Classic Ukrainian beef borscht with garlic-dill oil, sour cream, and fresh Bull's Blood beet microgreens on top: beet twice in one bowl, braised and raw.
INGREDIENTS
- 600 g - bone-in beef (brisket, short ribs, or shank)
- 3 l - water
- 2 pc - bay leaves
- 1 pc - onion (120 g)
- 1 pc - carrot (100 g)
- 2 pc - beets (400 g)
- 2 tbsp - sunflower oil
- 2 tbsp - tomato paste
- 1 tbsp - lemon juice or 1 tsp distilled vinegar
- 3 pc - potatoes (400 g)
- 300 g - green cabbage
- 3 clove - garlic
- salt and black pepper to taste
- 2 tbsp - sunflower oil for the garlic oil
- 10 g - fresh dill
- 1 clove - garlic for the garlic oil
- 120 g - full-fat sour cream
- 30 g - beet microgreens
STEPS
- Cover the beef with 3 l cold water, bring to a boil, and skim off the foam. Add the bay leaves, cover, and simmer over low heat for 1 1/2 hours, until the meat is tender.
- Finely chop the onion, grate the carrot, and cut the beets into matchsticks. Sauté the onion and carrot in 2 tbsp oil for 5 minutes, add the beets, tomato paste, and lemon juice, cover, and braise for 15 minutes.
- Take out the meat, pull it off the bone, and cut it up. Add diced potatoes to the broth and simmer for 10 minutes, then add shredded cabbage and simmer 5 minutes more.
- Add the braised beets and the meat, and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and take the pot off the heat right away. Stir in the crushed garlic, cover, and let the borscht rest for 15-20 minutes.
- While the borscht rests, mix 2 tbsp oil with the finely chopped dill and a pressed garlic clove, and add a pinch of salt.
- Ladle the borscht into bowls, add a spoonful of sour cream, and drizzle with the garlic oil. Top the sour cream with beet microgreens, 5 g per bowl, just before serving.
Beet Microgreens in Borscht
The beets in borscht simmer until they give up their color and sweetness to the broth, and by the time the soup reaches the bowl they’re soft. Beet microgreens (Bull’s Blood) bring raw beet back into the same dish: the concentrated sweetness of young beet with an earthy note, plus crisp crimson stems. You get beet twice, simmered in the broth and fresh on top.
They go on the spoonful of sour cream. The sour cream is cold, so the microgreens sit on it for the few minutes it takes to eat, without wilting or bleeding color into the soup.
About the Ingredients
Beet microgreens: 5 g per bowl, a small tuft. Choose ones with firm dark stems. Rinse and dry them well, because a drop of water on the sour cream spreads into a pink smudge.
Bone-in beef (brisket, short ribs, or shank) makes a rich broth. Pork ribs work too and give a heartier, fattier borscht.
Beets: use dark red table beets. The lemon juice or spoonful of vinegar in the braise is there for color: beet pigments hold up better in acid, so the soup stays red instead of turning brown.
Sour cream: full-fat (18-20% or higher) won’t split in hot soup.
Technique: Keeping Borscht Red
Borscht turns brown for two reasons. First, the beets go into the broth at the start and the pigments break down during a long boil. Second, the soup keeps boiling after the beets are added. So the beets braise separately with acid and tomato paste, go in at the end, and the pot comes to a boil and comes straight off the heat. Why some microgreen stems are red and others green is covered in our wiki: purple stems in microgreens.
Variations
- Meatless borscht: vegetable broth with beans and dried mushrooms.
- With prunes: 5-6 prunes in the braise add a light smoky note.
- With pampushky: soft garlic buns served on the side, brushed with the same garlic-dill oil.
- Microgreen mix: beet together with mustard microgreens if you want some heat.
Serving and Storage
Borscht tastes better the next day. It keeps in the fridge for up to 3 days; reheat only the portion you’re about to eat. Add sour cream, garlic oil, and microgreens in the bowl. Beet microgreens in an airtight container with a paper towel keep in the fridge for several days, and real shelf life by variety is in our wiki: how long microgreens keep.
Another Ukrainian dish with microgreens: deruny (Ukrainian potato pancakes) with onion microgreen sour cream.
CHEF'S TIPS
Keep the lid off while the soup returns to a boil after the beets go in: long boiling dulls the color, and a lid holds the heat.
Put the microgreens only on the sour cream. In hot broth they cook within a minute and bleed color.
If the borscht looks pale, add another teaspoon of lemon juice and let it sit for 10 minutes.
