Tag Archives: beets

Pickles, Salsas, and Miscellaneous

Pickled Beets

We grew up on beets from the garden in the summer and pickled beets in the winter. Mom’s canning cellar always had an array of Mason jars stuffed with rich, red beetroot.

This particular recipe is for quick refrigerator pickled beets. A sliver of cinnamon bark and few cloves can also be added to the pickling liquid for spiced pickled beets.

Ingredients for Pickled Beets

  • 1/2 cup vinegar
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/8 tsp pepper
  • 2 cups thinly sliced cooked beets

Combine vinegar, water, sugar, salt and pepper. Boil for 2 minutes. Place in a glass bowl with beets and let cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate 12 hours.

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Soups and Stews

Russian Borscht

  • Soup bones
  • 1/4 lb. cubed beef
  • 1 onion, whole, stuck with cloves
  • salt
  • 1 large beet
  • 2-3 large cabbage leaves, coarsely grated
  • 3-4 small potatoes, cubed
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 1 T sugar
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup milk, lukewarm
  • Sour cream

Make a stock with the soup bones, beef, clove-studded onion and salt, enough to render 1 quart. When meat is tender, add beet and cook until tender. Remove the beet and grate coarsely or cut into cubes.

Return to pot and bring to boil. Add cabbage leaves and potatoes. When they are almost tender, add lemon juice, sugar and seasonings.

Beat the egg, add lukewarm milk and a little hot soup, beating with a fork. Slowly blend in more of the hot soup as you beat, until all is added. Serve with sour cream.

Soups and Stews

Borscht, Doukhobor Style

A thick, very rich version of Russian beet soup melded with potatoes and other vegetables, butter, and cream..

For years, various members of the family have lived in an area of British Columbia, Canada, into which many Doukhobors (a sect of Christian Russians who practice  what is called “radical pacifism”) settled after emigrating to Canada from Russia in the early 1900s to escape persecution. One of the mainstays of the Doukhobour diet, which is vegetarian, is their particular style of borscht, or beet soup, which is thick with potato starch and heavily laden with butter and cream. It is a full-course meal in itself.

  • 1-1/2 cups runny mashed potatoes
  • 1/2 medium cabbage, shredded
  • 1 beet, diced
  • 1 large carrot, diced
  • 1 green pepper, chopped
  • 1/2 lb. butter
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 can tomatoes
  • 1 t basil
  • salt and dill to taste
  • water as needed
  • 1/2 to 1 cup whipping cream

Prepare the mashed potatoes, reserving the water in which the potatoes were cooked. Set the mashed potatoes aside. Add 3/4 of the cabbage, the diced beet, carrot, and green pepper to the hot potato water in a large soup pot and cook for 15 minutes.

Melt the butter in a skillet. Add the chopped onion and garlic and stir until transparent, and then add the rest of the cabbage. Fry to brown slightly.

Toss the fried cabbage in with the other vegetables in the potato broth. Empty the tomatoes into the skillet and add the basil. Heat well and throw into the soup pot. Add water as needed and continue simmering. Add the mashed potatoes and dill. Stir in cream (use as much as your taste buds dictate and your conscience will allow) and heat but do not boil. Season.

Serves 8.

Cats, by Rayna, Dec 2008