Sharing my grandma’s authentic Borscht Recipe I grew up eating in Ukraine. This iconic beet soup is made with beef, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, garlic and dill. Then served with a dollop of sour cream and rye bread.
If you like borscht, be sure to try my green borscht, Instant Pot borscht or vegetarian borscht!
My Family’s Ukrainian Borscht Recipe
This is my grandma’s authentic borscht recipe I grew up with in Ukraine. She made it every week and I still have it in a regular rotation.
If you don’t know what is borscht, it’s vibrant red color soup with cabbage, beets, potatoes, carrots, onion and garlic. It has earthy taste of beets, is sweet and tangy. It can be vegan or vegetarian, as well as made with beef, pork or chicken. Then served with sour cream and dill.
“Borscht”, “bortsch”, “borsh” or “борщ” is a true classic soup every Ukrainian or Russian grew up eating almost weekly. It is pronounced without “t” at the end.
Fun fact – all women in our family – mom, grandma, sister, aunt and me had their own slightly different borscht recipe. We all cooked in the same kitchen we used to share and yet everyone’s version of borscht was unique. Even my sister-in-law and mother-in-law cook theirs differently.
Reader’s Review
I love this borscht! It tastes “just” like my Grandma’s recipe. I always do the version with beans and add extra dill and vinegar until it tastes like Grandma’s. Thank you so much, Olena!
Ann
Is Borscht Ukrainian or Russian?
According to Wikipedia, borscht is Ukrainian dish that has a history of centuries. It is cooked in every household of any former republic that belonged to USSR – Ukraine, Russia, Moldova, Belorussia etc. Not to mention all over Eastern Europe.
There are as many variations of traditional Ukrainian borscht recipe as there are regions and families.
Ingredients for Borscht Recipe
Borscht ingredients are very simple and vary on one’s fridge contents and region of Ukraine. Here are the main ingredients you could always find in my grandma’s recipe:
- Beef bones or beef broth: Most flavorful borscht starts with making broth with beef bones like oxtail, shanks, short ribs or even pork ribs. If your bones are not meaty, add some cubed stew beef. If in a rush, you can use beef broth. Please see below for more info about it.
- Beets: You want to use red beets because they add the most red deep color to soup. Young beets in fall and summer will also taste more tender and fresh, just a different flavor.
- Cabbage: Traditionally green cabbage is used but you can also use red cabbage because you won’t see its color in this soup and it tastes exactly the same.
- Potatoes: Red or yellow potatoes, Yukon golds, russet potatoes or baby potatoes work.
- Carrots and onion: For bulk and flavor. I use yellow onion but you can use white onion or red onion.
- Tomato paste: To add more flavor and color.
- White vinegar and sugar: You can also use any light color vinegar like white wine vinegar, red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar. Also any sugar or maple syrup works. It’s just to create that sweet and sour taste at the end of cooking.
- Garlic: Please use only fresh garlic cloves and grate them or press them. Garlic in borscht is a must!
- Dill: Just like with garlic you have to use only fresh dill and not dried dill weed. Fresh dill is an essential flavor profile in this soup!
- Bay leaves, salt and pepper
- Sour cream: For serving.
How to Make Borscht
Here is a quick rundown of how to make borscht. Full recipe card with a video is located below. It’s actually very easy to make and anyone can do it!
Prep veggies: You want to start with cabbage first because it takes the longest time to cook. While it is cooking, you can prep other vegetables.
Cook cabbage in broth with bay leaves and peppercorns for 20 minutes after bringing to a boil. Chop beets, potatoes, carrots and onion in the meanwhile.
Saute onion and carrots in a bit of olive oil until translucent, about 5 minutes. This makes onion flavorful making entire borscht recipe more delicious. Do not skip.
Then add beets and a bit more oil, cook for another 5 minutes. It’s called “zazharka”.
Transfer sauteed veggies to the pot along with potatoes, tomato paste and salt. Cook covered for 20 minutes. In the meantime, prep garlic, dill and other seasonings.
Season borscht with white vinegar, garlic, sugar and pepper.
Stir, turn off heat and let it stand for 10 minutes covered to allow flavors to “marry” each other. Add dill and your borscht is ready to serve.
How to Peel and Cut Vegetables for Borscht
- Beets: Peel beets with a regular vegetable peeler and cut into thick matchsticks. You can also grate beets on a box grater or in a food processor. If you have fresh beets, you can also chop some beet greens and add to the soup.
- Cabbage: Thin uniformly shredded cabbage is a key to a borscht with right texture. Don’t shred it paper thin so it disintegrates during cooking, and don’t cut into large chunks so all you taste is cabbage. Cut it into reasonably thin strands. I am experienced enough to do it by hand with a chef’s knife, but you can also use a mandoline if you still need practice.
- Potatoes: Cube potatoes into small-medium pieces to soak up more of the soup flavor.
- Onion and carrots: Dice the onion like for frying, a mirepoix size. And carrots into small rounds and wider part into half moons.
What Type of Broth Should I Use?
- Beef bones with meat (my favorite): If you choose to add meat to borscht, first make the broth. Cover beef with cold water, bring to a boil and simmer for about an hour, skimming foam occasionally. After soup is ready, remove meat, separate from bones and discard bones, chop and return meat to the pot.
- Bone broth (my other favorite): This time I was ready, stopped by my local beef farm, got soup bones and made Instant Pot beef bone broth. It came out so rich, I diluted half of it with water and used for borscht. And cooked the other half with more water and same bones for to create more broth. Ukrainian in me will never die.
- Store bought beef broth: You can use beef soup base diluted with water if you are in a rush. It adds decent enough flavor, in this case I would also add beef stew meat. Or use broth or stock from a carton. I highly recommend to buy organic and low sodium.
Serving
My favorite part of the whole entire borscht recipe cooking process is serving it. That’s when I go all out!
Ukrainians like to serve it hot, with a dollop of sour cream and sprinkle of fresh dill in bowl, slices of home cured pork belly (salo), pampushky or rye bread and fresh garlic on a side. But on a hot summer day, cold borscht is just as delicious!
Sour cream or yogurt: Sour cream is traditional choice. Often we use plain yogurt with more than 2% fat because it is lighter than sour cream. It really depends what’s in the fridge. I think you are getting that’s the vibe of entire Ukrainian cuisine by now. Some people also love mayo in their soup but it’s not for me.
Rye bread: Rye bread is dense dark color bread. I find mine in a bread section seal wrapped for freshness. It is often German.
Sourdough bread would be great for serving as well! I toast it to resemble freshly baked Ukrainian bread.
More garlic: Many Ukrainians eat borscht while biting on a clove of garlic in between the spoonfuls. The key is to eat garlic together with your partner and don’t leave the house that night.
More dill: I add dill to the pot and then to individual bowls. There is no such thing as too much garlic and dill, almost never. I’m such Ukrainian at heart.
This is how I enjoyed grandma’s Ukrainian borscht as a kid – rub garlic on a slice of rye bread, spread it with sour cream and sprinkle with salt. By the way, my Canadian born kids love it! Try on yours and see. Would love to hear how it goes!
How to Store and Reheat
The best borscht is like a good bottle of wine, it gets better with time. Therefore, I always make a very large pot and we eat it for days or freeze.
Store: Refrigerate leftovers in a large pot you cooked soup in for up to 5 days. Or transfer to an airtight container.
Reheat by simmering on low in a small pot only amount you are planning to consume. Or microwave in individual bowls for 2-3 minutes.
Freeze in an airtight glass container for up to 3 months. Then thaw in the fridge overnight and reheat.
More Eastern European Recipes to Try
Have you ever tried it? Would love to hear your experience. I promise traditional Ukrainian borscht recipe would be one of the most delicious and healthiest soups you have ever tried. Enjoy!
Ukrainian Borscht Recipe
Equipment
Video
Ingredients
- 12 cups low sodium beef broth, or beef bones + cold water (see notes)
- 5 cups green or red cabbage, thinly sliced
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 3 medium carrots, chopped
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 large beets, peeled and cut into matchsticks
- 4 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
- 6 ounces can tomato paste, low sodium
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- Pinch of sugar or maple syrup
- 3 large garlic cloves, grated
- Ground black pepper, to taste
- 1/4 cup dill or parsley, finely chopped
- Yogurt, sour cream and rye bread, for serving
Instructions
- In a large pot (I use 6 quart Dutch oven), add beef broth, bay leaves and bring to a boil. Or you can make beef broth with bones and meat first, please see notes. Meanwhile, wash, peel and cut vegetables.
- Once beef broth is boiling, add cabbage, cover and bring to a boil. Then reduce heat to low and cook for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat large skillet on medium heat and swirl 1 tablespoon of oil to coat. Add onion, carrots and saute for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add beets, remaining 1 tablespoon of oil and cook for another 3-4 minutes.
- Transfer sauteed veggies to a pot along with potatoes, tomato paste and salt. Cover, bring to a boil and cook on low heat for 20 minutes.
- Turn off heat. Add vinegar, sugar, garlic and pepper. Stir and let borscht sit for 10 minutes to allow flavours to marry each other. Add dill, stir and adjust any seasonings to taste.
- Serve hot with a dollop of yogurt or sour cream, bread and garlic clove on the side (this is not for everyone).
Notes
- Store: Refrigerate borscht in a large pot you cooked it in for up to 5 days. Reheat by simmering on low in small pot only amount you are planning to consume.
- Freeze: Freeze in an airtight glass container for up to 3 months. Then thaw on a counter overnight and reheat.
- Beef bones+cold water: This would be the most authentic borscht but I know many are short on time. You make the beef broth first with beef ribs, oxtail, soup bones or any meat cut with a bit of fat. Cover with cold water, bring to a boil and simmer for about an hour, skimming foam occasionally. After borscht is ready, remove meat, separate from bones and discard bones, finely chop and return meat to the pot.
- Store bought stock: Good if you are in a rush. You can use regular beef broth from a carton. Preferably organic and low sodium, if you can. In this case, I would recommend to add some beef stew meat or a few cans of kidney or white beans as a protein boost.
- Sauerkraut: If you replace 2 cups of cabbage with 2 cups of sauerkraut, borscht will have even more umph.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I made this for me and my flatmates, all of whom were a bit doubtful, but it was the most incredible dinner and is now a major favourite in the house! Thank you so much!
That makes me so happy to hear! Glad it won everyone over—thanks for sharing!
Hello I am cheryl I am.in the states and my husband is Ukraine and has been fighting in his country since before it started this time with Russia. He will be home to the US IN A FEW MONTHS AND I AM.GOING TO MAKE THIS FOR HIM. HE MISSES MY COOKING AND I have NEVER MADE THIS. I AM LOOKING AT Other UKRAINE DISHES AS Well BUT he loves this and I am going to surprise him. Thank you for this recipe. It looks good. He can’t wait to get back to the states he is worried about immigration.
Your recipe came highly recommended by my friend, Tatyana, who was born and raised in Ukraine. My daughter used this recipe to celebrate the discovery that we have Ukrainian line in our genealogy. I will admit that I’ve never had borscht before, but I will deinately have it again. She made this as surprise me. It was delicious!
What a beautiful story, so special that your daughter used the recipe to celebrate your Ukrainian roots! I’m thrilled you enjoyed the borscht, and I’m sure it won’t be the last time. Thanks for sharing this lovely moment!
Taste like borscht I had as a child made by a ukraine Baba❤️❤️❤️
That means so much, thank you! There’s nothing like the taste of childhood and a Baba’s cooking!
I followed the recipe exactly and my borscht isn’t very red, rather pale looking (unlike my Ukrainian mother’s borscht) . Also tasted rather bland. Would it be the potatoes or carrots that made it so pale? I had to add more bouillon cubes to increase the flavor.
It more likely would be low quality, not red or not enough red beets. Quality broth helps with flavor too. Otherwise I am not sure what else I can suggest you for flavor as there is already broth, garlic, dill, vinegar, sugar, bay leaf, salt and pepper. You can add whatever your Ukrainian mother added to it as everyone adds their own stuff.