What Does Borscht Taste Like? (2024)

FAQs

What Does Borscht Taste Like? ›

Borscht is a beet soup that's warm, sweet, and sour all in one bowl. It has the umami and complexity of a well-developed chicken soup but the beets add a whole different flavor profile. Its sweetness comes from the beets, onions, and cabbage, and its tartness from tomatoes and vinegar.

The dominant tastes in borscht are sweet and sour. This combination is traditionally obtained by adding beet sour.

Ukrainian borscht is a hearty soup of beef and a variety of vegetables in which root vegetables and cabbage predominate, and the soup takes its characteristic deep red colour from beets. The soup is often eaten with a sour cream garnish and with pirozhki, turnovers filled with beef and onions.

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 ...

It's so healthy and nutritious; packed with beans (protein), beets (iron), carrots (carotene), potatoes (vit C, potassium, Vit B6), oftentimes cabbage is added (vit K, vit C, fiber, etc…).

Borscht is one of the most well-known Ukrainian meals – a traditional, hearty soup with multiple layers of ingredients held together by a savory beet broth. To make borsht the traditional way, it takes hours to simmer all the ingredients properly.

Borscht is one of many examples of a dish that took on Jewish significance because of immigration. The tart and tangy, ruby-hued, beet-based soup is considered the national dish of Ukraine, and has been enjoyed by non-Jewish and Jewish Ukrainians alike for generations.

Origins of Borscht

The name 'borscht' comes from an old Slavic word for 'hogweed', which was the main ingredient in the original recipe. This version of the soup had a sour taste because it used to boil fermented hogweed stems, leaves, and flowers.

The stock starter is often mixed, whether it's with cured sausage, poultry, or vegetables. Texturally, Russian borscht often leans into thinner consistency, unlike the Ukrainian version. Vegetables, like cabbage, are added at the beginning of preparation, lending a softer result as opposed to the Ukrainian version.

A traditional vegetable soup made for centuries throughout Eastern Europe, borscht is well loved by many. There are white versions, made with potatoes and cabbage, and green versions, made with sorrel and spinach. Most familiar, though, is the red version, made with beets.

Is borscht good for your gut? ›

This gorgeous looking soup is packed with flavour and nutrition. Beets are great to support the liver, bone broth is healing and nourishing for the gut, and turmeric brings in its anti-inflammatory goodness. With all the other vegetables and spices, this soup is a full meal in itself.

In Ukraine, borsch has long been considered a symbol of a strong family: all the ingredients are cooked in a clay pot, transferring their flavors to each other, and as a result become one whole – a rich, hearty, and dense borsch. In days of old, borsch was eaten almost every day, served on holidays and at weddings.

The beets in borscht, a beautiful bright pink stew, are high in fiber and antioxidants, which will help you feel better faster. This Eastern European soup is often made with red cabbage, an anti-inflammatory that is high in Vitamin C.

Borscht is a beet soup that's warm, sweet, and sour all in one bowl. It has the umami and complexity of a well-developed chicken soup but the beets add a whole different flavor profile.

Borscht should be a hearty, yet sophisticated dish: a bowlful of sweet, sour and savoury flavours, rather than simply a vehicle for beetroot. It takes a bit of work – but with a dollop of rich sour cream, and a sprig of aromatic dill, it's one of the world's great soups.

I think the reason borscht has cemented itself as a national treasure in Ukraine is precisely because it is so multifaceted and readily adaptable. It has evolved over the centuries and made its way into every kitchen in the country without losing its essence and its roots.

Hence, my beet soup is called just that, soup, not borscht, even though it shares certain ingredients - potatoes, carrots, parsnips, beef stock and vinegar - with the traditional soup. But there's no cabbage and no caraway seed, two ingredients I consider essential in a borscht.

The stock starter is often mixed, whether it's with cured sausage, poultry, or vegetables. Texturally, Russian borscht often leans into thinner consistency, unlike the Ukrainian version. Vegetables, like cabbage, are added at the beginning of preparation, lending a softer result as opposed to the Ukrainian version.