Ukrainian Borscht (Proper Traditional)

About This Recipe

Borscht is the heart of Ukrainian cooking and was inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2022 specifically as a Ukrainian dish. Proper Ukrainian borscht is not the thin pink beet soup many Westerners imagine — it's a deeply layered, almost stew-like soup built on a beef-bone broth that simmers for hours, then thickened with sautéed beetroot, carrot, onion and tomato (the 'zazharka'), and finished with white cabbage, white beans, potato, and a final crucial splash of beet-vinegar 'kvas' or vinegar to keep the colour a vivid crimson. Each Ukrainian region — and every Ukrainian babusia — has her own recipe: Poltava style includes dumplings; Galician style adds dried plums; Chernihiv style uses zucchini in summer. What unites them is the layering technique, the use of fresh beetroot rather than canned, and the requirement that the soup rest at least one full day before eating — borscht is one of the few dishes where the second-day version is genuinely better than the first. It's served with thick slices of dark rye bread, a generous spoon of smetana stirred in at the table, a head of raw garlic on the side to bite between spoonfuls, and pampushky — soft garlic-rubbed yeast rolls — for soaking up the broth.

Ingredients

Serves 8

• 1.2 kgbeef short rib or beef shin on the bone, plus 1 marrow bone if available
• 3 Lcold water
• 500 gfresh red beetroot (about 3 medium), peeled and grated coarsely
• 2 largecarrots, grated; 2 onions, finely chopped; 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 400 gwhite cabbage, finely shredded
• 3 mediumwaxy potatoes, peeled and diced 1.5 cm
• 1 400 g tinwhite beans (cannellini), drained — or 150 g dried, soaked overnight and pre-cooked
• 3 tbsptomato paste; 2 ripe tomatoes (or 200 g tinned), chopped
• 3 tbspwhite wine or apple cider vinegar; 1 tbsp sugar; 2 bay leaves; 1 tsp peppercorns; salt to taste
• 200 mlsmetana or full-fat sour cream, a handful fresh dill, and a head of raw garlic, to serve

Instructions

1. 1

   Build a deep beef broth

   Place the beef short rib, marrow bone, bay leaves and peppercorns in a large pot with 3 L cold water. Bring slowly to a bare simmer (this takes about 30 minutes) and skim off all the grey foam that rises. Simmer very gently 2 hours until the beef is tender. Lift the beef out, shred when cool enough to handle, and reserve. Strain the broth and return to a clean pot.

2. 2

   Make the zazharka (the heart of borscht)

   While the broth simmers, heat 3 tbsp oil in a wide skillet over medium heat. Sweat the onion 6 minutes until soft. Add the grated carrot and cook 5 more minutes. Add the grated beetroot, tomato paste, chopped tomatoes, sugar, and 1 tbsp of the vinegar. Cover and braise 20 minutes — the beetroot should soften and turn deep ruby, the vegetables glossy and jammy.

   The vinegar in the zazharka 'fixes' the beet colour — without it your borscht will go brown when cooked.

3. 3

   Cook potatoes in the broth

   Bring the strained beef broth to a steady simmer. Add the diced potatoes and cook 10 minutes until just becoming tender — they'll finish cooking in the next stage.

4. 4

   Add cabbage and beans

   Add the shredded cabbage and white beans to the broth with the potatoes. Cook 8 minutes until the cabbage is soft but still has a slight bite. Season with 1.5 tsp salt to start.

5. 5

   Bring it together

   Tip the entire zazharka (the beet-onion-carrot-tomato mixture) into the broth and stir gently. Add the shredded beef back in. Add the second tablespoon of vinegar and the minced garlic. Simmer 10 minutes — long enough for the flavours to marry, but not so long that the cabbage turns to mush.

6. 6

   Taste and balance

   This is the critical step. Borscht should taste sweet-sour-savoury all at once. Add salt (probably another teaspoon), a splash more vinegar if too sweet, a pinch more sugar if too sour. The colour should be deep crimson, not brown — if it's gone brown, you can revive it with another teaspoon of vinegar.

7. 7

   Rest at least 4 hours, preferably overnight

   Pull the pot off the heat and let it cool to room temperature, then refrigerate at least 4 hours, ideally overnight. This rest is essential — borscht eaten straight after cooking is a shadow of the next-day version. The flavours need to settle and the colour to deepen.

8. 8

   Reheat and serve in the Ukrainian way

   Reheat gently to just-steaming (don't boil — preserves colour). Ladle into deep bowls. Each diner stirs in a generous spoon of smetana to swirl, scatters chopped fresh dill on top, and traditionally bites between spoons of soup and a whole raw garlic clove crushed onto a piece of dark rye bread or a pampushka.

Variations

• •

  Lenten borscht — skip the beef, build broth on dried wild mushrooms (porcini) and root vegetables; common during Orthodox fasting periods.

• •

  With pampushky — bake garlic-rubbed yeast rolls in the same oven the borscht reheats in; the canonical Ukrainian bread accompaniment.

• •

  Cold summer borscht (kholodnyk) — same building blocks but served chilled with diced cucumber, hard-boiled egg, and lots of dill; the Ukrainian summer answer to gazpacho.

• •

  With prunes — add 8 pitted prunes in the last 15 minutes for the Galician-style sweet-savoury depth common in western Ukraine.

Storage

Borscht keeps 5 days refrigerated and is better every day. Freezes well 3 months — freeze in single-portion containers. Reheat gently on the stove (microwaving partially destroys the colour and breaks the cabbage texture). Never boil after the initial cook.

Frequently Asked Questions