Lenten borscht with beets and beans
6 servings
60 minutes
Lenten borscht with beets and beans is a bright and aromatic dish of Russian cuisine that has won love for its rich flavor and nutritional properties. Its roots go back to the traditions of fasting food, where the absence of meat is compensated by the abundance of vegetables and legumes. Borscht has a pleasant balance of beet sweetness, slight acidity from tomatoes, and soft bean texture, creating a harmony of flavors. It reflects the depth of traditions—from the slow soaking of beans to the delicate frying of vegetables that preserves their color and aroma. This dish warms in cold weather and refreshes in summer when chilled. Lenten borscht is not only a gastronomic delight but also a symbol of care, as its flavor unfolds even more brightly after steeping, like a good conversation at the family table.
1
First of all, in preparing lean borscht, you need to soak the beans in water (preferably overnight). In general, three to four hours will suffice. If there is no time to soak the beans, you can replace them with canned beans.
- Red beans: 1 glass
2
So, we put the soaked beans in a pot on the stove and bring them to a boil. Then we reduce the heat.
3
We peel the potatoes and definitely wash them. After that, we cut them, but not too large. Then we put the potatoes in a pot with bean broth.
- Potato: 2 pieces
4
Now let's move on to the beetroot. It also needs to be peeled and thoroughly washed in water. After that, we will cut the beetroot into strips and fry it in a small amount of vegetable oil (this is necessary to prevent the beetroot from losing its color during further cooking).
- Beet: 1 piece
- Green: to taste
- Salt: to taste
5
After a few minutes of frying, we send our beetroot to the pot with beans.
- Beet: 1 piece
6
At this stage, we will prepare the onion. Before sending it to the pot, it needs to be finely chopped and sautéed in a pan (until it becomes translucent).
- Onion: 1 piece
7
Once the onion becomes somewhat transparent, we will send in the carrot, previously cut into strips.
- Carrot: 1 piece
8
While the sauté is cooking in the pan, we will deal with the tomatoes. They need to be chopped into small pieces (you can peel them first, but it's not necessary).
- Tomatoes: 2 pieces
9
Once we finish with the tomatoes, we can take the sauté off the stove and then add it to our vegetarian borscht.
10
Now we will fry the chopped tomatoes, adding finely chopped garlic.
- Tomatoes: 2 pieces
- Garlic: 3 cloves
11
Meanwhile, while the tomatoes are cooking in the pan, we will chop the cabbage and then add it to the borscht.
- White cabbage: 1 piece
12
This time it's the pepper's turn. It should be cut into medium-sized strips and then placed in the pot.
- Sweet pepper: 1 piece
13
While we were busy with cabbage and pepper, the tomatoes softened well in the pan and absorbed the garlic aroma. Now we will add a bit of ketchup or tomato paste (depending on preference), some dry hot pepper, and simmer it all for a couple more minutes.
- Ground black pepper: to taste
- Salt: to taste
14
Now the tomato mixture can be safely added to our borscht.
15
At this stage, the borscht should be stirred and salted (black salt was used in this case, but overall it's not crucial).
- Salt: to taste
16
We sprinkle the borscht with greens and also add peppercorns and bay leaves.
- Green: to taste
- Bay leaf: 2 pieces
17
We will add a couple of pieces of sugar to our dish. After that, we will boil it for a few more minutes, and then we can turn off the heat. We will let the lean borscht steep for at least an hour.
- Sugar: 10 g