For Foodie Friday I’m posting this paragraph my daughter wrote about her Babushka’s cooking and a recipe and how to make my mom’s Borsch following it.

• Gimme my Babushka’s cooking and I’ll be content

• The sort of Russian/Persian cuisine that my Baba (Grandma) makes… I would be a happy camper for a year with yummy borscht, galupsi, kulyich, syrny paska, lapsha, varenky, shashlik, and a million other treats that I would butcher just as badly trying to spell in English…I can say most of them but they’re sure hard to type. Just make sure you give me a good supply of sour cream, and can I bend the rules to include my Mom’s “green borscht” which is spinach soup we chop up hardboiled eggs in? I was never entirely sure where that soup’s origins really lay…I could never get sick of all the lamb and cabbage and butter filled goodness, heck I even like the Russian candies my Deda (Grandpa) keeps around though none of my cousins do. My mouth is watering already. ~ Katie
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• Many Borsch recipes include beets in them. The familiar Borsch that we grew up with and that we had at Molokan Church Meals did not have beets in it. Here is my mother’s recipe.

  Nadia’s Borsch

  For the Stock:
  1 Chuck Roast (with bone would be good)
  1 onion
  1-3 celery stalks with leaves
  2-3 carrots
  2 bay leaves
  5-10 peppercorns
  Salt to taste

  In a big stock pot, cover chuck roast with good water. Bring just to boil. Take roast out of water and discard the water. Put chuck roast back in pot and cover with fresh water again. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Simmer and cook until roast is fork tender. Strain the stock. Reserve the roast.

  1 head of cabbage shredded (green is what we use)
  1-3 carrots grated
  1-2 onions diced
  1 bell pepper diced

  2-3 stalks of celery diced

  (saute the bell pepper, onion, celery and jalapeno then blend before adding to stock)
  2-3 potatoes diced
  2 cans stewed tomatoes blended in blender (we have those that don’t like chunky tomatoes)
  1 can tomato sauce
  1/2-small bunch of dill (to taste)
  1 handful of chopped Italian parsley
  salt and pepper to taste
  optional – 1 can of garbanzo beans
  option #2 – add a small jalapeno diced to the saute group above.

  Put the strained broth back into a stock pot. Add all the above ingredients and bring to a boil. Simmer until cabbage and carrots are tender. Taste and see if the soup needs more salt or pepper at this time.

  The Borsch is ready now.

  My mother doesn’t include this in her recipe but when she made borsch at my house once I saw her add a half a cube of unsalted butter at the end. My mother mashes most of the potatoes to thicken up the soup a bit.

  You can bake the chuck roast with a little of the stock, salt, pepper, and sauteed onions to serve alongside the borsch with a good loaf of bread and of course…sour cream. This was my welcome home meal for my kids on one of my trips back to Seattle a couple years ago.

  I hope you enjoyed this post from my archives. I think it is high time I make borsch again and take some new pictures.