How and how much to cook beets for borscht? Recipes and little tricks

Borscht is a traditional vegetable soup. It has a characteristic red color, which is due to the presence of beets in this dish. The right borscht is thick, cooked in a strong meat broth, bright red and aromatic. It is served as a first course, with sour cream, herbs, dumplings with garlic and lard.

Every family has its own signature borscht recipe. Some cooks add non-traditional ingredients to it, for example, mushrooms, prunes, chicken or even kefir instead of broth. However, for the soup to have every right to be called borscht, it must have a rich red color. Therefore, beets are an essential component of this dish.

How to properly cook beets for borscht? Every cook has his own tricks that help prepare this vegetable so that it does not lose its taste and color during heat treatment.

Borsch

How to cook classic borscht? Its required components are:

• Beef broth, strong and clear. It is prepared on the bones and boiled for at least two hours.
• Potatoes, cut into cubes.
• Cabbage, shredded into strips. Borscht is prepared from both fresh and sauerkraut.
• Carrot. It can be cut into strips, cubes and even rings.
• Onions fried with vegetable oil.
• Spices – salt, dill, bay pepper.
• Beets, fried or boiled.

Borscht may also contain: tomato paste, tomatoes, sugar, vinegar and other ingredients. Beef broth can easily be replaced with any other meat or chicken broth.

In theory, borscht is very easy to prepare. First you need to make a good strong broth, then add vegetables and spices, if necessary, fry them first. But sometimes the end result is a completely wrong dish - colorless or orange, with vegetables boiled until transparent.

The whole secret of good borscht is in the correct ingredients. Every person knows that beets need to be cooked for a long time. But if you throw it into boiling water earlier than necessary, the pigment will disintegrate under the influence of high temperature. And in the end you will end up with just cabbage soup, but not borscht.

Experienced chefs advise cooking the beets separately and adding them 3-4 minutes before removing the pan from the heat. And to consolidate the result, I add 9% table vinegar to the borscht - a couple of tablespoons per five-liter pan.

How and how long should you cook beets for borscht? This is an interesting question, since there is no consensus. Each cook chooses an option that is convenient for himself.

Don't forget the cabbage

Many people call borscht beetroot soup. In fact, these are different soups. Borscht has cabbage, but beetroot soup does not. Most often, fresh white cabbage shredded into strips is used for borscht. But there may be variations on the theme. For example, you can put red cabbage or savoy cabbage in a pan - it looks similar to white cabbage, but has a bright green color and corrugated, bubbly leaves. There are even versions of borscht with cauliflower and Brussels sprouts, but with them you still get a soup that is far from the classic one. Some people like to add sauerkraut instead of fresh cabbage. It must be washed, chopped, simmered separately until soft and only then added to the borscht.

Boil or fry?

Beetroot for borscht can be pre-boiled or fried with vegetable oil. Both options have the right to life. The vegetable can be boiled whole or in pieces and even steamed. This process takes considerable time, although there are some tricks to make it faster.

When frying or stewing, beets are grated or very finely chopped. Then it becomes soft very quickly. But there is a risk of overcooking the vegetable, which will cause it to lose its pigment, become dry and not as tasty.

So you also need to be careful when frying.

Step-by-step recipes

There are a great many recipes for making red borscht. They are prepared on the basis of lean or meat broth, with the addition of mushrooms, beans, apples and other products to the main composition. They have one thing in common: the coloring vegetables are stewed (boiled, fried, baked) separately from the first course and added to the rest at the final stage. This approach allows you to cook borscht so that it is aromatic and red; step-by-step recipes are further proof of this.

Classic borscht

The familiar and beloved red borscht requires patience and time. But the result, if you strictly follow the recipe, lives up to your expectations. On the second day, the soup becomes truly tasty: rich, aromatic, nutritious.

• beef on the bone – 1 kg;
• potatoes - 6 medium tubers;
• cabbage forks - 0.5 kg;
• medium beets - a couple of pieces;
• tomato paste (homemade) – 40g;
• carrots - a couple of pieces;
• onion - one turnip;
• garlic – 2 cloves;
• vinegar - 6 grams;
• vegetable oil – 35 g;
• salt - to taste;
• parsley leaves, fresh dill;,
• spices.

Prepare the meat, cut it. Place in a container of cool water and bring to a boil. Remove the foam and simmer for 2 to 2.5 hours. Add salt 13-15 minutes before turning off. Cut the finished meat into small pieces. It is better to add beef to the soup before serving: it will remain rich in meat juices, without the aftertaste of vegetables.

While the broth is being prepared, remove the skins from the boiled vegetables. Peel the garlic and onion. Chop the beets into long segments, carrots, onions and potatoes into squares. Shred the cabbage using a shredder or cut it by hand. The smaller it turns out, the more tender it will be in the soup.

It’s convenient if two frying pans are heated on the stove at the same time: in one fry the beetroot strips, in the other – carrots, onions, and tomato paste. Place the last vegetables on the heated surface in this order. Don't forget to add a tablespoon of sunflower oil to each fry. After 15 minutes, pour vinegar into the beetroot dressing.

Place the potato cubes into the boiling broth, after 5-7 minutes add the chopped cabbage. After 10 minutes, you can transfer the carrot-onion mixture into the broth from the frying pan, after 15 minutes - beetroot dressing. Pass the garlic through a press, through a grater or finely chop with a knife. It should be in the soup 5-6 minutes before turning off. Remove the dish from the stove, add chopped herbs. In 30 minutes you can call your family for lunch.

With chicken broth

The combination of chicken broth and fresh sorrel gives a unique taste, which is especially noticeable in the summer version of the familiar borscht. The good thing about this recipe is that there is no acetic acid. Sorrel and tomatoes will prevent your favorite soup from losing its stunning red color.

• chicken gherkin – up to 500 g;
• beets – 2 small or 1 medium;
• carrots – 1 pc.;
• onion - half a large turnip;
• sorrel – 35 g;
• tomato paste – 35g;
• salt to taste;
• herbs, spices.

Rinse the bird, remove the entrails, and place on the stove. Add salt after a quarter of an hour from the moment of boiling. After 30-35 minutes, remove the chicken. When cool, separate the meat from the bones. Peel the vegetables, chop everything except the carrots. Grind it using a grater.

Place the beetroot cubes in boiling water, after five to six minutes it will be the turn of the potatoes. Fry the carrot-onion mixture in oil, add tomato paste and dried herbs. Salt it a little.

Finely chop the sorrel, mix it with the rest of the ingredients and add to the pan. After 8-10 minutes, finish cooking. When pouring into plates, do not be lazy to add sour cream, herbs and, of course, gherkin meat.

Lean

During Lent, you want to treat yourself to a rich soup. The Lenten version with green beans and mushrooms will come in handy in this case. You can use canned legumes for this recipe, but it is better to choose frozen green beans. Porcini mushrooms, chanterelles or boletus mushrooms can be taken dried, frozen or fresh. The recipe shows the dosage of the latter.

• porcini mushrooms – 230 g;
• green beans – 100 g;
• cabbage fork – 1/3, approximately 150-170 g;
• beets, onions, carrots - one each;
• potatoes and tomatoes - a couple of pieces each;
• apple cider vinegar – 17 ml;
• olive oil – 35 ml;
• salt;
• dried herbs.

Boil the porcini mushrooms in salted water for 20-25 minutes. Chop the root vegetables and cabbage leaves. Pour the potatoes into a container where the borscht is boiling. After seven to eight minutes you can add the cabbage.

Which beets to buy for borscht

Before deciding how and how much to cook beets for borscht separately from the other ingredients, you need to buy the vegetable itself. Choosing the right root vegetable is quite simple, you just need to know what to look for:

1. Size. Beetroot of all varieties can be divided into two categories - for food and fodder and sugar varieties. For borscht, you need to choose those root vegetables that are intended for eating. They are small, sweet, tasty, with thin skin and a more uniform structure. Large beets are most often fodder, fibrous, with a less bright taste. In addition, when growing it, they use fertilizers and pesticides, which are not very useful for humans. Therefore, when purchasing, you need to take root vegetables that are not too large, from the group where all the vegetables are approximately the same size.
2. Freshness. The ideal option is beets with green tops. Unfortunately, it can only be found in season. The rest of the time you should pay attention to elasticity. Old root vegetables are more flabby and soft.
3. Variety The Bordeaux variety is well suited for borscht - round, flattened, with a thin skin.

How long should you cook beets for borscht? It depends on the cooking method. There are several of them, so let's look at each one.

Why does borscht lose its red color?

The secret of the unique color of borscht lies in the use of beets, which is included in the ingredients for the classic cooking recipe. The vegetable contains betaine and betanin, which is what “colors” the first dish. By the way, these substances strengthen the walls of blood vessels and have an antiseptic effect. But the connection with air during the boiling process instantly destroys anthocyanins. The soup takes on an unappetizing appearance and is not so healthy.

Without going into these details, skillful housewives will name at least three reasons for the loss of the rich color of a dish:

1. You put the beets into the boiling broth along with the rest of the raw vegetables.
2. You cooked the soup too long until the ingredients were completely softened.
3. You heated the red borscht on the stove and boiled it just in case.

Needless to say, beet varieties with bright yellow, yellow-red and completely white pulp are not able to color the broth burgundy? In addition, the dish can be spoiled by the wrong vegetable. Too large, overgrown beets will not part with coarse fibers, which will be felt even when steamed, fried or boiled.

Frying in a pan with vegetable oil

The root vegetable can be fried in a frying pan with vegetable oil. First, the vegetable is peeled, grated and finely chopped. There are two main methods of frying:

1. With onions and carrots.
2. Separately.

In the first case, first place the onion in a frying pan in heated oil, and after a couple of minutes - chopped carrots. And after another 5 minutes - beets. This order is due to the fact that if you put everything in at once, the onions will be stewed and not fried. The same thing will happen with carrots. After adding the beets, keep the frying on the fire for another 5-10 minutes. The time depends on the power of the stove and the desired result. At the end you can add tomato paste. It already contains vinegar, so it will fix the red pigment.

Sometimes cooks prefer to roast the beets separately. Since it is quite juicy, and when adding other components, the process is greatly delayed.

Savory couple: onion and carrot

Nutritionists are against all sorts of sautés that add calories to the dish. But if we speak from the point of view of taste and gastronomic rules, then borscht without sautéing is not borscht. First, fry the onion into strips in vegetable oil, then add the carrots cut into strips. When the vegetables acquire a golden hue, add tomato paste and simmer everything together for a few more minutes. Some housewives believe that it is better to use tomatoes instead of pasta - fresh or in their own juice. Nevertheless, many professional chefs insist: only paste has the concentrated taste that is so necessary for the soup, which will give the borscht a beautiful color and pleasant sourness.

Stewing and sautéing

Beetroot for borscht can be stewed with a little water. First you need to finely chop it, then simmer in a frying pan under a lid. The time required will be slightly higher than when frying. However, this cooking method can be used when cooking lean borscht.

Sauteing is essentially the same as frying in vegetable oil. But at a lower temperature. In this case, the vegetables should not be fried - during sautéing they only soften.

Cooking

How long to cook beets for borscht? The traditional cooking method takes 2-3 hours, depending on the size of the root vegetable. Vegetables need to be washed, cut off the tail and filled with cold water. Then put it on fire. After boiling, reduce the temperature and cook over low heat for 2-3 hours. Then remove and cover with cold water so that you can quickly remove the skin.

After this, the root vegetable is cut into cubes and added to the borscht a few minutes before it is ready.

There are other cooking options. For example, cooks often use regular vegetable oil to reduce time costs. How long does it take to cook beets for borscht using accelerated technology? It will only take one hour if you put the root vegetable directly into boiling water and add a few tablespoons of vegetable oil to increase the temperature of the water.

Professional chefs know an even faster way to cook beets. The root vegetable is dipped in boiling water, a little vegetable oil is poured on it and the temperature is set to maximum on the stove. Boil the beets for about half an hour, then add cold water and leave for 10 minutes. Blast cooling brings the vegetable to readiness. However, after such extreme heating, a minimum of useful substances remain in the beets.

Baking in the oven and microwave

When a cook is concerned with the question of how long to cook beets for borscht, this means that he is short of time. This problem is easily solved if you prepare the root vegetables in advance. In addition, beets can be baked rather than boiled.

In order to bake a root vegetable in the microwave, it is washed, wiped dry and pricked with a fork. Then the beets are sent to the oven for 10-15 minutes. Afterwards, you need to wrap it in foil and leave it at room temperature.

The root vegetable is baked in the oven for 15-20 minutes. The beets are pre-washed, wiped and wrapped in parchment. Then they are sent to the oven, heated to a temperature of 200 ⁰C.

Baked beets are drier and sweeter than boiled ones. It is ideal for preparing salads. But it can just as well be sent to borscht.

Stewed beets with sour cream

These beets with sour cream sauce are delicious served as a side dish for various meat and fish dishes. Also delicious with boiled potatoes, rice or mashed potatoes.

Ingredients:

• 320 g boiled beets;
• 1 onion;
• 150 g sour cream;
• 20 g butter;
• 1 tsp. wheat flour;
• salt, pepper - to taste.

Preparation:

1. Fry the onion, cut into half rings, in melted butter until soft.
2. Let's prepare sour cream sauce. In a saucepan, mix sour cream, flour, salt and ground black pepper. Place on the fire, stirring constantly, and bring the mixture to a boil. Once the sauce has boiled, remove the saucepan from the heat.
3. Place the beets cut into thin strips into a frying pan with onions. Add sour cream sauce here. Mix everything carefully.
4. Return the pan to the heat and bring to a boil. If the sour cream sauce is too thick, add a little water.
5. Under a closed lid, simmer everything over low heat for 20 minutes. Then turn off the heat and let it brew for another 10 minutes, then you can serve.

Cooking in a slow cooker

When cooking in a slow cooker, the root vegetable is cooked either in the “Soup” mode or steamed. How long to cook beets for borscht in a slow cooker? In the first case, the process will take one hour. To do this, the root vegetable needs to be washed, filled with cold water and sent to the kitchen unit.

The second option is faster. It will take 40-50 minutes. To do this, root vegetables are washed, large ones are cut into 2-4 parts and placed with the cuts facing up on a bowl with holes. You need to pour 1.5-2 liters of water down. Then you should set the “Steamer” mode and wait for the end of the process.

Recommendations

Now you know how long to cook beets for borscht. To make the dish as tasty as possible, you can use some more culinary tricks:

• Beets are always boiled in their skins to reduce pigment loss. And at the end, they are doused with cold water so that the skin is thoroughly peeled.
• The root vegetable is not salted during cooking, otherwise it will be tougher and the cooking time will increase.
• To preserve the rich red color, add a little table vinegar or lemon juice to the borscht. You can do the same when cooking beets separately.
• Check the readiness of the root vegetable with a wooden toothpick. If the beets are cooked, they can be easily pierced with minimal pressure.
• To neutralize the smell of beets during cooking, add a piece of bread to the water.
• Borscht needs to sit for at least 30 minutes before serving.
• The product can be stored for up to 7 days in the refrigerator.

Bon appetit!