Every week, I make soup for the family and it usually lasts 3-4 days. This week while I was on break, I made borscht and a couple people expressed interest in the recipe, so here it is, as best as I can approximate it.

Most of the Russian recipes I make are very much based on guess work and basically watching my mom make them and then making them over and over again. This one is modified to be meatless, but you can add in meat to the pot at the beginning to cook and make it more flavorful and fatty.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium-sized beet
• Halfish of a bag of baby carrots
• One small head of cabbage
• One small can of tomato paste
• One onion
• 5-6 large potatoes
• Some dill
• 2-3 tablespoons of Vegeta
• Salt
• Vegetable oil
• Sour cream

Tools:

• Soup pot
• Small frying pan
• Knives/cutting board
• Grater

Process:

In a soup pot:

1. Take a large soup pot, fill it up about 3/4 with water, and set it to boil.
2. While the water is heating, take an onion, chop off the ends and peel it, and throw it into the pot to add flavor.
3. While that’s all happening, peel and chop the potatoes into fairly reasonable pieces (one piece should be the size of half a finger) and put them into the soup water.
4. Do the same with the carrots.
5. Take half the head of small cabbage, cut into thin strips, and also put into the soup.
6. Add 2-3 tablespoons of Vegeta and some salt and stir thoroughly.

In a small frying pan:

1. Take some vegetable oil (2-3 tablespoons?) and spread it around the bottom so that there is enough to fry in.
2. Open the small can of tomato paste, take half of it, and start frying it in the oil.
3. Take the beet, cut off the ends, peel it, and take the grater and start shredding it into the frying pan where the tomato paste is already frying. The pieces should be the size of shredded cheese pieces, and you can do the whole beet or 3/4 of it, whichever you get tired of first.
4. Mix the tomato paste and shredded beet together in the vegetable oil thoroughly.
5. after about a minute, transfer the mix from the frying pan to the soup pot and mix all together until your soup is nice and red.
6. Wait for the water to boil and then simmer for 15 minutes until all veggies are thoroughly cooked.
7. Chop up some dill and sprinkle liberally on the soup.

Serving:

1. Take the cooked onion out of the pot and throw it out.
2. Put some soup in a bowl and then mix in a tablespoon of sour cream for flavor.
3. Enjoy!