About the dish
Borscht is Ukraine's most important soup and one of the best-known soups of Eastern Europe. It is cooked on beef or pork broth with beetroot, cabbage, potatoes, carrot and onion, and its gentle sourness comes from vinegar, fermented beetroot or tomatoes. The soup is thick with vegetables and finished at the table with a spoonful of soured cream and a handful of dill. It is traditionally eaten with pampushky – soft yeasted rolls brushed with garlic oil – and a slice of cured pork fat. In 2022 the culture of Ukrainian borscht cooking was inscribed on UNESCO's list of intangible heritage in need of urgent safeguarding. Similar beetroot soups are made across the region, each a little different.
Main ingredients
- beetroot
- cabbage
- potatoes
- beef
- carrot
- onion
- soured cream
Belarus: In Belarus: боршч (borshch), thick with beetroot and potatoes and served with soured cream.
Poland: In Poland mostly as barszcz czerwony – a clear soup on fermented beetroot, served with tiny mushroom dumplings on Christmas Eve.
Russia: In Russia: борщ (borshch), usually made on beef with cabbage and beetroot and served with soured cream.
Ukraine: Every region and nearly every family has its own version – with beans, with dried pears, with fish, or green with sorrel.
More: Wikipedia (pl) Wikipedia (en)
