Joan’s Cold Beet Borscht

This is the beet borscht Cooks Without Borders founder Leslie Brenner grew up with. It is her mother’s recipe, served cold or room temperature — the style enjoyed by the diaspora of Ashkenazi Jews from Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, Poland, Lithuania and throughout the Baltic. Consisting of nothing more than beets (roots and greens) water, lemon juice, salt and sugar, it is vegetarian. At the table, sour cream is stirred into each bowl to taste; skip that, and it’s vegan. Hot boiled red potatoes and a bowl of diced radish, cucumber and sliced scallion are passed at the table for garnish. It may sound basic — and it is. But it happens to be extraordinarily delicious.

READ: “Taste my Ukraine in a bowl of cold beet borscht”

We like to buy bunches of beets with their greens for this recipe, which uses roots, along with a few leaves; two healthy bunches of medium-sized beets (about 3 inches diameter) is usually the right amount. If you can only find beets without greens, here’s a hack: Pick up a pack of spring salad mix that includes beet greens. Pick out the beet green leaves (they’re the ones with the red lines down their center), and throw them into the pot, then eat the rest as salad. If your market has beets with their greens and without, you can buy one bunch with and make up the rest of the weight with single roots.

For the sour cream part of the garnish, borscht-eaters should be generous as they dress their bowls: You want to stir in enough sour cream to turn the dark red soup a beautiful fuchsia color.

Makes 5 to 6 servings (about 8 1/2 cups borscht).

Ingredients

For the borscht

1 3/4 pounds (800 g) beet roots (about 2 nice-sized bunches), peeled

A handful of the tenderest beet leaves in the bunch (about 1 ounce)

4 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 cup (118 ml) freshly squeezed lemon juice

4 1/2 teaspoons sugar

For the garnish

1 bunch radishes, cut into small dice

1 medium English cucumber, peeled and cut into small dice (or an equivalent amount of Persian or hothouse cucumber, which do not need to be peeled)

1 bunch scallions, sliced thin (white parts only; reserve greens for another use)

Sour cream

5 or 6 red potatoes, not peeled, but scrubbed (optional)

Instructions

1. Grate the beets: The easiest way is with a food processor fitted with a grating blade with large holes. Otherwise, grate them using a box grater, on the largest holes. Place the grated beets and beet leaves into a large soup pot with 9 cups of water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then lower the heat to medium, add the salt, and skim any scum that has risen to the top. Maintain the soup at a simmer, adjusting the heat as necessary, and simmer for 30 minutes.

2. Remove the borscht from the heat, stir in the lemon juice and sugar. Taste and adjust the seasoning, but it should be right as is. Let the soup cool, then cover and let chill in the refrigerator until it is cold. If you want to speed the process, transfer the soup to another vessel (one that’s not hot) and chill in an ice bath.

3. If you are serving with the optional boiled potatoes, about a half hour or so before you’re ready to serve it, place the potatoes in a large pot of well-salted water, bring to a boil, and boil until they are tender, about 20 minutes for medium-sized potatoes.

4. To serve, combine the radishes, cucumber and scallions in a serving bowl. Divide the borscht into individual bowls, and let each person stir in a large dollop of sour cream (about two tablespoons, or more or less to taste), and add diced vegetables and potato to taste.