Borscht is no benign subject. For Ukrainians at least, it’s a deadly serious one, particularly after the Twitter account (sorry, we just can’t say ‘X’) of the Russian Federation’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs blasted out –“A timeless classic, #Borsch is one of Russia’s most famous & beloved #dishes & a symbol of traditional cuisine.” Russians, you see, consider borscht ‘theirs’ but Ukrainians say ‘no freaking way’. 

Just after the Russians invaded the country in February 2022, Kyiv successfully petitioned UNESCO to add borscht-making to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding and started collecting an inventory of vulnerable borscht recipes. Russian and Ukrainian food experts such as Olesia Lew and Anya von Bremzen, both expats who live in NYC, have written way more authoritatively on this subject than we ever could; if you’re interested to dig deeper, it’s worth reading von Bremen’s impassioned 2023 piece published in The Guardian. It’s a long but fascinating read, mentioning versions of this classic, beet-based soup that are variously chilled, made with smoked pork, contain ‘lamb, quince and corn’, are based on dried fish, or that contain prunes. 

Anyway. We love borscht. We don’t know where this version sits on the authenticity scale but we adore the earthy, sweet flavours, cut with caraway seeds and a dash of cider vinegar. In Ukraine they’d probably make theirs using kvass instead of stock; kvass is a fermented, slightly alcoholic drink made using dried black rye bread, fruits or beetroot, and it has a refreshing, sour edge.

A real meal-in-a-bowl, you can easy scale this recipe up, increasing everything by a half or even doubling it. As the soup freezes well, you’ll then have plenty to pull out for an easy meal when time runs short to cook dinner. We like roasting our beets separately, adding them to the soup near the end of cooking. We think this highlights their colour and flavour better, but by all means just peel them, cut them up, and hurl them in with the other vegetables at the start of the recipe; they’ll happily boil to tenderness. Slava Ukraini!

SERVES 4

2 large beetroot (about 600g), trimmed and scrubbed

sunflower, avocado or canola oil, for cooking

1 onion, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 large turnip or potato (about 300g), peeled and chopped

1 large carrot (about 250g), grated

1 wedge of cabbage (about 300g), finely chopped

2 tsp caraway seeds

450g beef chuck, trimmed and cut into 2.5cm pieces

2½ tbsp tomato paste

250ml (1 cup) tomato polpa (puree)

3 packed tbsp brown sugar

2½ tbsp cider vinegar, or to taste

750ml (3 cups) beef or chicken stock, approximately

sauerkraut (optional), sour cream, and chopped dill, to serve

Preheat the oven to 180˚C, fan-forced. Wrap each beetroot in a piece of foil large enough to enclose, drizzle with a little vegetable oil, then wrap tightly. Bake for 1-1½ hours until tender.  

Meanwhile, heat 2½ tbsp oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, turnip, carrot, cabbage and caraway seeds. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes or until the vegetables soften but don’t colour. While the vegetables cook, heat 1-2 tbsp vegetable oil in a large frying pan over high heat. When it begins to smoke, add the beef, season well with salt and pepper, then cook, turning often, for 5-6 minutes or until browned all over. 

Add the tomato paste, tomato polpa, brown sugar, cider vinegar, beef and stock to the vegetables in the pan and stir to mix well. The vegetables and meat should be just covered by liquid so add a little more stock or water if necessary. Bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat to low, cover the pan, then cook for 1¼-1½ hours until the beef is tender. 

When the beetroot is tender, remove it from the foil and cool slightly. When it is cool enough to handle, slip off the skin and cut into 1cm pieces. Stir into the soup. Taste, then season with salt and pepper plus add a dash more vinegar, if you like. Divide the soup among bowls, then top with sauerkraut, if using, a spoonful of sour cream and a scatter of chopped dill.