Polish Barshch with Baked Beans
from “The Art of Polish Cooking”
by Alina Zeranska
I like this simple and easy borsch with a difference. Check out the use of baked beans.
Ingredients from the original recipe
2 10&1/2 ounce cans beef broth
2 1 pound cans red beets, chopped or coarse
grated
1
cup water
1
14 ounce can baked beans, rinsed
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon sugar
salt to taste
2 tablespoons
sour cream
1
tablespoon fresh chopped dill
Instructions
as I write them
Add the juice from the beets to the broth.
Add 1/2 cup chopped beets and 1 cup water.
Add beans to the broth.
Simmer
for five minutes.
Add lemon juice
and salt to taste.
Use sour cream
and copped dill for garnish, either on the soup or available for each bowl.
How nice; quick, easy and tasty.
Would you like to kick it up? From the same cookbook, “The Art of Polish Cooking”.
Barshch from Eastern
Poland with baked beans
Ingredients from the original
recipe
1 carrot,
sliced
1
celery stalk, sliced
1/4 small head savoy cabbage, shredded
2 potatoes, diced
6 cups beef or chicken broth, homemade
or canned
1
1 pound can beets, chopped or grated
1/2 cup canned baked beans, rinsed
4 tomatoes, chopped
1 tablespoon
flour
2
tablespoons cold water
Dash garlic powder
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon pepper
Salt to taste
1/2 cup sour cream
Instructions as I write them
In the broth simmer the carrot, celery, cabbage and potatoes until the vegetables are tender – about 20
minutes.
Add chopped or grated
beets with all the juice from the can.
Add the beans and tomatoes.
Simmer
for five minutes.
Remove from
heat and season to taste with garlic powder, lemon juice, sugar, pepper and salt.
Add sour cream or use to garnish each bowl.
If you would like to have a homemade Polish Chicken Broth, Alina Zeranska has the answer.
Ingredients from the original
recipe
1 chicken, cut up
7 cups boiling water or more, add to
make up during simmer
1 teaspoon salt
2 carrots coarsely chopped
2 celery stalks coarsely chopped
1 parsley root, coarsely chopped (I am reminded that I can’t always find parsley root here
in Marion, Ohio so I use parsnip root – in the amount equal to a small carrot.
1 medium onion, quartered
Oil to sauté onion
1/4 small head savoy cabbage, shredded
4 peppercorns
1 Tablespoon chopped green parsley
(optional)
Instructions as I write them
Place the chicken in boiling water, be sure it is covered;
add salt and reduce heat to simmer.
Simmer
for 2 hours.
Add carrots, celery
and parsley root (or parsnip root, in an amount about the size of a small carrot).
Brown the onion in hot oil.
Add the onion to the broth along with cabbage and peppercorns.
Simmer for twenty minutes.
Strain
Add parsley (optional) depending on the use of the broth.
Refrigerate until fat congeals on the surface, remove fat and use or refrigerate.
The chicken meat can be removed from the bones and used
for another purpose, in a salad for instance.
You have it all
– from quick and simple to full homemade broth version. For the final borshch, you can use fresh beets when available.
Scrub the beets well and wrap with aluminum foil. Bake in 350 degree preheated oven until tender to a fork, about an hour.
When cool rub the skins off the beets.
Enjoy!
David
