Cream of Beets Soup--a Different Type of Borshch

As Christmas approaches I think more and more about beets and borshch, the traditional Polish beet soup. I will make the clear broth version again just before Christmas and, as always, I will serve it with small short crust pastries stuffed with mushrooms or mushed beans. But, since I already shared the recipe for the clear beet soup, today, I want to talk about the cream of beets soup, which, although made of beets, is not from the Polish menu.

Cream soup can be made almost out of anything, also beets, one of the vegetables that I enjoy a lot, especially during winter months, and that I am very familiar with. I made this cream of beets recently and I liked it very much. This soup is richer and easier to make than any other beets soup I know, but still has this familiar beet taste and the wonderful purple color. The spices that we use to season beet dishes, such as caraway, dill, and allspice, together with the sour cream enhance this soup make it taste similar to a traditional Polish borshch.

Cream of Beets
(Serves 4-6)

Ingredients:
4 medium beets, peeled,
2 shallots,
4-6 cups vegetable or beef broth,
1/2 apple (could be McIntosh, or any juicy and sour apple),
1/2 tsp allspice,
1/2 tsp ground caraway seeds,
1-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar,
1/2 cup sour cream,
2 tbsp olive oil,
2 tbsp chopped dill,
1 garlic clove, minced,
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Preparation:
1. Heat the oil in a large heavy duty pot. Add chopped shallots and fry until soft.
2. Add beets cut into small cubes. Mix and let it all cook together on a small heat for about 5 minutes, stirring from time to time. Add the peeled and cut into cubes apple and cook for another 3 minutes.
3. Add the stock to the pot with beets, bring it to the boil. Season with salt and pepper. Turn down the heat and cook for about 20-30 minutes, until the beets become soft.
4. Using a blender purée the soup. Add minced garlic. Season it with vinegar, allspice, and caraway. If at that point the soup seems too thick add extra broth and bring the soup to boil again. Divide the soup among bowls, top with a dollop of sour cream and chopped dill.

Clear Beet Soup--Polish Christmas Eve Borshch

I should not need any particular reason to post another beet recipe; there is always at least one among my top-ten posts. But for me as Polish, Christmas is a wonderful opportunity to share a recipe for this clear vegetarian borshch, possibly, the most famous Polish soup.

Until today I have never cooked this Christmas borshch myself. My mother has always been cooking it for us, either in Poland or here when she was visiting us. The Christmas Eve savory dishes (all of them vegetarian) were her specialty and I made the sweets. Unfortunately, this year she decided that this long trip overseas was too tiring for her, so the burden of keeping up with the tradition fell entirely on me.

But, on the positive side, it also became an opportunity for me finally to learn how to make borshch, especially that this is the most liked soup at me home. After a couple of phone calls, and making sure that I got all the ingredients and steps right, I got it done. And it turned out that it could not be easier.

There are many ways to prepare borshch and many families have different traditions of doing it. In our home, for example, we did not add dried porcini to it, like some other families do. During Christmas we eat cabbage with porcini or serve borshch with pastry stuffed with mushrooms, so it always seemed too much to put mushrooms also in the borshch. The other reason is that my son, who loves borshch, also hates mushrooms, so naturally I need to avoid putting them in the dishes he eats.

The most characteristic thing about this soup is that beets are not cooked, so all their nutritional values are preserved and the soup has the most beautiful and intensive purple color.
Also some of the spices used make it taste unique. Borshch is usually served in special bowls with pierogi, or accompanied by small, stuffed pastry. On occasions other than Christmas Eve it can also be made in a non-vegetarian version, for instance as a beef-beet broth and served with beef-stuffed pierogi. But my most favorite version is this Christmas Eve vegetarian borshch.

Polish Christmas Eve Borshch

Ingredients:
3-4 medium carrots, peeled,
1/4 medium celery root, peeled,
1/2 parsley root, if available, peeled
1/2 medium leek, washed thoroughly in between leaves,
6 medium beets,
vegetable bullion (optional, only if your vegetables do not release enough taste on their own),
2 garlic cloves, minced
3-4 tbsp vinegar,
2 tbsp sugar,
1/2 tsp ground caraway,
2 bay leaves,
4 all spice,
4 black peppercorns,
5 whole cloves,
4 prunes (optional),
1 tbsp salt and black pepper to taste,
1 tbsp fresh chopped dill (optional).

Preparation:
1. In a large pot bring to boil 8 cups of water with salt, bay leaves, peppercorns, and allspice.
Add carrot, celery root, parsley root, and leek, and cook for about 40 minutes, until vegetables are soft. Try the stock and if it does not have much taste you may add bullion or extra vegetable stock.
2. Peel off the beets and cut into 1/4 inch-thick slices. Add them to the pot with vegetable stock. Bring to boil but let it boil only for about a minute or two. Turn off the heat. Add caraway, ground black pepper, cloves, garlic, prunes, sugar, and balsamic vinegar.

3. Taste the soup--it should be sweet and sour, but also spicy from pepper and garlic. You may add an extra tablespoon of vinegar or sugar depending on the sweetness of the beets and carrots.
4. Cover the pot and let it stand over night to infuse all the aromas.

Reheat borshch before serving it, again without boiling it for too long. Add dill, and serve it with pierogi or small pastry.

Ukrainian Borshch--and the Bean Factor

This is probably the most popular soup in my home. And it is also one of the dishes that all the foreigners who traveled to Poland tried and keep asking for. Simply because it is unique.

Although the name suggests that it comes from Ukraine, since there was a time in our history, when borders were moving back and forth and Ukraine and Poland were parts of one kingdom, we consider this borshch Polish and it has been in our national menu for ages.

Yesterday, I was invited by an Ukrainian friend to cook an Ukrainian borshch together. I could not be more excited. I was anxious to find out what Polish and Ukrainians make under the same name.

We cooked two versions of the same borshch. One was based on a beef stock, the other was vegetarian. My grandmother used to cook a meat (pork) version of it, while my mother did mostly a vegetarian borshch. These days, I also make a vegetarian borshch, as it is always safe to serve it to friends in such diverse environment where some don't eat beef, others don't eat pork, and some don't eat meat at all. Luckily, this soup is rich enough to be very satisfying just in its purely vegetarian version and often it was served as an Eintopf; however, especially when it was made with meat. Ukrainians serve it with a special bread which is topped with garlic and oil. In Poland we add garlic directly to the soup.

As we peeled, cut, and cooked all the ingredients there was almost no difference in preparation. Svitlana made the most traditional version of the soup based on beets, carrots ,onion, potatoes, cabbage, and tomato paste. However there was one difference in how she made it and how we make it. In Poland we always add beans to the soup. During summer months it is usually green or yellow string beans, or even better a wax bean. It does not take long to cook such soup made with very fresh vegetables and can be served when the vegetables are still on the crispy side, and especially when beans and cabbage are still al dente. In winter we use white cannellini beans, and cook the borshch longer, until all the ingredients are soft. Since beans make this soup very fulfilling, we usually do not serve it with bread.

Ukrainian Borshch (Polish Version)
(Serves six)

Ingredients:
2 medium beets,
4 medium carrots,
a small piece (about 1/8) of a celery root or two celery stalks,
3 medium white potatoes,
1 medium onion,
3 garlic cloves,
about 1/4 of a small white cabbage,
1/2 lb of preferably wax beans or yellow or green string beans, or one 14 oz can of white cannellini beans,
1/2 cup of tomato paste or 2 tbsp tomato concentrate,
1/2 cup of crème fraiche, sour cream, or Greek yogurt,
fresh chopped dill or parsley,
1 bay leaf,
3 grains all spice,
salt and pepper.

Preparation:
1. In a large pot put about a gallon of water, add bay leaf and all spice and bring to boil.
2. Peel the onion, chop it, and add to the boiling water. Let it boil for about 5 minutes.
3. Peel the carrots, potatoes, and beets. Cut carrot into thin slices, potatoes into small cubes, and beets into small sticks.

You can also grate carrots and beets (but not the potatoes) on a large hole grater or use a food processor with grater blade.

4. Add beets, carrots, and celery to the pot and cook for about 20 minutes, until almost soft. If you grated the vegetables they will cook faster.
5. Add potatoes and cook for about 10 minutes.
6. Shred cabbage and add to the boiling soup together with fresh beans if you use them. Let it cook for about 10-15 minutes.
7. The last step is to season the soup with salt and freshly grated pepper and add tomato paste or concentrate. If you make this soup with white beans, rinse them under the running water, and add just before the tomato concentrate. Toss in chopped garlic and let it boil for about 3 minutes to infuse all the flavors together.

Serve warm with a dollop of crème fraiche on top, and sprinkle with dill or parsley.