Cheap like borscht.

Since I started down the path to be more self-reliant and self-sufficient, I have really come to understand the meaning of the phrase "Cheap like borscht" and the reality of it.
  
Growing up, borscht was one of those things that we had often enough in late summer and fall to be dreaded.  I didn't start to really appreciate the subtlety of it until I was in my late teens.  I didn't like beets and when Mom made cabbage, I only recalled it being boiled; a foul smell if ever there was one (or so I thought until I was changing diapers regularly).  While I was at university, I wouldn't say I was poor, but I ate some pretty rustic meals i.e. sauerkraut soup (which after my brother was done eating all the sausage out of, consisted of sauerkraut and boiled potatoes).  Fortunately, I almost never had to eat mac &cheese as a staple.  Ironically, I've only become a mac & cheese master since I had kids.

I really fell in love with Borscht when I went to Russia. It was a true Baltic winter when I arrived in January.  And nothing warmed so well as a bowl of borscht.

Borscht is a, truly, rustic meal - simple, versatile and international; versions of borscht stretch from China to Western Europe.  Growing up, when mom made borscht, it was simple - 5 ingredients - beets, cabbage, carrots, beef stock, sour cream; BOOM, done!  It is a true peasant's soup.  The key ingredients make for a food sources that will last through out the hard winters of the Steppes of Russia and Ukraine. Beets, carrots, cabbage and other root vegetables can be buried in mulch (have earth mounded up and covered with hay) to keep through the winter.  And it's full of vitamins and minerals essential to keeping healthy though a hard winter.
This is my take on the recipe, as I recall, from my mother's kitchen and how much it cost to make.

 

Recipe (to make a batch for me - I'm the only one that eats it right now)

Cabbage, green, white or red ($2.55, only used half for this batch)

4 Beets ($2.21)

1 Jumbo Carrot ($0.46)

1/2 Medium Onion (pantry)

1-3 cloves Garlic (pantry; I had minced on hand)

1-2 L Stock, beef, chicken or vegetable (pantry; if you have time, you can make bone broth)

8 oz Beef, diced (optional, I left it out because I didn't have any left-overs to throw in)

Sour Cream (fridge)

Dark Rye bread ($3.49, but I will only use about 1/3 to 1/2 of the loaf for this batch)

Salt and Pepper to taste.

Shred cabbage, beets and carrots. 

Chop onion, sauté with garlic.

Add vegetables, stock and meat.

Season as you wish (I like to add a teaspoon of dry mustard)

Stew until cabbage tender.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream and slice of rye bread.



Just make sure you wear gloves during prep.

I like to make it first thing in the morning and leave it on the stove on LOW to stew all day.  You can cook it faster, I just choose not to.
 

It made 6-8 servings and cost me, for this batch, $5.69 or $0.95 per large serving

Soup in a bag, anyone?



It's the perfect base to a variety of regional soups, add tomato paste, potatoes, beans, mushrooms; really anything available or your heart desires.  Because you can prepare your vegetables any way you like, you can change the feel: julienne for a more aristocratic look, chopped for more rustic; I prefer shredded, I like the way the colour of the beets and cabbage is released to make a deep wine-coloured soup.

And it freezes well, so you have no left overs going to waste in the back of the fridge.  Even better, now that I have some in the freezer I know when the forecast calls for cold and miserable weather tomorrow, I have something I can put in the fridge to thaw before I go to bed and all I have to do for supper, when I get home from work, is heat it up.




#borscht #rescipes