 2 tablespoons
• Vegetable oil - 3 tablespoons
• Beans optional - 0.5 cups soaked overnight
• Bay leaf
• Greenery
• Salt, pepper, sugar

Wash the meat with bones, put it in a saucepan and fill it with cold water. Put the pan on the fire. As the water in the pan begins to boil, carefully remove the foam. Add the onion and celery to the broth, reduce the heat and leave to simmer for about 1 hour.

And at this time we begin to make the frying for the borscht. Half rings mode: onion, bell pepper. Cut carrots and beets into strips or three on a grater.

Pour vegetable oil into a frying pan and fry the onion. When the onion is browned, add the bell pepper. Lightly fry the onions and peppers and add grated carrots and beets. Mix everything, add grated tomato or tomato paste. Lightly fry everything and add broth (from the pan where the meat is cooked) and table vinegar or lemon juice.

Vinegar helps preserve the color of the beets and will later add a slight sourness to the borscht. Reduce the heat and leave the frying to simmer until tender, about half an hour. If all the liquid has boiled down, add more broth. I add chopped herbs to the prepared frying dish, mix everything with garlic and turn off the heat.

If you want to put in borsch beans, it is better to boil them separately so as not to spoil the color of the broth and put them in the borscht along with the cabbage.

Finely chop the cabbage, before adding the cabbage to the broth, check the readiness of the meat, it should be half cooked. The meat will finish cooking along with the cabbage, because cabbage usually takes about half an hour to cook.

I usually add the potatoes a little earlier than the cabbage. I don’t cut the potatoes into small pieces, but cut them in half and put the halves in the broth, later, when the potatoes are cooked, I simply mash them with a spoon.

There are so many borscht recipes for as many women as there are. Every housewife knows how to cook borscht with beets so that it is not just edible, but amazingly tasty.

In many families, the secret of preparing this amazing dish is passed down from generation to generation, from grandmothers and mothers. But even experienced housewives will not mind learning something new, adding a twist so that the borscht sparkles with new flavors, is distinguished by its piquancy and aroma.

It's difficult to say who invented borscht. Many countries attribute it to their national cuisine. Slavic peoples have traditionally eaten it since ancient times and consider it the main first course.

In northern Russia, soup with cabbage was called shchi. The further south you went, the more heat-loving vegetables grew that could be added to first courses. It is possible that borscht was first prepared in Kievan Rus, since it was Ukrainian borscht that became most widespread and is famous throughout the world.

In Russia, the first mentions of borscht appeared in the 16th and 17th centuries; Catherine II loved it very much, but Potemkin preferred sour daily cabbage soup. In the rules and advice of Domostroi (a book of teachings and instructions from the 16th century), you can find recommendations for preparing summer stew from hogweed and beets - it became the prototype of the modern dish.

Each locality has its own rules and recipes for preparing borscht, but it can be divided into two main types: red (now popular among Slavic peoples) and cold (reminiscent of summer okroshka).

Red borscht is a hot first course, without which we cannot even imagine a traditional lunch. Every Slavic family in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus knows how to cook borscht with beets, and they love it very much.

And the cold one was prepared in spring and summer - it is a light soup of greens and boiled beets, with the addition of boiled chopped eggs and fermented milk products for dressing. It was eaten cold and often boiled potatoes were used instead of bread.

To properly prepare borscht with beets, use the secrets of experienced chefs.

1. Bouillon. The richness of borscht depends on the broth. It can be anything: meat, vegetable, fish. For classic borscht, it is best to use pork or beef on the bone. Borscht based on poultry will turn out delicious: chicken, duck or any other. For lean borscht, cook saturated vegetable broth in advance.
2. Beet. This is what gives it the bright red color. It can be cut into strips or grated, but never add it raw to the liquid, otherwise it will boil out and the borscht will become faded in color. Pour in a little vegetable oil and sauté the beets until soft, after sprinkling them with vinegar and adding a spoonful of sugar, this way they will not lighten during the cooking process and will keep the color of the borscht bright. It’s even better to bake the beets in foil, then they will retain their natural properties.
3. Roasting. Borscht without frying is not borscht, but a soup made from boiled vegetables. Diced onions are sauteed in oil until transparent, add grated carrots and after a couple of minutes add a little flour. It can also be fried separately in butter or vegetable oil. Flour will provide additional thickness and velvety.
4. Tomatoes. Never skimp on tomato paste or sauce; the borscht will be sour and rich. You can use factory-made, homemade or chopped fresh tomatoes.
5. Sour cream. Many experienced housewives add sour cream during the cooking process, mixing it with tomato dressing and thus acidifying the broth. Try it, perhaps this method will be a revelation for you. Or add it directly to the plate.
6. Cabbage. Finely chopped, young or mature, white cabbage or Beijing, but it is added at the very end, almost before turning off the fire. Don't overcook it! Bring to a boil and let stand for 5-7 minutes.
7. Additional ingredients. Mushrooms, beans, and prunes add piquancy and originality to the borscht. By alternating additives, you can achieve new flavors each time.
8. Intuition. Few people strictly follow the recipe and measure out the required amount of ingredients. Borscht is cooked by eye; ingredients are added in quantities that your feelings tell you.
9. Saturation. The borscht must be steeped and soaked in aromas. Let it sit for a while before serving. And the next day it will taste even better.
10. Serving. Borscht will look very colorful if served in thick-walled ceramic painted plates. Be sure to sprinkle finely chopped herbs on top and add a spoonful of sour cream. Place chopped lard, garlic and black bread on the table. Don't forget about the garlic donuts!

Every cook praises his borscht

There are a huge number of variations on how to cook borscht with beets, sauerkraut, beans, sorrel and other ingredients. Each recipe has its own cooking secrets. Delight your loved ones with borscht prepared according to one of the recipes below.

Let's prepare real Ukrainian borscht, respecting the national flavor and taste preferences! Just don’t wait for the exact weight of the food to be laid out - borscht should be prepared solely by intuition. So, let's begin!

The best borscht meat is beef on the bone; it takes a long time to cook, but the broth turns out delicious. Pour in cold water and bring to a boil. Skim off the foam, add salt, place on low heat and simmer for 2-3 hours until the meat is cooked. Don't forget to add the whole onion and carrot for flavor, a bay leaf, and a few black peppercorns.

A little secret: cook several peeled large potatoes along with the meat.

While the meat is cooking, let's start frying. Cut the lard into small pieces and fry it until it becomes crackling (translucent), add finely chopped onion and fry until transparent. We cut the beets into strips, the carrots can be finely chopped or grated on a coarse grater, and we simmer the vegetables along with the cracklings.

Add sugar to the fry and sprinkle with vinegar to add brightness. Once the beets have become soft, ten minutes of stewing is enough, dust them with flour and stir. Now add tomato sauce or grated fresh tomatoes and simmer for a few more minutes.

The broth is ready. We take out the contents from it. We select the bones and separate the meat into fibers or cut into pieces. The onions and carrots have served their purpose - throw them away. Mash whole boiled potatoes into a puree - this gives the broth thickness and a velvety taste.

Add diced potatoes and cook for 20 minutes. Add frying. Taste it, add salt and pepper if necessary.

Shred the cabbage and place it in the pan. Bring to a boil and leave on low heat for no more than 10 minutes. Let's brew. Ukrainian borscht with lard is ready.

Serve with donuts and greens.

Soup with sauerkraut

A very fortified dish, because sauerkraut is a storehouse of useful elements. The taste is sweet and sour, original.

• Prepare meat broth from pork, beef or chicken. Use the meat for main courses or chop it and send it back to the borscht.
• Add the potatoes into cubes and cook until tender.
• Fry the vegetables for frying in the following sequence: onions, beets, carrots. Simmer until soft and season with tomato paste.
• Add sauerkraut and frying to the borscht, cook until done.
• Serve with sour cream and finely chopped green onions.

Borscht with sorrel

This borscht is also called “green”, and it is perfectly refreshing in the summer and no less tasty in the winter. True, in winter you have to use canned sorrel, which experienced housewives prepare in the summer especially for these purposes.

There is nothing complicated in preparation; green borscht is based on the classic borscht recipe, only sorrel is used instead of cabbage.

Cook the meat broth and prepare other ingredients. Potatoes and onions are cut into cubes, carrots are grated, beets are cut into strips, a bunch of sorrel is crumbled with a knife. Finely chop a few hard-boiled eggs, or you can cut them larger: into quarters or halves.

While the broth is cooking, prepare the roast. In any oil, bring the onion to a translucent state, add beets and carrots, simmer until soft. Add tomatoes.

Cut the cooked meat into pieces. Add potatoes and cook for 20-30 minutes. Now fry – add and cook for a few more minutes. Finally the turn came to put in the sorrel and eggs; as soon as it boils, turn it off immediately. We insist and serve.

Vegetarian (lenten) borscht with beans or mushrooms

Hearty borscht can be prepared not only with meat broth, but also with beans. It is especially relevant for vegetarians or fasting people.

• Soak dry beans in cold water for several hours, or overnight.
• Cook it until soft in salted water.
• Add potatoes and fried vegetables: onions, beets, carrots, tomatoes.
• Lastly, add finely shredded cabbage and boil for no more than 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it brew.

Bean borscht is filling, especially if white sugar beans were used, because legumes are rich in proteins and in many cases can replace meat. Canned beans do not add richness to the broth; they are best used for making salads.

Instead of beans, you can take mushrooms, pre-fried in oil. Better yet, combine them.

Navy borscht

It takes a long time to prepare, but it's so worth it - you'll lick your fingers! Its main difference from the classic recipe is the addition of smoked brisket or any other smoked meats.

1. Cook broth from meat cut into small pieces with the addition of a whole onion. When it boils, remove the foam with a slotted spoon and reduce the heat to low. After an hour, add salt, and after another 30-40 minutes, check the readiness of the meat - it should be soft and pierce with a fork. We take out and throw away the onion.
2. Add pieces of smoked brisket and cook while the roast is being prepared.
3. Cut the beets into strips, sprinkle with vinegar and fry in sunflower oil until soft. Pour the broth into it and simmer for half an hour.
4. Separately, fry the onions and grated carrots.
5. Chop the tomatoes or grate them on a coarse grater. Add to the beets, simmer everything together for a few minutes. Cut the potatoes into cubes or strips, as you like. Place in a saucepan and cook until done.
6. We don’t chop the cabbage as we are used to, but cut it into squares and throw it into the borscht.
7. Next comes the frying.
8. After boiling, cook for 7 minutes.
9. The borscht is ready, serve.

Lunch is ready! It's time for the table!

Now you know how to cook borscht with beets in meat or vegetable broth with the addition of mushrooms, beans, smoked meats or sorrel. Every time the borscht turns out new, original, and most importantly - tasty. Cook with pleasure!