Vegetarian borscht.

I used to make a borscht with the soup bones meat, but since two of our close friends became vegetarian I’ve been making it as a vegetarian dish that can be eaten by carnivores and vegetarians alike. 

In a large pot cook broth out of root vegetables: 2 onions, 3 carrots, a parsley or celery root, one leak.  Leak is an expensive frenchy vegetable, but it really adds flavor to any soup, including a traditional chicken soup.   Cook for about an hour or longer.

Place 3 – 4 un-peeled beets in a 3-qt pot with cold water, cook for an hour.  When done, place beets under cold water and slip skin off the beets. 

Take the root vegetables out of the soup, squeeze the juice out of them with the slotted spoon and pour the juice back into the pot, throw away the used vegetables. 

Finely chop 2 smaller onions and 2 – 3 carrots and add to the soup.  Lighly sautee chopped onions and carrots, don’t overfry them.  When sauteeing onions, sprinkle them with salt and pepper to add flavor, and sprinkle carrots with paprika. 

Shred ½ cabbage head, 3 small or 2 medium potatoes and add to the soup.  Add 32 – 48 oz tomato juice into the soup.  Manually shred the cooked beets (too soft for electric shredder) and add to the soup.  Add 1 cup frozen peas.  Cook another 10 min.  Then add fresh minced cilantro and dill, add paprika, cumin, black pepper.  Taste the soup, add more salt and brown sugar if needed.