Today we are making my favorite summer soup -- the cold borscht -- but first I want to
come clean on the origin of the Russian dishes I’ve been posting on my channel. Turns out
they aren’t Russian. They are Ukrainian. I never even thought about it until people
started leaving me comments on my hot borscht and syrniki videos saying that I am engaging
in cultural appropriation. I really did not mean for this to happen. Ukrainian food is
absolutely amazing. So if you are of Ukrainian descent, please know that I meant no harm.
The only reason I was calling them Russian is that I grew up in Moscow and these are
some of the most common dishes there.
Ok, back to the soup.
If you’ve seen my hot borscht video, you are probably wondering how that beefy insanely
rich soup could possibly be served cold. It’s not. This is a completely different soup that
is vegetarian and can even be made vegan if you skip the eggs and use vegan sour-cream.
What’s so lovely about this soup is that it combines both the raw and the cooked vegetables.
So you get the creaminess from the potatoes, sweetness from the beets, and the refreshing
crunch from cucumbers and radishes.
This soup doesn’t require nearly as much prep as the hot version, but you do need to
make it the day ahead so that it has time to chill.
Let’s preheat the oven to 350 for the beets.
I have a huge beet today, so I am only using one, but if yours are smaller, you might need
multiple. Trim the top and the bottom. Scrub it really well under the water to clean it.
Wrap it up in foil. Place on a baking sheet and put in the middle of the oven until it’s
tender. This big one took an hour.
While the beet is cooking, peel and chop some carrots. The skinny ends can be cut in half,
and the thicker ends can be cut into quarters. Then line up all the carrots and slice them
about 1/4 of an inch thick.
For potatoes, I am using yukon gold, but any boiling potatoes would work. You can dice
them any way you want, but here is how I do it. I find that with sticky vegetables, like
potatoes, it helps to drag the knife towards you until you get to the final dice. See how
I drag the tip of the knife through the potato. This makes it easier to keep all the pieces
in place.
For the final dice, I switch back to the faster and easier push cuts since at this point it’s
fine for all the cubes to fall apart.
Put potatoes and carrots into a large pot. Add 4 quarts of water. It will look like too
much, but just trust me on this one.
The next ingredient is very controversial in our house. I love to add a teaspoon of
whole black peppercorns. As they cook, they become very soft and fairly mild, but still
peppery. I find biting into one actually fun, but my kids find biting into one absolutely
terrible. Since this particular version of cold borscht is for posterity, I am making
it the way I like it, but if you are cooking for people with sensitive palettes, feel free
to leave out the peppercorns.
Add a bay leaf and a good bit of salt. Please put away that salt shaker. We have a gallon
of water here, so we need fistfulls, not pinches.
Stir. Cover. Bring to a boil over high heat. Uncover. Reduce heat to maintain a gentle
simmer and cook until the veggies are tender, about 20 minutes. Potatoes are usually the
bottle neck here, so fish one out and check that it’s completely soft and creamy.
Let’s see how our beet is doing.
That feels good. Keep in mind that a beet is not going to be creamy like a potato. It
will always give you some resistance. What you are testing is whether the resistance
is the same all the way to the center. If the outside feels softer and the center firmer,
cook the beet longer. But if they feel about the same, you are done.
Open up the beet and let it cool for about an hour until you can comfortably handle it.
Peel the beet with your hands, grate it on the large holes of a box grater,
and add to the soup.
Now comes the most crucial part of this dish (or any dish really). Seasoning. Add 2 teaspoons
of sugar, and a tablespoon of lemon juice. I’ll add a little salt too. I tasted the
water for potatoes and carrots, but a whole beet just went in, so I am sure we’ll need
some salt. Give it a very thorough stir for at least 30 seconds to give the salt a chance
to dissolve, and then taste. I think we need more salt. Just a reminder that I am using
Diamond Crystal Kosher. For other salts, you might need half as much. As always, if you
don’t know what you need, practice on a small bowl.
If you are from Eastern Europe, I am sure you know what this soup should taste like,
but if you’ve never had this dish, let me help you with seasoning a little. Salt is
salt. If you are good at cooking any cuisine, you’ll know how much is right. But sugar
and acidity depend on the dish. A cold borsch is not a gazpacho. It shouldn’t be overly
acidic. You want enough sugar and lemon juice to underscore the flavor of the beets, but
not so much that it’s in your face.
Cool the soup to room temperature and then refrigerate it overnight. It should be served
very cold. If you felt that there weren’t enough veggies for all that water, that’s
because half of them aren’t added till serving time. Here are all the toppings.
Cucumbers, radishes, hard boiled eggs (the video for the eggs is in the description below),
scallions, sour cream, and dill. This layered presentation might look nice, but the soup
will taste a lot better if you mix everything together. What I love so much about slavic
soups are the layers of flavor and texture.
If you are vegan, two toppings that could be great in this soup and would turn it into
more of a meal are silken tofu and avocado. They wouldn’t work for me because they would
mess with my childhood taste memory, but they could be wonderful for you.
Here are more thought provoking culinary videos for you to check out and a link to my classes
is in the description below.