soup of the gods
Originally published at ravnsdaughter. Please leave any comments there.
We have a lot of snow here in Fort St. John. A lot, and more keeps coming. Though this is nothing unusual for this town… I’ve only lived here going on two years now, so it’s still a little bit novel for me. I have to admit I absolutely LOVE the snow. I would rather have pretty white stuff all over everything, and lots of sunny afternoons, than grey and rain all the time.
The weather around here definitely lends itself to cozy cooking of the stew and soup type. With my husband away until just before Yule, I’ve been trying to cook things in big batches so that I can just reheat meals for myself and not spend a lot of time cooking every day. Last weekend, I put together a big batch of borscht - a Ukrainian soup with lots of beets in it - which turned out absolutely wonderful. I thought I would share the recipe with you as it’s so easy and REALLY yummy.
- Ingredients
2 pounds of beets - peeled, and then half diced into cubes that are about 1/2 to 1cm across, and the other half grated
2 medium potatoes - peeled and diced
1 medium onion - diced
2-3 carrots - diced
a small to medium sized can of diced tomatoes - or the equivalent of fresh tomatoes
2 cups of shredded cabbage
1 cup of diced yellow (wax) beans
1/3 cup of green peas - frozen or fresh
beef or vegetable stock, or water and bouillion cubes or Better than Bouillion, to taste (I use Better than Bouillion, plus about 2 litres of water)
fresh dill
vegetable oil
Sour cream
Dice the onion and saute in the vegetable oil until they start to brown. Add the potatoes, carrots and diced beets and saute a bit. Add about half of the water/bouillion and the tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Add the shredded beets and the cabbage. Add the rest of the water/bouillion until the consistency looks right to you. Let simmer for anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple of hours. 15 minutes before serving, add the peas and yellow beans (if you used canned beans, they will disintegrate if you add them any sooner). Add LOTS of chopped fresh dill - like between 1/3 and 1/2 a cup.
To serve, dollop a spoonful of sour cream on top and garnish with more fresh dill. Stir the sour cream in before eating.
This soup freezes very very well, and is even better when reheated.