Borscht

On my quest to try cooking some Polish dishes, the thought of making red beet borscht sounded interesting to me. My first step was to consult my mother-in-law's recipe card and the two Polish cookbooks I have.

I also never tasted authentic borscht so step two was to try actual, authentic Polish borscht. Fortunately, I knew just where to go. We piled into the car and took a road trip to the New Wave Cafe located in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Port Richmond.


Don't let the facade fool you. You will find delicious Polish food in this restaurant that also doubles as a corner bar and alien-themed disco. For a mere $3, I had a delicious bowl of the New Wave's borscht. It was creamy probably from a healthy dose of sour cream and flavorful with some surprise ingredients that included potato and large lima beans. I knew right away that I wanted to serve the sour cream on the side and that I would probably skip the beans even though I really liked them. I wanted a lighter, vegetable soup that people could eat guilt free unless they chose to do otherwise.


After reviewing the recipes I had and tasting the soup, I realized that this soup is like any other ethnic standard. There are several ways to make it and everyone has their own unique recipe. So, here is my recipe. I hope you like it!

Loco Diner Borscht

The Vegetables
8-10 bunches of fresh beets, scrubbed
1 tablespoon of salt
cold water

1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 carrots, peeled and grated
1 large onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, whole with the leaves
2 large potatoes, peeled, precooked and coarsely chopped

Broth
1 32 oz. carton of Swanson beef broth
approximately 4 cups of beet broth reserved from when you boiled the beets

Other:
1 tablespoon of beef base
1 tablespoon of cider vinegar

Garnishes:
sour cream
fresh, chopped dill

*Start by scrubbing and trimming the beets leaving about 2" of stem. Cover the beets with cold water and boil them with 1 tablespoon of salt until they are tender. When the beets are finished, reserving the broth, remove them from the pot and allow them to cool.



Heat your soup pot and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add the grated carrot, chopped onion and celery to the pot and cook on low heat until the vegetables soften. Be careful not to brown them. Sprinkle them with some salt and pepper.

While you are waiting for the vegetables to soften. Peel the cooled beets. They will peel very easily. Grate 1/2 of the beats and slice the other half. When the vegetables are soft, add the beets to the pot. Oh, and wear an apron. This is going to get messy!




At this point, add the beef broth and 4 cups of the reserved beet juice from boiling the beets as well as the precooked potato. Stir to combine.


It's time to add 1 tablespoon of cider vinegar and 1 tablespoon of beef base. Add some salt and pepper to taste at this point as well.

Cover the pot and simmer the soup on low-medium heat. As with most soups, the longer they cook, the better they taste but the beef broth and base will help to hurry the soup along. I started very early in the morning and it was fine for dinner that night.

To serve, spoon into warm bowls and top with a dollop of sour cream and some fresh dill. I serve both on the side.


I cannot believe I forgot to photograph this with the dill. That's what I get for frying 2 dozen pierogi and trying to blog at the same time. It looked so pretty! Really. It did.

References:
Mom's (my mother-in-law) borscht recipe
*Polish Cooking by Marianna Olszewska Heberle
Treasured Polish Recipes for Americans by the Polanie Club
The New Wave Cafe's Borscht Soup, 2620 Allegheny Avenue, Philadelphia PA. Neighborhood: Port Richmond