Recipe: simple crock-pot borscht

October 12, 2011 by Jennifer 5 Comments

Back to school at our house means I have to start contributing a bit more to meal planning and preparation than I did during the summer. Naturally this leads to panic, which leads to soup.

(Doesn’t this picture remind you just a bit of an Inn at the Crossroads picture? They are hands-down my favorite new blog of 2011.)

Ingredients:
6 lbs beets
2 med. onions, or 1 large
1 qt beef or chicken stock
juice from one lemon
1 tsp. dill weed (or several sprigs fresh)
salt and pepper to taste

1. Peel and roughly chop the beets and onions and place in crock pot.

2. Add stock, then enough water so that beets and onions are just barely covered with liquid. To enhance flavor and nutritional value, you could use 100% stock.

3. Cook all day on low, or 4-6 hours on high. When the beets are soft it’s done, but you have quite a bit of wiggle room. It’s fine if they get a little overdone.

4. Add lemon juice and dill, then mix with an immersion blender until smooth.

5. Salt and pepper to taste, and you’re done!

We served each bowl with a single boiled potato and a dollop of sour cream, both highly recommended. This is a very light soup, so the potato and bread made it into a meal. The best part: this makes a TON of soup. Our family of 4 ate heartily, then we had 5 pints of leftover soup to freeze:

These are so great for lunches. I have 4 different flavors of soup in the freezer right now!

Variation: this is adapted from Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian recipe. He roasts the beets first, which alters the flavor of this a bit (and shortens the cooking time dramatically). I like it both ways.