Traditional Ukrainian Borscht Recipe

Name: Traditional Ukrainian Borscht Recipe
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 75 min
Total time: 90 min
Ingredients: 1½ lb beef with bones; 2 bay leaves; 1 large yellow onion; 2 medium carrots; 2 celery ribs; ½ medium green cabbage; 2 medium potatoes; 3 medium beets; 4 slices bacon; 2 tsp sea salt; 1 tsp black pepper; 6 ounces tomato paste; 2 Tbsp white vinegar ((or pickled beet juice)); ¼ cup Italian parsley; ¼ cup fresh dill ((plus more to garnish)); 4 cloves crushed garlic; 1 jalapeno ((optional)); ½ cup sour cream ((optional))

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This Traditional Ukrainian Borscht recipe is not only gorgeous, but it's also packed with tons of flavor! Borscht is loaded with nutritious veggies and chunks of tender beef. However, you can easily make vegetarian borscht by not adding the meat. It's traditionally served with rye bread but I like mine with sourdough bread.

Ukrainian borscht recipe in a white bowl with more in a pot

The bright red color of this striking soup is achieved with fresh beetroot. Borscht has an irresistible sweet and sour flavor thanks to the sweet carrots, beets, and vinegar.

Although I didn't have traditional fermented beet sour, I improvised and added pickling juice from my pickled turnips. They're pickled with fresh beets so it seemed like an obvious choice. You can also add white distilled vinegar.

If you enjoy my Ukrainian borscht recipe, be sure to try my Ukrainian Stuffed Cabbage-Holubtsi recipe too! It's one of my reader's favorites!

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🥕About This Recipe
🧐Why This Recipe Works
🛒 What You Need For This Recipe
🔖 Recipe Ingredients & Substitutions
🥘 How to make Traditional Ukrainian Borscht
🍽 What to Serve with Ukrainian Borscht
🤷🏻‍♀️ FAQs
👩🏼‍🍳 Pro Tips
🍗 Related Recipes
📖 Recipe
💬 Comments

🥕About This Recipe

If you've never heard of borscht I have to ask, where have you been? This amazing soup is Ukraine's national dish, however, it's quite popular throughout Eastern Europe, Northern Asia, and yes, even in the Middle East!

I remember my mom often reminiscing about her mom's delicious borscht. Grandma Ulia (Julia) lived in Russia at some point, so I'm assuming that's where she learned how to make Russian borscht. However, I have noticed many Assyrians make this soup as well.

Although grandma's recipe was never handed down to my mom, I've always wanted to continue the tradition of making borscht. I took the tidbits that mom shared about grandma's borscht and came up with this recipe. How I wish mom was still with us so I could surprise her with a bowl!

🧐Why This Recipe Works

This Ukrainian borscht recipe may sound intimidating, however, once you prepare it, you'll see that it's pretty easy to make.
The meat can be left out to make vegetarian borscht.
To add extra protein to vegetarian borscht, add a can of great northern beans.
Besides beef, you can use pork, chicken, lamb, or ground pork or sausage in this recipe.

🛒 What You Need For This Recipe

🔖 Recipe Ingredients & Substitutions

Meat: I used 1 ½ lbs of good quality beef and some soup bones. You can leave the meat out to make vegetarian borscht or use pork, chicken or turkey instead.
Veggies: This soup is loaded with vegetables! You'll need beets which give the soup its color and sweet flavor. You'll also need carrots, celery (optional), onion, garlic, cabbage, and a few potatoes.
Oil: I sautéed the meat and veggies in the bacon grease. However, you can also use lard, olive oil, or avocado oil.
Herbs: Traditionally, fresh dill is mixed into the soup and to garnish the dish before serving. I also added about ¼ cup of Italian parsley to the soup and used a small amount of parsley as garnish as well.
Spices: The only spices you'll need are sea salt and black pepper. Some borscht recipes also add allspice.
Toppings: Before serving the soup, you'll want to add a dollop of sour cream or plain yogurt and some chopped fresh dill.
Vinegar: Feel free to use white distilled vinegar, pickle juice (especially from pickled beets), lemon juice, or citric acid.
Sugar: If you prefer your borscht sweeter, mix in a tablespoon (or more or less) of sugar. Mine only needed 1 teaspoon.

*A full list of ingredients can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

🥘 How to make Traditional Ukrainian Borscht

Step 1: Cube meat into 1-2" pieces. Add to a large soup pot or Dutch oven along with soup bones and bay leaves. Cover with 10 cups of cold water and bring to a boil over medium heat. Once boiling, cover and simmer on low heat for 45 minutes to an hour.

Pro Tip: To remove the scum and foam from the surface, I use a skimmer spoon. It's perfect for the job!

Step 2: While the meat is cooking, prepare your vegetables by dicing the onion, and chopping the carrots and celery. Next, slice (or shred) the cabbage, peel and cube the potatoes, and peel and julienne the beets.

chopping cabbage on a blue cutting board

Pro Tip: I like to prep the potatoes right before I'm ready to add them to the pot. If you peel and cubed them beforehand, soak them in cold water to keep them from discoloring.

Step 3: Remove the meat from the Dutch oven and strain the broth. Wipe or wash the pot then add the bacon. Fry the bacon over medium-high heat then remove from the pot. Sear the meat on all sides in the bacon grease.

Step 4: Add onions, carrots, celery, and chopped bacon to the pot. Sauté for a few minutes then season with salt and pepper. Add tomato paste and sauté for a few more minutes.

Step 5: Pour strained broth back into the pot. Mix to dissolve the tomato paste. Add potatoes, beets, and cabbage, then cover and simmer over low heat, for 30 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender.

Pro Tip: To test if the potatoes are done, pierce with a fork. If the fork does not meet any resistance and can pierce the potato cubes easily, they're done.

Step 6: Add vinegar (or beet sour), chopped parsley, dill, and minced garlic. Mix to combine the soup ingredients. Simmer for an additional 5 minutes then taste to see if the seasoning needs to be adjusted. I added a teaspoon of sugar and ½ teaspoon citric acid.

🍽 What to Serve with Ukrainian Borscht

Ukrainian borscht is usually topped with a dollop of sour cream or yogurt and garnished with additional fresh dill. You can also use Italian parsley to garnish the finished dish.

Borscht is traditionally served with rye bread but if you're like me and don't like rye bread, you can serve it with your favorite crusty bread instead, for example French bread.

🤷🏻‍♀️ FAQs

What does Ukrainian borscht taste like?

Borscht is sour, sweet, and mild. It's not overly spiced so the sweet flavor of the beets shines through.

What is the difference between borscht and borsch?

There is no difference between the two. The "t" in borscht is silent so the word is actually pronounced as if it's spelled like "borsch."

Is borscht soup healthy?

Borscht is about as healthy as a soup can be! It's loaded with veggies including beets, carrots, celery, cabbage, onion, and garlic. Sometimes the soup includes meat and other times it's left out to make a flavorful vegetarian dish.

What is the national dish of Ukraine?

The national dish of Ukraine is borscht, a striking red soup made with a ton of root vegetables. The soup gets its deep red color from beets, one of the predominant ingredients in this delicious soup.

👩🏼‍🍳 Pro Tips

Some Ukrainian borscht recipes call for the addition of allspice. Because Assyrians use this spice in many of their recipes, I decided to try it and found that I prefer borscht without it!
It is said that you can make a spoon stand up in a proper bowl of borscht because it's so hearty. If you prefer a thinner soup, you can either add more beef broth or reduce the amount of veggies used, except for the beets.
Store leftover borscht in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 5 days.

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