Passover Borscht:
Recipe Variations for traditional cold beet soup

Inspired Claudia Roden

From “The Book of Jewish Food” published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Reprinted by MyJewishLearning.com. Claudia Roden is one of my favorite cooking experts, having taught me much about Middle Eastern cooking. Find her books at Amazon.com.

“This cool sweet-and-sour soup, which was particularly popular in Lithuania, has become one of the great Jewish standbys of the restaurant trade. It is one of my favorites” CR

“Serves 6”

“Ingredients

2 pounds (1 kg) raw beets

A little salt and pepper

Juice of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons sugar or to taste

6 peeled boiled potatoes (optional)

1 cup (250 ml) sour cream to pass around

Instructions

Peel the beets and dice them. If they are young that is easy to do. If they are old and too hard to dice, simply cut in half and, when they have softened with boiling, lift them out, cut them up, and put them back in the pan. Put the beets in a pan with 9 cups (2 liters) of water and salt and pepper and simmer for 1-1/2 hours.

Let the soup cool, then chill, covered, in the refrigerator. Add the lemon and sugar to taste before serving (these could be added when the soup is hot, but it is more difficult to determine the intensity of the flavoring). Remove some of the beet pieces with a slotted spoon if it seems like there are too many of them and keep them for a salad.

Serve, if you like, with a boiled potato, putting one in each plate. Pass around the sour cream for all to help themselves.

Variations

When the soup is served with meat to follow, and the sour cream cannot be added, it is usual to thicken it with two egg yolks. Beat then in a bowl, add a little of the boiling soup, beat well, and pour into the pan, beating all the time. Take off the heat at once, before the soup curdles.

There are dozens of different Russian and Ukrainian borschts. These are rich hot soups made with a number of ingredients, including meat, cabbage and potatoes, carrots, onions, celery and parsnips, sometimes spinach or sorrel, tomatoes or mushrooms, leeks, dried beans, apples and dried fruit. The common ingredient which gives them their name and their color is beets.” Anything by Claudia Roden is recommended, David

Other Variations

Use the above recipe but eliminate the egg yolks, add a diced small to medium onion, diced carrot, and one apple peeled, cored and chopped.

Add the salt and pepper to the water and when it’s boiling add the vegetables and apple. Cover and simmer for about an hour, until everything is tender.

Let cool and then add to a blender plus pepper, sugar and lemon juice. You might want to divide in half to puree to a smooth consistency. Put everything back into the sauce pan for a quick cooking, but do not let boil.

Let cool and then chill in refrigerator for at least four hours – more if time allows. Serve very cool. The sour cream is placed on the table for each guest to serve themselves.

Some will garnish with chopped green onions or cucumbers and chopped eggs along with the sour cream.

Substitute cooked dried fruits for the apple and add during the last 20 minutes of the cooking.

Go to Amazon.com for Claudia Roden's excellent cookbooks - highly rated.

Enjoy!

David