POLISH BORSCHT RECIPE RECIPES

Steps:

• Place dry mushrooms in a bowl and cover them with hot boiling water. Let them soak for 5 minutes.
• Peel, wash and cut into chunks, your vegetables (carrots, parsnip, celery root, leeks, and parsley);
• Place your vegetables and soaked mushrooms* (see notes below) in the large pot, cover with 10 cups of water, add a tablespoon of salt, bay leaves, and allspice and boil for about 30 minutes, uncovered;
• Prepare beets - peel them and slice in 1/2 inch slices; peel your garlic and slice the apple;
• Add beets, garlic, apple, and spices (salt, sugar, and marjoram) to the vegetable broth. At this time add 1 tablespoon of vinegar and 1 tablespoon of lemon to preserve the beautiful color from the beets. Cook it for another half hour, uncovered;
• Add the remaining vinegar, and adjust seasoning with vinegar, sugar, salt & pepper, as needed.
• Discard all the vegetables and use a strainer to pour your borscht either into mugs to drink or to bowls to be served with mushroom pierogi.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C).
• Thoroughly scrub the vegetables (beetroots, carrots, parsley roots, mushrooms, leek). Peel the celery root and the onion, leave the rest of the vegetables (and a half an apple) in the peel. Chop the veggies into chunks.
• Grab a large roasting pan, pour a tablespoon of oil in. Toss all the mushrooms, veggies, herb sprigs and garlic together into the roasting pan. 
• Roast in the middle of the oven for 30 to 40 minutes, turning occasionally, until vegetables turn golden brown.
• Move the roasting pan onto the stove burner, over a medium heat. Add a few glugs of white wine to deglaze the pan (stirring and scraping up the brown bits for 2-3 minutes).
• Transfer everything into a cooking pot. Pour in 1 quart / 1 litre of water in, bring to a boil and reduce the heat to “low”.
• Add bay leaves, allspice & juniper berries, cloves, smoked prunes and dried wild mushrooms.
• Cover the pot with a lid (I’m leaving a small gap) and cook for at least an hour.
• Pour the stock through a large fine sieve into another pot (or a large bowl), firmly pressing on to push out as much stock as possible. Skim off the fat.
• The soup is supposed to be clear, therefore we won’t need the remaining vegetables. You can reuse them in another dish, but there won’t be much flavour left in them. I usually sneak out one or two of those ultra soft carrots and beetroot pieces before discarding the rest.
• Pour in 2 cups of beet kvass / zakwas into a large cooking pot. You can skip the fermented beets, but I add them in. Pour in 3 cups (¾ litre) of the stock we just cooked.
• Add in one teaspoon of dried marjoram and generously season with black pepper. Cook together on the lowest heat for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Have a taste - if it’s too strong, add a little bit more stock.
• Cook together for another 30 minutes on a very low heat, making sure the soup doesn’t boil at any point. 
• Remove beetroots (if you added any with your beet zakwas), season with salt and pepper if necessary. If the flavour is too sour, add a little bit of sugar. You can use the remaining beetroot pieces as a garnish (optionally).
• Serve warm, on its own or with 'Uszka' dumplings.