Wait, come back.
This is delicious, I promise.
For some people, there is probably no phrase in the English/Yiddish language more unwelcome than “Moosewood Cookbook borscht.” You might be thinking, “Mushy cabbage without any meat to redeem it? No thanks!” But I think borscht gets a bad rap mostly because of its name; the word seems to conjure up images of a smelly old Russian lady standing over you until you finish your meal. It certainly sounds like something you’d have to be forced to eat.
Luckily, I am not a smelly old Russian lady, and I’m probably several thousand miles away from you. (This is good for both of us, because I prefer to hide behind my computer screen.) I won’t force you to make this or eat it. I will just strongly recommend it, since it’s one of the best meals to come out of my kitchen in a while. Also, I’ll show you pretty pictures of it in the hopes that that will convince you.
What would definitely convince you is if these pictures were scratch-n-sniff. Ohhh my goodness. My whole apartment smelled amazing while this was on the stove and for hours afterwards. There is really nothing better than the smell of onions being sauteed in butter wafting through your kitchen. I never thought a vegetarian dish of mostly cabbage and beets could smell or taste so incredibly rich, but this manages to. Can I bottle up a borscht scent to use as a perfume?
OK, maybe now we’re getting into smelly old Russian lady territory.
In any case, I’m head-over-heels in love with this borscht, and I have my Grandma Jane to thank. (Hi Grandma!) For the record, my grandma is neither smelly nor Russian; she is Midwestern, super fit, and an amazing gardener and cook. A few years ago, she did her very own borscht cook-off, auditioning multiple borscht recipes until she found the best one, which she then cooked for my family at Christmastime. I was skeptical, I have to admit. Cabbage dishes did not make a regular appearance in my mom’s cooking rotation. But it was love at first bite, and that was way before I ceased eating meat or started naming cabbage among my favorite foods.
Bottom line: You, too, may be skeptical. You may not like cabbage. Or beets. Or dill. But you will love this borscht.
It’s so simple, and tastes so rich yet fresh at the same time… I really can’t describe it. You will have to make it for yourself, unless you’re lucky enough to have a grandma who will make it for you.
I made this dish with butter and topped it with Greek yogurt, but if you’d like to make it vegan, you could just as well start with Earth Balance and omit the yogurt/sour cream topping (or use a vegan substitute). It will be fabulous either way. What I would urge you not to leave out are the caraway seeds and dill. This dish is very simple and lightly seasoned – you’ll notice most of the ingredients are veggies – and so leaving out either of those seasonings will hurt it, in my opinion.
This recipe scales very well, as long as you have a big enough pot! I should also note that the original recipe calls for 2 teaspoons of salt, but I found that to be a little much. I’d recommend starting with 1 teaspoon of salt, and then adding a bit more at the end to your liking.
- 4 cups vegetable stock
- 1 cup diced beets (about 1 medium-sized beet, peeled)
- 1 1/2 cups diced potato (I used 1 Yukon gold potato)
- 2 Tbs butter or Earth Balance
- 1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onion (about 1 onion)
- 1-2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp caraway seeds
- 1 large carrot, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 stalk celery, sliced
- 3 cups chopped red cabbage
- 1 cup tomato puree
- 1 Tbsp cider vinegar
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 1/4 tsp chopped fresh dill
- black pepper to taste
- fresh tomatoes, diced
- sour cream or Greek yogurt
- additional fresh dill
- In a large pot or Dutch oven, bring vegetable stock, beets, and potatoes to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer until tender, about 12-15 minutes. (It's OK if the potatoes are a bit more tender than the beets.) Drain, reserving the stock, and set aside.
- In the same pot, heat butter over medium heat. Add onions, caraway seeds and 1 tsp salt, and saute until the onion is translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Add carrot, celery, cabbage, and reserved vegetable stock. Cover and simmer until all the vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in potatoes, beets, and all remaining ingredients.
- Cover and simmer on low heat for 30 minutes. Taste and add more salt if desired.
- Serve immediately, topped with chopped fresh tomatoes, Greek yogurt or sour cream, and a sprinkle of fresh dill.
Borscht is one of those foods I’ve always wanted to try (mostly because they used to talk about it all the time on Rugrats). The ingredients list looks pretty solid and tasty, can’t wait to get this on a grocery list and into my belly!
This borscht recipe is amazing! It is not only a beautiful soup, but delicious.
Okay, I must admit that I was slightly skeptical when I read the title of your post. Only slightly though… I am a cabbage lover and your photos are absolutely gorgeous! This one will be on my list when the hubs is traveling – I love pretty, vegetarian meals :)
I am not really a fan of beets which is why my mother (Grandma Jane) got tasked with turning my CSA veggies into a pot of Borscht for the family when she offered to help at Christmastime. It was a huge pot, and a huge success. I can highly recommend this recipe, though I think my next share of beets are going into that red velvet cake. http://www.coffeeandquinoa.com/?s=red+velvet+cake%2C+beets
More for the rest of us! :)
I thought the “old smelly Russian” comment was mean
I would give anything to be sitting in your kitchen while the onions sautéd. And you don’t have to convince me, I am a borscht lover!!!
I love the color of this!!! I’ve never made anything with beets before, but now I want to!
I have a friend whose parents are Russian and last summer we’d have a weekly Sunday night dinner where everyone brought their own dish to share…and my friend always made DELICIOUS recipes out of a Russian cookbook her mom gave her! So, knowing how good Russian food is even when it looks funny, this sounds amazing to me :)
I would love other Russian recommendations if you have them! I don’t think I’ve ever made another Russian dish…
YES! I’ve been meaning to make borscht foooooooooooorever and still haven’t even come close to whipping up a pot. This is a gorgeous and healthy soup and I love everything from the beets to the cabbage to the tomatoes on top. Can’t wait to give it a spin!
Now that’s what I call a soup! Thanks for joining in the Food on Friday fun. Cheers
smelly old Russian lady- really? bad form. I hope you don’t mind but I won’t be checking your blog again any time soon.
I agree; very offensive.
Really? I am a old Russian woman, and hopefully Not Smelly, but I found the blog amusing and entertaining. I like my borscht with beef shanks roasted but this also looks good.
Happy Cooking!
Right? This was my first time here, dunno if the other posts are … in this vein. What an awful and ignorant thing to say. Came for a recipe, got some bonous xenophobia.
Simply excellent! Just had it for dinner afyer cooking it with my 6 years old. The honey gives it the little upgrade that makes it different from the traditional version I know from home.
Thank you
Adam
So glad you enjoyed it, Adam!
I’m also offended by your comments about smelly old Russian Lady and veggies – come on and grow up if you’re going to post anything. I’m not Russian but truly, post appropriately. Yes, not a fan –
I have been searching for the Moosewood Borscht recipe for years–ever since someone borrowed the cookbook shortly before I moved to another state. I’ve perused many Moosewood cookbooks, but can’t seem to find the right one. This is not exactly the recipe I remember, but it is certainly very close. Thanks so much for sharing. We’re having this for dinner tonight.
And as for other great Russian foods–try some recipes for brown bread. Very heavy and filling. Great with this soup or for sandwiches.
I have never been remotely tempted to eat borscht. Then, last week at a church potluck, I saw someone try a spoonful of something red he’d ladled out of a slow cooker. His eyes lit up like he’d had a religious experience (well, maybe he had; we were at church, after all). “You have GOT to try this,” he said. So I did. And it was indescribably delicious. I tracked down the woman who’d made it and she said to look up Moosewood’s borscht recipe online, which brought me here. And I am so glad.
Great recipe! I made a few alterations, hope you don’t mind, in the way of the vegetable stock. I made my own from my garden veg such as potato, celery, carrots, kale, baby onion and the hard bits from the red cabbage. I look forward to more from this site.
Thanks.
Thanks for the borscht recipe. Too bad everyone is so sensitive. Note that Erica did not say all old Russian women are smelly. Surely each ethnic group has a few smelly old women. Just enjoy the borscht and stop looking for imaginary problems.
I made this a few months ago and fell in love immediately. It was the first time I’d ever made borscht and it was simple and delicious! I shared the link on my blog and am planning to make it again this weekend. Thanks!
I made the Moosewood Borscht decades ago when I was a vegetarian. It is truly delicious and although it’s been quite a while I can stlll remember how surprised I was at how good it tasted.
So now, Christmas is done and it’s time to finish up everything that I overbought and is sitting in my fridge.
ENTER ORGANIC BEET MUSIC..
ENTER MOOSE BONES …
I know it isn’t in Molly Katzen’s kitchen, but I cant seem to shake the idea that a stock made from those Yukon MOOSE ribs supporting a beet and cabbage borscht would be the best use of the food and would amply honour the beast that no longer roams the northern woods.
So here goes.. I’ll let you know how it turns out!
I can’t find my Mooswood cookbook, and typed borscht only to come across the ugliest possible recipe explanation. Smelly old Russian lady. Are you serious.
That choice of words says more about your household than your glorified depiction of your grandma. You can’t root with the hogs and have a clean nose.
“the word seems to conjure up images of a smelly old Russian lady”
“Luckily, I am not a smelly old Russian lady”
“For the record, my grandma is neither smelly nor Russian; she is Midwestern, super fit, and an amazing gardener and cook.”
I was going to try out your recipe but I’ll be going somewhere else, (maybe you’ll learn something) – goodbye
It’s really interesting that here you’re sharing something you’ve borrowed from a culture you find so objectionable and “smelly”. So much so that you feel the need to specify that this isn’t just made for consumption by foreign poor people who do nothing all day but dig their own beet roots , but that it’s perfectly safe to eat for normal, midwestern people, with normal, non-smelly grannies. I find it sad that this is the only place the moosewood borscht recipe can be found online, and I will not dishonor my amazing, talented, holocaust survivor Russian nan by reading your obnoxiously named blog again. I hope other kind midwestern people out there see what a crappy post this is, and go out and buy the recipe book instead.
An adapted version of your recipe is simmering downstairs on the stove as I write this – thanks! When I lived in Poland I learned this is what people there call “Ukrainian borscht” (or, in Polish, “barszcz”), whereas Polish borscht is a clear, pungent, magenta liquid – it’s like borscht on steroids. Fantastic! Making it involves some kind of fermented starter, and this has always intimidated me – but I would love to see a recipe for it adapted to American ingredients.
A negative comment, though: as a historian, I couldn’t help feeling (like some of your other readers) that the “smelly old Russian woman” remark is really old – like, from the turn of the twentieth century. The idea of an old grandma standing over you to make you eat your veggies is funny. The idea that she smells bad is a tired, xenophobic stereotype (anti-Semites used to complain about a “Jewish smell”). The reassurance that your grandma (unlike my presumably smelly Russian one) is wholesomely Midwestern (and thus, by implication, northern European and Protestant) doesn’t help matters.
Made this delightful borscht for our Red Tent Circle last night and … it might simply be the best vegetarian borscht I’ve ever tasted!! So beautiful, healing, and brought out stories of Love, grandmothers, and feminine moon stories!
My (occasionally) stinky little Russian grandma would have loved it too!
I have no image of a smelly old Russian making this healthy soup and don’t care for that image. Sorry to be so negative but presume you take the bitter with the sweet!. I have been using a simpler recipe that is vegetarian and it is delicious and is considered one of the healthiest soups to eat for system cleansing. Got it from the Hernia Coach website which uses an Ayurvedic recipe which is so simple to make and delicious. I have in honesty not made your recipe as I am so happy with my simple one! Was checking around when I found this site. My rating can’t be honest as have not tried the recipe here yet. I can’t rid of the 1 star—I am useless now to rate something that folks do love and I have not even tried to make at this time!!!
One of my all-time favorite winter recipes. Cabbage for the win!