Vegetarian borscht
Description
A hearty first course. When meat dishes become utterly tiresome, I cook a huge pot of simple vegetarian borscht, fry up some pastries to go with it, and eat this for two or three days. It makes an excellent digestive cleanse. Generally speaking, plain vegetarian borscht is my number one soup. It's incredibly easy to prepare, yet tastes absolutely delicious—hard to describe in words, but if you love borscht, you surely understand what I mean :) So I make vegetarian borscht not only during fasting periods, but all year round. For all lovers of this wonderful traditional Russian soup, here's how I do it. Serve with fresh herbs and sour cream.
Instructions
- 1
Step 1
Ingredients.
- 2
Step 2
Dried mushrooms need to be soaked in cold water for a couple of hours beforehand.
- 3
Step 3
Peel the onion and finely chop it.
- 4
Step 4
Peel the carrots and grate coarsely.
- 5
Step 5
Heat a little oil in a skillet, sauté onion and carrot over medium heat until soft (6-7 minutes, stirring).
- 6
Step 6
Add cabbage, mix and simmer covered over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour.
- 7
Step 7
At the end of braising the cabbage, add the tomato to the pan, mix well, and simmer together for another 5–10 minutes.
- 8
Step 8
Meanwhile, rinse the mushrooms, cover with fresh water, and boil for half an hour over medium heat, uncovered.
- 9
Step 9
Then, add all the contents of the skillet to the pot with mushroom broth, along with bay leaf, pepper, and salt. Cook for another 10-15 minutes over medium heat.
- 10
Step 10
Sprinkle with finely chopped herbs, remove from heat, let it steep for about 10 minutes under the lid, and serve. Fasting borscht is ready. ;)