Borscht with Porcini and Beef

Kateryna Bondar
Borscht with Porcini and BeefBorscht with Porcini and Beef
Cuisine
Course
Serves 6 people
Prep time
30m
Cook Time
2h 0m

The dried porcini here aren’t a garnish, they’re effectively a second broth: 50–60 g (about 2 oz) soaked overnight and then simmered separately yield a liquor deep enough to make the beef beside it taste almost like game. Beans add body and protein, so a single bowl stands on its own. Pairing porcini with meat is a habit of western Ukrainian and Polissian cooking, where dried mushrooms were the winter pantry’s first line.

The order things go in

  • Beans and potatoes first, into the broth along with the mushrooms and their cooking liquor.
  • The sauté of beet, carrot, pepper and tomato once the potatoes are nearly done.
  • Cabbage last, a few minutes before the end, so it stays springy rather than limp.

Grate the beet rather than slicing it: grated, it gives its color up to the sauté instead of bleeding into the broth, and the soup finishes dark red. In summer 300 g of fresh tomatoes bring a livelier tartness; in winter tomato paste covers for them without loss. Add the herbs at the very last moment and pull the pot off the heat — the borscht still needs twenty minutes under a lid, and it genuinely tastes better the next day.

Part of Ukrainian cuisine — 464 more recipes in the section.

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Ingredients

  • 100 Grams
    beans
  • 1
    beet
  • 1
    carrot
  • 2
    potatoes
  • 1
    red bell pepper
  • 300 Grams
    cabbage
  • 50-60 Grams
    dried porcini mushrooms
  • 1
    onion
  • 200 Grams
    boneless beef
  • 300 Grams
    fresh tomatoes or 1-2 tbsp tomato paste
  • oil
  • fresh herbs
  • spices
  • salt

Instructions

  1. Overnight, soak the beans in water and, in a separate bowl, the mushrooms.

  2. In the morning, rinse the beans and set them to cook. In a large pot, boil the beef.

  3. In a separate small pot, cook the mushrooms until fully done, drain the liquid (save it), rinse the mushrooms, and cut them into thin strips.

  4. Fry the finely chopped onion in oil, add the grated beet and carrot, and sauté lightly.

  5. Add the finely chopped bell pepper and the tomatoes or tomato paste to the fry-up.

  6. Into the pot with the meat, add the cooked beans, the mushrooms, and the mushroom liquid. Cut the potatoes into cubes and add them to the boiling broth.

  7. When the potatoes are almost done, stir in the fry-up. As soon as the broth returns to a boil, add the shredded cabbage.

  8. Season with salt and spices, add the fresh herbs last, and remove from the heat immediately.

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