Lenten borscht – 5 delicious recipes for making borscht

Borsch without meat can be prepared tasty and satisfying. People learned to cook delicious Lenten borscht a long time ago, doing it during numerous religious fasts. As a result, our believing fellow citizens can enjoy a hearty and savory meal even during strict restrictions. Although why only believers? Vegetable soups are also useful for citizens who are far from religion, and vegetarians cannot do without them at all.

The secret of delicious borscht: beets stewed with tomatoes and garlic, added 5 minutes before cooking. Prepare and delight your loved ones, see the instructions with step-by-step photos.

How to cook delicious Borscht

1. Place a pan of water (2-2.5 liters) on the fire. Add salt and bay leaf.

2. Peel the onions and carrots and cut them into cubes (it tastes better this way). Add 1-2 tbsp vegetable oil to the frying pan and heat it up. Add onions and carrots and fry until soft. Please note that you cannot fry onions and carrots intended for seasoning soup. The onion should change color, become translucent and soft, as soon as a blush begins to appear, remove the pan from the heat.

3. Peel the potatoes and cut into large cubes. When the water in the pan boils, add the potatoes. Bring to a boil, and then (!) Reduce the heat to almost a minimum (between medium and minimum). Cover with a lid.

4. Add onions and carrots to the pan.

5. Cut the cabbage into cubes. Place in a saucepan.

6. Cut the bell pepper into cubes. Send after the cabbage.

7. The taste of the soup largely depends on the beets. Bright burgundy (without white veins) gives a rich color and taste. Peel the beets and cut into small cubes (it tastes better this way). Fry in a frying pan with vegetable oil for 3 minutes, do not forget to stir. Then add ketchup or tomato paste, stir and fry for another 1 minute.

8. Add the fried beets to the borscht.

9. Add all the spices and dried herbs. Good for borscht: curry, turmeric, suneli hops, paprika, basil, dill, parsley, black pepper and ground allspice.

Important! 5 minutes before readiness (we check the readiness of the vegetables so that they do not crunch), add garlic cloves cut into halves or quarters to the borscht. This is a natural flavor enhancer that should be added at the end to enhance the taste of the entire dish, rather than a separate ingredient.

All the time after the first addition of potatoes and bringing them to a boil, the borscht is cooked over low heat - it simmers. Thanks to this, all the ingredients will be brought to readiness and will not lose their shape.

Cooking with mushrooms and prunes

If you wish, you can prepare lean borscht, the recipe for which is very unusual (not for everyone).

Ingredients:

• cabbage - a third of a head of cabbage;
• mushrooms – 200 g;
• prunes - a handful;
• onions with carrots - 1 pc.;
• beets – 1 pc.;
• potatoes - 4 tubers;
• tomato paste – 2 tbsp. l.;
• salt and pepper, sugar, herbs,
• garlic, lemon juice - at personal discretion.

How to cook:

Steam dried fruits. Chop vegetables and mushrooms. Add potatoes to boiling water, a little later add cabbage and cook for 20 minutes. Make a dressing from vegetables, add tomato and lemon juice. Fry the mushrooms. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Cook for 5-6 minutes. Add spices and herbs to taste. Stir and let the dish brew.

Classic Lenten Borscht Recipe

Making classic borscht without meat is not difficult. Even the most inexperienced cook can cope with its preparation. Well, to make the lean soup also tasty, you just need to strictly follow the instructions. Then everything will definitely work out. You need to start with preparing the products:

• half a kilo of fresh, white cabbage;
• beets, tomatoes, onions and carrots - a couple of pieces each;
• 3 or 4 potatoes;
• a couple of cloves of garlic;
• a teaspoon of vinegar (9%);
• vegetable oil, salt, sugar, seasonings and spices.

First you need to boil the kettle. Hot water will be needed to prepare the beets. While the water is boiling, this is the time to tackle this root vegetable. Peel the beets and grate them on a shredder. Divide the chopped vegetable into 2 parts. Leave one without processing, and put the second in a bowl, pour boiling water and add vinegar.

Now you can move on to the rest of the vegetables. Moreover, after grinding, each of them should be placed in a separate bowl. But first you need to put a saucepan with 2-2.5 liters of water on the fire.

Cut the cabbage into thin strips, grate the carrots on a shredder, chop the onion as finely as possible, and the potatoes into small cubes. It goes without saying that the vegetables need to be washed and peeled first. Cut the tomatoes crosswise, scald with boiling water from the kettle, remove the skin and finely chop. Crush the garlic in a press.

Place potatoes in a saucepan of boiling water and let the water boil again. After 3-5 minutes, add cabbage there. When the future borscht boils, reduce the heat and cover the pan with a lid.

At the same time, heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan and lightly fry the onion, then add the carrots and part of the beets that were not covered in boiling water. Mix the vegetables and simmer for 5-7 minutes. Squeeze the prepared beets (scalded and seasoned with vinegar) into the same bowl where they were (the juice will come in handy) and place in the frying pan with the rest of the vegetables. Simmer for another 5-7 minutes, then add tomatoes, salt and spices to the pan. Cover the vegetable mixture with a lid and simmer for 20 minutes on the lowest heat.

Place the finished frying into a saucepan with potatoes and cabbage. Add bay leaf, garlic and beet juice to the almost finished borscht. If necessary, add salt and pepper. When the lean borscht boils, cover the saucepan with a lid and turn off the heat under it. The dish should be allowed to brew for at least half an hour, after which you can pour the soup into plates.

Lenten borscht with beets and fresh cabbage

This is a classic borscht recipe. Half of the specified cabbage can be replaced with sauerkraut and tossed at the very end. Cook for a four-liter pan.

Products:

• Four hundred grams of white cabbage
• Four hundred grams of potatoes
• One hundred eighty grams of carrots
• Two hundred fifty grams of beets
• Two small onions
• One head of garlic
• Parsley and dill
• Two tablespoons of tomato paste
• Tablespoon of vinegar
• Sunflower oil
• Salt, pepper and other spices to taste

Preparation:

1. Chop the cabbage and peel the vegetables.

2. Cut the onion into half rings.

3. Grate the carrots on a coarse grater.

4. Grate the beets on a coarse grater.

The taste and color of your dish depends on the quality of the beets. Beets should be bright and sweet, like carrots. If your beets are not sweet, you can add a teaspoon of sugar to the roast.

5. Prepare parsley and dill. We clean the greens from large stems. Chop as finely as possible.

6. Pour water into the pan and put it on fire. Place cabbage in boiling water.

7. Cut the potatoes into cubes and add them to the cabbage in the pan.

8. Pour sunflower oil generously into a hot frying pan. Add the onion and fry until golden brown.

9. Add carrots to the frying pan with the onions. Add a little salt. This is necessary so that the carrots release their juice. And fry until the carrots are half cooked for 3-4 minutes.

10. Add beets to carrots and onions. Add just a little bit of salt and fry for 1-2 minutes.

11. Add tomato paste and a tablespoon of 6% vinegar to the vegetables in the frying pan. Fry for 5 minutes over low heat.

12. Place the frying into the pan with the cabbage and potatoes. Add pepper, bay leaf, herbs and garlic. And let the borscht cook a little more.

Delicious lean borscht with mushrooms or beans

The above recipe can be considered basic, since it is easy to modify, significantly changing the taste of the finished soup.
The simplest modernization is adding mushrooms to the borscht. By the way, this option can also be considered a classic, since forest gifts have been in soups from time immemorial. This borscht is prepared in exactly the same way as the classic one. Just cook it not in water, but in a ready-made mushroom broth. There is no need to catch the mushrooms themselves from the broth. Let them continue to cook together with the potatoes and cabbage.

The algorithm for preparing the version with beans depends on what beans will be used. Fresh (dry) beans should first be boiled, then the required amount of water should be added to the saucepan and proceed according to the classical scheme. But canned beans should be placed in a saucepan after the cabbage. Moreover, if you use beans in their own juice, then it also makes sense to send the liquid from the can to the borscht. He will only benefit from this.

Quick Lenten borscht

For a quick recipe you will need the same products and in the same quantities as for the classic one.
Only it is better to take tomatoes canned in their own juice. But this is not a prerequisite; fresh ones will do. Chop the cabbage into thinner strips. Cut and scald the tomatoes, then remove the skin and cut. Peel the carrots, potatoes and beets, then cut, just like cabbage, into thin strips or small cubes.

Chop the garlic and onion as finely as possible, and then fry in vegetable oil. After 5 minutes, add the rest of the vegetables except cabbage. Fry everything together over low heat for 10 minutes, stirring regularly.

At the same time, boil 2-2.5 liters of water in a saucepan, add salt and spices to taste, and then add the fried vegetables. After boiling again, add cabbage and tomatoes. You need to cook the borscht covered over low heat for about 40 minutes. Then let it sit for a while and you can serve the dish.

How to cook with green beans

This borscht turns out to be nourishing, rich and thick. Sauerkraut can also be successfully used in the recipe. Instead of green beans, you can use regular dry beans, but you will first need to soak them overnight. Often canned beans are added to borscht, which significantly speeds up the cooking time.

Ingredients:

• cabbage - a small head of cabbage;
• onions with carrots - 2 pcs.;
• beets – 1 pc.;
• potatoes - 4 tubers;
• tomato paste – 2 tbsp. l.;
• green beans – 200 g;
• water – about 2 l;
• salt and pepper, sugar,
• greens, garlic - at personal discretion.

How to cook:

Cut the vegetables into suitable size pieces, chop the cabbage, grate the onions and carrots. Boil the beans until tender, drain in a colander. Place potatoes into boiling water, a little later cabbage, chopped beets, carrots and onions. Cook until the vegetables are almost completely cooked. Add beans, sugar, spices, tomato paste, and salt. At the end add finely chopped greens.

Lenten delicious borscht in a slow cooker

All from the same set of products and with minimal labor costs you can prepare delicious lean borscht in a slow cooker.
First you need to finely chop the onion and chop the carrots. Place the vegetables in the bowl of the device, after pouring vegetable oil into it. Cook for 10 minutes on the Fry mode, stirring constantly.

Proceed with the beets as in the classic version: chop them, place one part in a bowl, season the other with vinegar and pour boiling water over it. Simmer vegetables in a slow cooker for 5 minutes under the lid, adding a little sugar to them. Add the second part of the beets, squeezed from the juice, peeled and chopped tomatoes to the vegetable mixture (instead, you can pour in 100-150 ml of tomato juice or add 3-4 tablespoons of tomato paste). Salt the products and season with the desired spices, then simmer under the lid for another 10 minutes.

The last to go into the bowl are diced potatoes and thin cabbage strips. Pour the semi-finished product with about 3 liters of water and cook for an hour, setting the stewing mode. Last operation: pouring beet juice into lean borscht. After this, close the lid again, set the device to Heating mode and leave for half an hour.

With the addition of Chinese cabbage

Instead of regular cabbage, you can successfully use Chinese cabbage. It is much more tender and cooks faster.

Ingredients:

• cabbage – 300 g;
• onions with carrots - 1 pc.;
• beets – 1 pc.;
• potatoes - 2 tubers;
• tomato paste – 1 tbsp. l.;
• eggs – 2 pcs.;
• salt and pepper, herbs, garlic.

How to cook:

Boil the beets and eggs in advance. To boil water. Meanwhile, prepare and chop all the vegetables. Place potatoes in boiling water. Fry onions and carrots by adding tomato paste. 10 minutes after adding the potatoes, add the cabbage, a little later the frying and almost at the very end the boiled beets, chopped on a grater. If you add the beets too early, they will cook out, lose their vibrant red hue, and look very unappetizing. Season to taste. Serve with half a boiled egg and parsley.

Lenten borscht is very tasty. In addition, this dish allows you to experiment by adding various additional components.