Soupruary 7th: Borscht

I'm in love, and his name is Cuisinart 11-cup Food Processor. To prepare the vegetables for this soup, I broke out the shredder blade for its inaugural use. It was like seeing Ryan Adams for the first time. MAGIC.

Instead of chopping matchsticks for--oh, who knows, an hour?--I was done with all the prep in about 10 minutes, including peeling the potatoes and carrots and beets. I kept laughing out loud because it was just that awesome.

Oh, wait, what was I here to talk about? Borscht:

Is there a soup that sounds less enticing than BORSCHT? Cream of Celery might be able to give it a run for its money in that department--nothing sexy about that. But borscht sounds so harsh and poor and cold. But seriously, look at this passionate, celebratory soup:


Now tell me borscht isn't sexy.

Location:
The Rich Ranch (or Casa de Rich if you're Jeff (and a cheater)), The Westside, Cincinnati


Attendees:
Bill, Leslie, Kelly, Aron, Brent, Laura, Julie, Jeff, Joshua, me


Menu:
Latkes with sour cream and applesauce (by Bill)
Salted rye with honey and pickles (by Brent and Laura)
Assorted snax (by Bill & Leslie)
Borscht (by me)
White Russians and Bolsheviks (by Bill, our resident movie musical mixologist)


Entertainment:
Puppy Bowl (Go, Tater Tot!)
Fiddler on the Roof


Aron's dancing and balancing skills


My fatalistic socks


The Soup:
This soup was determined by the movie of choice for Sunday Night Movie Musicals--a new tradition for 2010 (Tradition...TRADITION!). The last time I had borscht was cold and in Lithuania, and before that was hot and in Belarus--I've never had it on American soil. Although I think we typically stereotype it as a cold soup, Wikipedia confirmed my suspicion that hot borscht is most popular in Russia, and with the day so cold, hot seemed to be the only viable option.


I made a double batch, so it's a good thing I liked it. Even with 10 people having decent-sized portions, I've got lunch covered for a few days. It's not necessarily something I would've thought to make without the film's prodding (they mentioned soup in the movie, and I was like YES!), but it's cheap, fast, healthy and filling--If that makes it peasant food, then call me a peasant.

This is fun, too: The beets turn your kitchen into a pretty realistic crime scene during preparation!

Cobbled together from various blogs and recipes

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large beet, peeled and cut into matchsticks or shredded in a food processor
2 medium red-skinned potatoes, peeled and cut into matchsticks or shredded in a food processor
2 carrots, peeled and cut into matchsticks or shredded in a food processor
1 red onion, quartered and thinly sliced
1/2 head of green cabbage, shredded
6 cups vegetable broth
1 lemon
sour cream
chopped flat-leaf parsley

Heat the oil in a large soup pot, then add potatoes, carrots, onion, and nearly all the beets--reserve a small amount to add at the end of cooking. Cook, stirring, for 5 to 8 minutes.

In another pot, bring vegetable broth to a boil.

When beet mixture has softened, add vegetable broth and cabbage to soup pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. At the end of cooking, add the reserved beet to brighten the color.

Squeeze lemon juice into soup to taste--soup should be pleasantly and subtly sour. Season with salt and pepper.

To serve, top each bowl with a dollop of sour cream, some parsley, and a nice turn of freshly ground black pepper.