One of the best antidotes to a cold winter day is a hot bowl of soup. While some prefer brothy chicken noodle or creamy chowder, dont overlook borscht. The hearty Ukrainian (and Russian, and Polish) soup is traditionally made with beets, cabbage, vinegar, root vegetables, and meats like ham hock or beef, The New York Times explains. Atop the soup goes a scattering of dill and a bit of sour cream, the latter of which the Times notes is optional.
While borscht is definitely a hearty soup, serving it alongside a side dish can make for a more varied and filling meal. If you want to lean into Eastern European tradition, the classic culinary pairing recommended by the Times is borscht and small savory pastries called pirogi (also spelled “piroshki” or “pierogi”). The food blog Eating European explains that its traditional to eat borscht on Christmas Eve alongside small, ravioli-like pierogi filled with mushrooms.
While mushroom pierogi and borscht is a holiday tradition, other popular pierogi fillings that would go well with borscht include potato and cheese, sauerkraut and mushroom, and meat and onion (via Tasting Poland).
You can serve borscht with sides like Pumpernickel or rye bread, garlic toast, meat, salads, dairy, pickled foods, pierogi, grains, potato pancakes, mashed potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, deviled eggs seasoned with paprika or dill, gluten-free options, and accompany it with fermented Slavic beverages and Santa Carolina …
More surprising than the many carnivorous varieties is the overwhelming number of vegetarian recipes, born of scarce times when people had to make do without meat. Root vegetables like celeriac, parsnip, and turnips were often used to give flavor and body, and dry mushrooms were popular in forest-dense areas. In spring, across Eastern Europe, those heavy tubers would be swapped for young beet tops, sorrel, wild garlic, nettles, soft herbs, spring onions, or garden peas, all of which would contribute to a widespread creation of a completely different, gentler soup called green borscht. It is fresh and zingy, enriched with a garnish of chopped hard-boiled eggs. Ice-cold bright-red beetroot consommé, originating in Lithuania, but also popular today in Poland, is garnished with chopped radishes and cucumbers to add the crunch and kefir or buttermilk for that desired sour note. For sweetness, among those who managed to escape the U.S.S.R., even ketchup has been adopted with glee.
It wasn’t until I reached adulthood that I realized that borscht could be made another way. I was just out of graduate school and working as an assistant Russian literary translator. My main work was on classics—Pushkin’s “The Captain’s Daughter,” Platonov’s “The Foundation Pit”—but my mentor also translated smaller articles on the side, and when he didn’t have enough time to take on new assignments he would send them my way. One day, an unusual one arrived in my in-box: a study, conducted by a Russian academic, on the history of borscht. I don’t remember all the details of the article, and my translation has been lost to time, but one description stayed with me: borscht in the early nineteenth century, made for the Russian tsar, consisted of three stocks blended together—one of veal, another of morel mushrooms, and a third of goose and dried prune, with sour cherries used for acidity instead of tomatoes, which were not yet common in Russian cooking. This sounded like the most luxurious foundation of a borscht I could imagine—both worlds apart from my family’s version and somehow similar, a balance of meaty and sour and sweet.
In the years since, I’ve become a chef and cookbook author, and in researching varieties of borscht I’ve discovered an astounding range of preparations. The soup is eaten everywhere in Eastern Europe, from the formerly Prussian Kaliningrad, where Russia now meets Poland, all the way through the Caucasus, and extends into Iran and Central Asia, finishing somewhere out by the eastern island of Sakhalin, near Japan, or the Kamchatka Peninsula, near Alaska.
Variations are dictated by the land, weather, and local traditions, but also by circumstance: people from different cultures intermarry; families are both willingly and forcibly moved. In my sixteen years in the U.K., I have often heard stories that begin with “I’m Czech, but my Crimean Jewish grandmother . . . ”; “Our borscht in Mennonite Manitoba by way of western Ukraine is . . . ”; “My Iranian dad loved this version of my Russian mother’s borscht . . . ” In recent years, my own father started grating ginger into his borscht, convinced that my five-year-old son, who is half Thai, might prefer it with an Asian twist. It turned out that dad’s gingery addition did not spoil the soup. It just added a subtle hint of warmth, so appealing that I, too, now add some to my pot. I still, however, always seek out the paler “candy” beets, fearful of what babushka Lusia would say if she ever saw that my borscht potatoes were dyed that screaming purple-red.
Beef, well-marbled and on the bone, is one of the most cited sources for stock-making, but pork stocks seem to have the most variations, with versions made of anything from simple fresh cuts to smoked ribs, ham hocks, and sausages in Hungary and Poland to crunchy pork ears in Ukraine. Lacking pork or beef, you can always use a wiry rooster; its tough meat might stick between your teeth, but its bones will help to create the most flavorsome of broths. The only thing I haven’t encountered to date is a seafood-based borscht. Maybe one exists in Kamchatka, home to the world’s largest crabs and other oceanic delicacies? If you have a recipe, please, do speak up.
While borscht is definitely a hearty soup, serving it alongside a side dish can make for a more varied and filling meal. If you want to lean into Eastern European tradition, the classic culinary pairing recommended by the Times is borscht and small savory pastries called pirogi (also spelled “piroshki” or “pierogi”). The food blog Eating European explains that its traditional to eat borscht on Christmas Eve alongside small, ravioli-like pierogi filled with mushrooms.
While mushroom pierogi and borscht is a holiday tradition, other popular pierogi fillings that would go well with borscht include potato and cheese, sauerkraut and mushroom, and meat and onion (via Tasting Poland).
One of the best antidotes to a cold winter day is a hot bowl of soup. While some prefer brothy chicken noodle or creamy chowder, dont overlook borscht. The hearty Ukrainian (and Russian, and Polish) soup is traditionally made with beets, cabbage, vinegar, root vegetables, and meats like ham hock or beef, The New York Times explains. Atop the soup goes a scattering of dill and a bit of sour cream, the latter of which the Times notes is optional.
In their article on borscht, the Times offers up two recipes: a traditional hot borscht, and a vegetarian hot borscht made with mushrooms instead of meat. But thats just the beginning. The Times also mentions borscht that includes goose or fried fish instead of beef or pork, and “white borscht” that swaps beets for cabbage.
Traditional borscht is just one of many ways to make this soup. As the Times puts it, “the only constants in borscht are beets and the balance of sweet and sour.” Some borscht is even served cold, topped with summer-y garnishes like boiled eggs, radishes, and scallions (via Jewish Food Society).
The BEST Classic Beef Borscht Recipe (Борщ) – Ukrainian Beet Soup w/ Beef! Family Recipe!!
FAQ
Is borscht traditionally served hot or cold?
What do Russians eat with borscht?
What is the difference between Polish and Ukrainian borscht?
How do you cook borscht?
Turn off heat. Add vinegar, sugar, garlic and pepper. Stir and let borscht sit for 10 minutes to allow flavours to marry each other. Add dill, stir and adjust any seasonings to taste. Serve hot with a dollop of yogurt or sour cream, bread and garlic clove on the side (this is not for everyone).
How do you serve borscht?
Hot borscht is typically chunky, served with a dollop of sour cream on top. Cold borscht is often a little smoother and creamier, with sour cream or buttermilk stirred in for a light, bright fuchsia pink soup. Serve this warm borscht with a dollop of sour cream on top. I like to stir in a little horseradish to give the creamy topping a little kick.
What to eat with borscht?
You can bake the bread in the oven or toast it over a grill. Rye bread has a nice crust on the outside and is light and fluffy on the inside. It is also best served warm to enhance its flavor. Garlic bread is one of the most popular side dishes served alongside borscht because it goes well with the soup.
Can borscht be served with sour cream?
It’s also possible to serve borscht in small oven-proof bowls along with a dollop of sour cream on top. If you want your borscht to have a tangy flavor, you can include fresh lemon juice. Borscht can be served with many different side dishes, including these eight listed below.