The recipe linked above is my first iteration of the recipe below. Part of why I like this writing format is that it can show iterations and changes over time much like a real garden. An integral part of my cooking methodology is to use what I have on hand as much as possible. I really wanted to make borscht again after tinkering with the recipe above for a class, so I did buy some items like beets, celery, carrots and cabbage that I didn't have in my cellar, freezer or cupboard. Otherwise, what I used is because it's what I had that worked. I encourage you to cook with the same ethos, and change the recipe to suit where you are and what you have.
Ingredients
3 lb beets scrubbed not peeled
3 lg carrots washed, peeled and diced
3 stalks of celery washed and diced
2 medium or 4 smaller potatoes scrubbed and diced
1 small cabbage washed and shredded
1 cup dry Christmas Lima beans
1.5 lb pork butt
1 bay leaf
1 Tbl black peppercorns
1/2 tsp allspice
8 cups chicken stock
9 Tbl vinegar
Water
Salt
Directions
Soak Lima beans overnight if using dry beans. Once hydrated, place in approx 3 cups of water and bring to a boil. Turn heat down and simmer until beans are tender. Strain and set aside. Bean water may be kept to add to broth if needed.
Beet water: rough chop 2 lb of the smaller beets and put them in a pot with approx 10 cups of water and 1 Tbl of vinegar. Bring the pot to a boil then turn the heat down to simmer until the beets are very soft and the liquid is bright red. The vinegar helps the color stay bright instead of turning a brownish color. We do the same thing with our egg dyes for Psanky (add vinegar to hold the color), and making this soup last night got me excited to try more plant dyes this year. Once the beets are super soft (approx 2 hours), strain them out and make sure to press them on the sides of the strainer to get all the liquid possible. The beets can be kept to pulverize for veggie burgers or ground up to add to dog food or anything else you can think of to add them to!
2. While the first pot of beets is cooking down, put the last pound of beets in another pot, cover with water and bring the pot to a boil. Then turn the heat down to simmer just until the beets are tender (approx 40 minutes). Once beets are tender, remove from heat to cool and add a Tbl of vinegar to the pot.
3. Once cooled, grate the whole beets on the large holes of a box grater or with a grater blade in a food processor. You can peel them first if you want to, the peels will slip off easily after cooking. My beet water was done by the time my whole beets were cooled enough to handle, so I grated them right into the bowl with the beet water in it.
4. Broth: If you have a whole pork butt, put it in a stock pot and cover with stock. I cooked a chicken last week and made stock, so that's what I used this time since it was already thawed in the fridge. Add bay leaf, allspice and peppercorns, then bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer until the meat is tender and just starting to fall apart (approx 2 hours). Take the pork out to cool, then either shred or dice it. Strain spices out of the broth.
5. Put diced carrots and celery in the pot with the broth and bring to a boil again. Turn the heat back down and simmer until the veg are tender (approx 8 minutes). Add potatoes and cabbage and simmer another 15-20 minutes. Add the Lima beans and cook for another 5 minutes. Add grated beets, beet water, and pork. Stir everything together. Add salt and vinegar to taste. This is a sour dominant soup, with sweetness being the primary contrasting flavor.
6. Remove from heat, garnish with sour cream (or yogurt) and dill. Serve immediately!
Notes:
This recipe requires at least 2 or 3 large stock pots, and while it’s not super intensive labor-wise, it does require being at home and able to check on things in the kitchen for several hours. It can easily be made vegetarian/vegan by leaving out the pork and substituting vegetable stock for meat stock. I tend to use venison or chicken stock because that’s what I make myself. It can alter the flavor profile a bit, but not so much that it changes the whole composition of the soup. Again, sour is the leader in borscht so everything else dances with that. Beans can be swapped for different needs too. Limas have more calcium while favas have more iron. Read and play with what works best for you. Just make sure they cooked or you'll be gasin' up a storm.
I wrote in the last recipe that for me this is a recipe for self-healing because it comes from my ancestors, and I want to amend that statement. Being in the kitchen letting my intuition lead is my ancestors gift to me. I'm not healing myself, I'm just getting out of my own way and letting them in, and for that I am incredibly grateful. That I based my foundational navigations on Veselka's recipe I have mixed feelings about because I don't want to steal anyone's intellectual property. Granted, you can change a note in a song and call it a new song, and I think I changed many notes here for better or worse. I think I'm still going to email and ask them if it's alright that I post this here though. I'll update this again as I do.
Thanks for reading! Let me know if you make it and how it turns out!
