Borscht – the most colorful dish
Last week I was supposed to cook something purple for a photo challenge I’m doing, or well, I was supposed to photograph purple food so of course I had to come up with something purple to cook as well. After a while of brainstorming my other half came up with the idea to make a borscht. I hadn’t even heard about it before so I started to look it up straight away. The more I read about it and the more colorful pictures I saw of it the more certain I became that that’s what I should cook for the purple challenge.
I did my fair hours of research and found so many different recipes. Everything from someones grandmas old recipe to more modern takes on the borscht. I decided to go with a mix of a couple of traditional recipes and of course veganized the parts that weren’t vegan to start with.
Classic recipe with a lot of variations
An other thing there was a lot of discussions about was wether the borscht is a Russian or an Ukrainian dish, however we can safely say that it has its origin in Eastern Europe. Two of the main ingredients are beetroot and cabbage which also seem to be the same in almost all of the recipes that I read. Apart from that the recipes varied a lot, some had meat broth, som used onions, some potatoes, some added beans and others had it all.
So, I decided to go with what I usually like and ended up with beetroot, potatoes, carrot and cabbage as the main ingredients, and then some onion, vegetable broth and other things to add a bit more flavor. And the result? Oh my god how good it was! We topped the borscht with chives and vegan creme fraise and it was an absolutely unbeatable combination! This is definitely something I’m going to cook again and also something I recommend all of you to try.
Vegan borscht
Ingredients
- 3-4 medium sized beets
- 2 medium sized potatoes
- 1 onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 2 carrots
- 1/2 head of cabbage
- 1,5 liter vegetable broth
- 2 tbs white vinegar (I used a coconut vinegar)
- 0,5 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp chopped chives (dill or parsley + some extra for topping (I went with chives))
- vegan creme fraise (I used Oatlys iFraise)
Instructions
- Peel and chop the onion and garlic. Fry until golden brown.
- Peel and slice the potatoes and boil in a large pot for 7-10 minutes.
- Rinse the potatoes and add the vegetable broth, herbs, salt and vinegar.
- Slice the cabbage and add to the broth. Let simmer for 10 minutes..
- Meanwhile, peel and shred the carrot and beets, then add the beets, carrot and onion to the pot. Simmer for another 5 minutes.
- Taste and add more salt and herbs if needed.
- Serve in a bowl and top with vegan cream fraise, chives (or whatever herb you decided to go with) and bread on the side.
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe? Leave a comment and rate the recipe to help others find the right one! I love to see your results on my recipes, so if you post an image on instagram, don’t forget to use the hashtag #wonderveganrecipe and tag me @wondervegan so I can check it out.
