Although I'm currently doing my best to avoid heat stroke while running for 6-8 hours at a time in 33-35 degree heat across India, I believe you guys back home are pretty much housebound by terrible storms and near constant rain.
Here’s a recipe for what I found to be an absolute sure fire way to warm you up from the inside on those days when the cold has seeped deep into your bones. Trust me, spending every hour of the day either running or camping at -10° in the Ukraine, you get that feeling fairly often. When it comes to defrosting from the cold this stuff is like readybrek on steroids!
Borscht soup
This recipe was was originally posted on JamieOliver.com’s Member Recipes section by user Helenscooking.
Ingredients
- 1 cup of beans; (8 oz.)
- 2-3 carrots;
- 2 white onions;
- 1 red bell pepper;
- 3-4 potatoes;
- 1 cup of sour cream;
- 1 can of pureed tomatoes;
- 1 can of green beans;
- 2 beats (small-medium size);
- 1 cup of finely chopped dill;
- 1 cup of finely chopped parsley;
Method
Pre-soak beans in hot water (for 30-40 minutes) until soft.
Meanwhile take an 8 quart saucepan. Put it on a maximum heat with water half full.
Peel carrots, potatoes, onions beets. Wash the remaining vegetables.
Finely chop 2 onions and 1 bell pepper. Set aside 1/3 of the chopped onions. As soon as the water starts to boil add beans, salt (to taste) and 2-3 big bay leaves. Let boil for about 10-15 minutes. Add remaining chopped onion and bell pepper. Continue boiling on medium heat.
Meanwhile, grate the carrots and set aside. Grate the beets and add with the remaining carrots into the saucepan. Let all the vegetables boil for another 20 minutes. Cut potatoes in medium sized pieces and add to the saucepan and let everything boil for another 20 minutes.
There are as many variations of Borscht as there are people claiming that their great, great, grandmother’s secret family recipe is the best! I tried a lot of them throughout the Ukraine and the best I had was at a motel. It was served with a nice chunk of gammon in the bowl with the flavours running through the soup. It tasted as if the meat had been added to the pan while making the soup and not just as a garnish.
Experiment with your Borscht and get the kids involved in the kitchen (although go easy on the salt in this case), as it’s a dish packed full of vitamins, minerals and fibre as well as flavour. Being that it is fluorescent pink – the exact opposite colour of Brussels sprouts and other less exciting vegetables – they’ll want to help make and eat it!
