Ukrainian Borsch With Bacon And Baked Beetroot. Step-by-step Recipe With Photo

Ukrainian borscht with bacon and beets baked in a sleeve seems to be a complicated dish only at first glance. In fact, it is very simple to prepare it. So, we cook the broth in advance, bake the beets, by the way, this can be done the night before. The next day, it remains to load chopped vegetables and sauteed onions with carrots into the boiling broth, add the lard dressing with garlic and get thick for dinner so that the spoon stands, and delicious Ukrainian borsch with lard.

Serve Ukrainian borscht with bacon and baked beets with fresh rye bread and green onions.

• Preparation time: 1 hour 30 minutes
• Cooking time: 45 minutes
• Servings: 8

Ingredients for Ukrainian borscht with bacon and baked beetroot

• 2 liters of meat broth (chicken, beef, pork);
• 150 g cold smoked salted lard;
• 250 g potatoes;
• 250 g of Peking cabbage or white cabbage;
• 150 g onions;
• 200 g carrots;
• 300 g of beets;
• 5 cloves of garlic;
• 100 g tomatoes or ketchup;
• 10 black peppercorns;
• salt, sour cream, herbs.

Method of cooking Ukrainian borscht with bacon and baked beets

First, bake the beets. Root vegetables baked in the sleeve have a naturally rich taste and sweetness - qualities that are lost during boiling or stewing.

So, wash the vegetables, grease them with olive oil (a thin layer), pack them in a sleeve, tie them tightly, put them in a cast-iron frying pan. We put the pan in a cold oven, gradually heat it up to 180 degrees. Cooking medium-sized root vegetables for 1 hour.

While the vegetables are being baked, we are preparing the base of the Ukrainian borscht. You can also have time to cook chicken broth, but it will take more time to cook beef or pork than to bake vegetables. Therefore, you need to take care of their preparation in advance.

Chop finely onions, grate the carrots on a coarse grater, put in a preheated pan greased with vegetable oil. Add finely chopped tomatoes or ketchup (tomato paste), simmer over medium heat for about 15 minutes.

We put the soup pot with broth on the fire, add the potatoes cut into small cubes.

Put white or Peking cabbage, chopped into thin strips, with the potatoes.

We take out the baked beets from the sleeve, clean, cut into strips.

When the cabbage and potatoes are cooked, add the stewed carrots with onions and tomatoes and the baked beets, cut into thin strips, salt to taste, bring to a boil again and remove from heat.

Cut the salted pork fat into small cubes. You can use regular salted brisket, but smoked it tastes better.

First, grind the black peppercorns in a mortar, then add the peeled garlic cloves and a small pinch of table salt. When the garlic turns into gruel, gradually add the cubes of bacon.

All these manipulations can be done in a blender, but I prefer the old fashioned way, by hand.

Add lard, pounded with garlic, to a saucepan with soup, mix, close tightly and leave warm for an hour.

Season the hot Ukrainian borscht with sour cream and herbs, serve with black bread.

The advice that sore my teeth, which, nevertheless, I will repeat - the next day the borscht becomes even tastier!

Ukrainian borsch with bacon and baked beets is ready. Bon Appetit!