Barely Borscht

By Caroline Clough in Food on Nov 20, 2006 4:45PM

Chicagoist was confronted by a large number of beets the other day. They were all like "hey bitch, why don't you do something with our sweet, sweet dark purple asses instead of letting us rot away into moldy piles of nothing?" And we were like "um, excuse me?" You might think that this happened in the middle of the street, but, in actuality, this throw-down transpired in our very own kitchen! Can you believe it? The nerve of some root vegetables. The tricky thing about this whole situation was that the beets had a point. We let them languish longer than we should have, and they definitely were looking a little rough around the edges. So with no further conversation (it was weird, the beets talking) we got down to business. If you, too, need to adjust some root vegetable attitude, this is the recipe for you. Maybe you're just a fan of colorful and hearty soups — if so, well, this recipe is for you too!

After making our soup we told a friend that we had made borscht. We told them our basic list of ingredients and cooking steps, and they told us that we had not, in fact, made borscht. According to our friend, borscht must include beets, cabbage and dill. We got two out of the three, so we're calling this barely borscht. Other recipes we looked at before going it alone suggested beef broth, carrots or turkey. One recipe was based on following the lyrics of a song.

What You Need:

2-3 bunches of small to medium beets
4 medium boiling potatoes
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 of 1 red cabbage
1 large white onion
4 cloves garlic (smashed with the flat end of a knife)
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
2 cups beet water
3 tablespoons lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

What You Do:
1. Peel the beets and potatoes and cut them into 1/2-1 inch pieces.

2. Bring a large saucepan of water to boil, and add the beets and potatoes. Keep the water at a low boil for about half an hour (this is when the beets will start rapping 50 cent's "In Da Club").

3. At some point during the boiling time remove about two cups of the now beet-colored water, and set aside.

4. When the beets and potatoes are relatively tender, pour them into a colander.

5. In a Dutch oven (or larger sauce pan), put the olive oil and garlic. Let the garlic simmer for about three minutes.

6. Add the onion and cabbage, and stir for about five minutes until relatively tender.

7. Add the beets and potatoes.

8. Add the chicken or vegetable stock, beet water and lemon juice.

9. Let simmer for about twenty minutes, stirring occasionally (this is when the beets start singing "Let's Get It On").

10. Take two-cup portions of the mixture, and put them in a blender. Blend until smooth. Hold back one or two cups of the chunkier mixture. Add the blended mixture back to the chunky mixture.

11. Salt and pepper to taste.

And there you have it. You can serve this cold or hot. With or without sour cream, cheese, dill, or any other number of garnishes or accents.

Your beets will thank you.