The Great Lent began about two weeks ago, which means that those who follow this tradition, abstain from eating meat at least on Friday of every week, or some even do it on Wednesdays as well.

If you are like me, and are used to having meat at least once or twice per day, preparing meatless meals a couple of times per week might create a challenge.  I used to really stress out about this during my early years of cooking, but after a while I built quite a long list of meatless meal choices, and could easily be a vegetarian, if I could only win my family over to that eating style.

I have been posting some of my  meatless recipes during this past year, so if you are searching for ideas, here are the links to these posts:

Palushky (Potato Dumplings)

Halushky (Pasta with cabbage)

Vegetarian Holubtsi (Cabbage Rolls)

Varenyky (Pierogies)

Homemade Pasta (in the lower section of the linked post)

Crepes

Tuna Melts

Veggie Burgers

Tomato Soup

Red Beet Soup

Sorrel Borsch

If you are interested in a rather quick meal, there is always Macaroni and Cheese (you can add in some steamed broccoli, or any other of your favorite vegetables), Tuna Fish Salad, Egg Salad, Shrimp Scampi, any other fish which may be fried or broiled, pasta with steamed veggies, pasta with tomato sauce, pizza, PBJ, etc.

With so many different choices, the few meatless days during the 40 days of lent, pass by so quickly, that before you know it, you are back to the old meat cooking routine.

Sometimes  I actually miss a meatless meal, so I whip one up for a change, just to add a new twist to my meal planning.

As always, please share your favorite meatless meal idea with all of us.

Once my garden produces an abundance of fresh herbs and vegetables, the time is right to cook Botvinka.  Soups are very popular in Eastern Europe, and are the first course of a lunch of dinner meal, just like tossed salads in the US.

The name for this soup derives from the description of the tops (botvinka (in Polish)- leaves and stalks) of very young red beet plants, which are the major ingredient in this soup.  This dish is full of  goodness of fresh, young, green leafy vegetables, and because they are so tender, they require very short cooking time.

I prepared this recipe in a vegetarian style, but you can use chicken, or beef, broth as the base, if you prefer it that way.

Ingredients:

• 10 cups of water
• 2 Tbs. salt
• 3 bay leaves
• ½ cup onion, chopped
• 2 Tbs. canola oil
• 2 medium potatoes, coarsely grated
• 2 carrots, coarsely grated
• 2 Tbs. butter
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 cup chives, chopped
• 2/3 cup Dill Weed, chopped
• 1 cup red beet stems, chopped
• 2 cups red beet leaves, chopped
• ¼ cup fresh Parsley, chopped
• 1 Tbs. Maggie Seasoning
• 2 Tbs. Tomato Paste
• ¼ cup sweet cream (half and half, heavy cream, or whole milk)
• ¼ cup Sour Cream or Oikos Organic Greek Plain Yogurt
• 3 Tbs. Balsamic Vinegar
• ½ tsp. black pepper

Directions:

1. Fill a soup pot with 10 cups of water, add salt and bay leave and start cooking.
2. Chop up the onions and sauté for 2 minutes in canola oil.
3. Chop the garlic and add to onions, and sauté another minute.
4. Add onions and garlic to soup stock.
5. Prepare all your vegetables:
6. Rinse and pat dry all vegetables.
7. Remove any damaged leaves and stalks.  Cut off thins roots from any beets attached to stalks.
8. Coarsely shred potatoes and carrots.
9. Chop the red beet leaves (botvinka), chives, dill, and parsley. Set aside.
10. Add potatoes and carrots to soup stock, bring to boil and cook for 10 minutes
11. Add all remaining vegetables, and cook another 2 minutes.
12. Mix tomato paste with cream/milk until smooth, and add to the soup.
13. Bring to boil, and cook for 1minute.
14. Add pepper, Maggie Seasoning, and Balsamic Vinegar.
15. Cook for a minute and turn off the heat.
16. Put  sour cream in a cup, and add some  hot soup stock (2 Tbs.) at a time, and keep on mixing it until it looks smooth, not lumpy.
17. Add to the pot of soup.  DO NOT boil again, because the sour cream with curdle.

You can serve with chopped dill, and a spoonful of sour cream as a garnish.