When travel isn’t possible, you can still experience the best a country has to offer through its cuisine. Skyscanner has collaborated with chefs, restaurants, brands and passionate home cooks from around the world to bring you a series of recipes you can make from your very own kitchen.
Contributor
Mikhail Zarubin, Content creator, avid traveller and ethnographer
Borscht is a delicious and rich fragrant soup – and what could be better? From our childhood, this red meaty delight is a traditional Russian dish that is passed down from general to generation. My mom’s recipe is garlicky, bright, satisfying and very tasty. Your family will enjoy this dish. Let’s cook!
Serves: 8-10
Ingredients
- 500g meat (beef mince or cut of your choice)
- 1 medium-sized beetroot
- 300g white cabbage
- 300g potatoes
- 1 medium carrot
- 2 small onions
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 3 bay leaves
- 1/2 lemon
- Ground black pepper to taste
- Salt to taste
- Vegetable oil for frying
- 3 litres water
- Sour cream and herbs for serving
Instructions
- Start with the broth. Put the meat into water, bring to a boil and remove the foam. Cook out meat until soft (1-1.5 hours).
- While the meat is cooking, prepare the rest. Grate beetroots and carrots on a coarse grater or cut into small cubes (as you like). Chop the onion. In a heated pan, fry carrots and onions for 5-7 minutes.
- Add the beets into the pan, sprinkle with lemon juice first to preserve a pleasant colour. Fry everything until beetroot is soft. Then add the tomato paste and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Cut the potatoes into cubes and add them to the broth. Cook for 7-10 minutes.
- Shred the cabbage and add to the borscht, let it cook for 2 more minutes. Finely chop garlic. After 2 minutes, put everything into the broth bowl. (Important: if cabbage is really fresh, add it at the very end, and cook no more than 5 minutes.)
- Add salt to your taste, bay leaf and black pepper. Leave to simmer another 10 minutes, then serve!
- Pour the soup into bowls, serve with sour cream and fresh herbs (dill). Mmm, what a flavour!
