borscht

Mr Weiss and I have been slurping up borscht from Veselka all summer long, it is Mr Weiss’s hands down favorite summer soup,  it’s sooooo obsessively good I had to try recreate my own…

Feel free to adjust according to your own taste buds ingredients such as the buttermilk and dill, but having said that this soup made this way is pretty friggin great, if I do say so myself and I guess I do.

Borscht

4 lg beets (scrubbed within an inch of their lives, seriously I mean really go at it, you need to remove any trace of dirt on the outside skins as these are being boiled whole we use the beet water and all its deliciousness as the soup base, so don’t go blaming me if it ends up gritty, you didn’t wash your beets WELL ENOUGH!)

1  cucumber (peeled if its waxy) seeded and finely diced

1 qt buttermilk

4 tbsp fresh chopped dill

2 lemons (or enough to get 3 tbsp lemon juice)

boiled eggs for garnish

salt & pepper to taste

Wash the beets WELL and trim off any bits on the top and bottom that may have dirt trapped there.  Place in big pot, cover with water and boil until tender when pierced with fork, about 35mins.  Strain, reserve cooking liquid.

When beets are cool enough to handle, peel, the skins should slide right off. (umm and yeah you might not want to be wearing white doing this or using your favorite wood cutting board, not unless you want either of these items to be rendered a shocking pink color), I usually grab a couple of paper towels and use these to hold the beets.

Rough chop 2 beets and place in blender with 2 cups beet cooking liquid.  Puree until smooth.  Place in large bowl. Grate remaining beets and add along with the rest of the ingredients, season with salt and pepper, chill completely.

Ladle into bowls top with sliced boiled eggs.

You would be totally recreating the best summer meal ever if you served the borscht with these. Veselka is my god.  I’m now also working on my hot borscht recipe… seeing as winter’s bite is nipping at our heels.