Ukrainians love their Borscht.  Actually most Eastern Europeans love all kinds of soups, and very often a hearty soup, with a piece of fresh rye bread, makes a full meal.  Meat is not consumed in large quantities in Europe, as it is in the US, but soup is always the first course served with lunch, or dinner.

This quick and easy version of preparing a Ukrainian Red Beet Borscht, was shared by my cousin from Ukraine.

It is quick easy, because most of the ingredients are already prepared, and do not require much prep time as for the Ukrainian Traditional Borscht, I posted previously.

My family agrees that this Borscht can easily be the main course, since the beans provide sufficient protein, as a substitute for meat, plus all the other veggies in this borscht.

Add some tossed salad, plus a light dessert, and everyone will leave the table quite satisfied.

Three main ingredients, all ready to use; Whole Red Beets, White Beans, and pre-cut Coleslaw cabbage.

Ingredients:

• 1 can of  Whole Beets, shredded
• 1 can of White Beans
• 3 cups of pre-cut cabbage mix for Coleslaw
• 2 1/2 quarts of soup stock, I used ready made chicken broth
• 1 medium potato, peeled and cut up to small chunks
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 Tbs White Vinegar
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 Tbs butter or oil, for frying onion and garlic
• 2 Tbs sour cream, or heavy whipping cream
• 2 Tbs fresh Dill, chopped

Directions:

1. Drain the Whole Red Beets, rinse, and shred on a large eye shredder, or in a food processor.
2. Set aside.
3. Drain and rinse the White Beans.
4. Set aside.
5. Peel one medium size potato, and cut to small cubes (size of a dice).
6. Set aside.
7. Pour 2 1/2 quarts of vegetable, chicken, or beef broth into a 4 quarts pot, and bring to boil.
8. Add the potatoes, and cabbage mix.
9. Bring to boil, and cook for 15 minutes.
10. Saute chopped onion and garlic, in butter, until onions are translucent.
11. Add the shredded beets, beans, and sauteed onions, to the borscht.
12. Add vinegar, and cook for 10 minutes.
13. Scoop sour cream, or heavy cream into a cup, mix in a couple of Tbs of hot borscht liquid, to temper the cream, add some more hot liquid, and mix well again.
14. Add the sour cream mixture to the borscht.
15. Do not boil, if using sour cream, to prevent curdling.
16. Add chopped dill.
17. Season to taste, with salt and pepper.

Best served hot.

Great as a reheated leftover.

TIP: To make this recipe vegetarian, use Vegetable Broth as the base, rather than Chicken or Beef Broth.

I love the traditions associated with Ukrainian Easter, and especially the Blessing of the Easter Basket, which contains all the food items used at Easter Brunch.

The Easter Basket of special foods (described below) is arranged on Holy Saturday, and taken to church, where a special blessing ceremony with prayers and sprinkling with Holy Water, is performed by the parish priest.  Some churches perform their basket blessing on Easter Sunday, after the Morning Liturgy.

Besides the special foods, the Easter Basket is also decorated with greenery and flowers, as well as colored eggs, and beautiful Pysanky.

Each basket is covered with a hand embroidered cloth cover, with Easter motif of pussy willows and Easter Eggs.

This blessed food may not be consumed until after the morning Resurrection Liturgy on Easter Sunday.

The food in the basket is the only food being consumed at the Easter Brunch, which breaks The Great Lent fasting.

After Easter Brunch, the Easter celebration continues for the rest of the day, with family and friends visiting, and enjoying many other foods and desserts.

Today I will describe all the different foods used to fill the basket, and their Christian symbolism.

Paska - Special Easter Bread (sweet yeast bread, rich in eggs, butter, etc), takes the center stage in the basket.

Symbolic of Christ, who is the True Bread to Christians. Paska bread is always round in shape, and decorated with a dough braid around the perimeter, and a ornamental cross in the middle.  The Cross reminds Christians that Christ died on the Cross for their salvation.

Baked Ham – very popular meat for the Slavs as the main dish, because of its richness.  It is symbolic of the great joy, and abundance of Easter.  Some prefer Lamb or Veal.

Kobasa - a spicy, garlicky, smoked pork sausage.  Indicative of God’s favor and generosity.

Red Beet Vinaigrette (with Horseradish), or plain Horseradish, is symbolic of the Passion of Christ still in the minds of Christians, but sweetened with some sugar, because of the Resurrection.  The bitter-sweet red colored mixture is a reminder of the sufferings of Christ.

Salt is also included in the basket, necessary for flavor, and as a reminder to Christians of their duty to others.

Butter - A favorite dairy product, is usually nicely displayed and decorated with a cross made out of cloves, or allspice grains.  Some prefer to mold it into a shape of a Lamb.  Butter is symbolic of  the goodness of Christ, that we should have toward all things.

Cheese - Creamed cheese, or “Hrudka”, a sweetened cheese ball, decorated with same herbs as butter, indicative of the moderation that Christians should have in all things.

Eggs - are another very important food item in the Easter Basket.  All eggs are hard boiled, and kept in their shell. There should be at least one or two hard boiled eggs per person, for the Easter Brunch.  One of the hard boiled eggs is peeled, as it will be cut to as many pieces as there are attendees to the Easter Brunch, and shared with everyone, accompanied by salt and horseradish.

Wishing you a Happy and Blessed Easter!!

Red Beets are not a very popular vegetable, but they have moved up a couple of notches during the past year.

There are many ways to use red beets, but for the Eastern European cooks, the ever famous Red Beet Borscht is one of the more popular dishes prepared from red beets.  Red beets salads are very often used as a side dish with the main course meal, in many Polish and Ukrainian restaurants.

Red Beets Vinaigrette (Burachky – in Ukrainian, or Cwikla – in Polish) is also a very popular way of preparing red beets, and one of the “must have” foods for the Easter Basket Blessing for Easter Brunch.  Horseradish with red beets is also part of the Seder meal at Passover.

For those of you who do not care much for this vegetable, the Red Beets Vinaigrette might be the way to win you over.

Here is  my recipe for Red Beets Vinaigrette, I prepare for my Easter Basket.

Ingredients:

• 3 Red Beets, medium size (size of an apple)
• 3 Tbs White Vinegar
• ¼ tsp Sugar
• 3 tsp Prepared Horseradish (or you can grate some fresh horseradish root)
• Pinch of Salt

Directions:

1. Rinse the beets, trim off  and discard, the stems, leaves, and the thin roots.
2. Place beets in a medium size pot, fill with cold water (enough water to extend a couple of inches above beets).
3. Bring to boil, and cook until beets are soft when tested with a fork or toothpick (about 20 minutes).
4. Drain off the water, and let beets cool off.
5. Peel the beets (the skin will very easily slide off).
6. Grate on a fine grater.
7. Mix in the remaining ingredients.
8. Cover and refrigerate overnight (suitable for storage for a week or so).

Tip:  If you like a more piquant taste, you may add more horseradish, and more vinegar.

It’s time to start getting my garden ready for winter…summer is almost over…so, I am using up all the veggies which are ready at this time.

I do not can any of my vegetables, but I do freeze parsley, dill, basil and sorrel.

I tried freezing chives last year, but the process changed their taste more than I cared for.

Today, I pulled out few red beets, to free up some space for the other ones.

I use beets in soups, borscht, and salads.

Today I will share a recipe for a delicious red beet salad.

Even if you never were a big fan of red beets, you should give this one a try, and I am sure you will LOVE it.

I had this salad at my friend’s house, and could not believe that red beets were the main ingredient, since all the other flavors  added a very unique taste, and texture to this salad.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 small red beets, cooked and grated on a large eye grater (1 cup)
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced ( I love my garlic chopper)
• 1 Tbs red wine vinegar
• 1 Tbs mayonnaise (or Greek Yogurt) see TIP below
• 1 Tbs sour cream
• 3 pitted prunes (or  1 Tbs raisins), coarsely chopped
• 1 Tbs walnuts, coarsely chopped
• 1/3 tsp black pepper
• Pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Trim off leaves and roots from beets.
2. Rinse under running water.
3. Place beets in a pot, and fill the pot 3/4 full with cold water.
4. Bring to boil, cover, and cook until beets are soft (about 45 minutes).
5. Drain water, and let beets cool down.
6. Scrape off their skin, and trim any rough spots.
7. Rinse.
8. Shred on a grater with large eyes, or in a food processor.
9. Mix in all remaining ingredients.
10. You may serve the salad immediately, or cover and refrigerate for an hour, or overnight, for the flavors to blend.

TIP: If you plan to use Greek Yogurt rather than mayonnaise, you might want to use a little less of the wine

vinegar, depending on your own taste.

If you have been following my posts, you already know that one of my hobbies is gardening.

The growing season is over, but my organic garden is still supplying me with some of the herbs and vegetables.

One of these vegetables still in supply, is a red beet.  Not everyone likes red beets, but my family and I happen to like red beets, and I either cook borscht from beets, or make vinaigrette salads.  Actually red beet borscht is one of the main meatless courses at a Traditional Ukrainian Christmas Eve dinner.

I will post my red beet recipes in future posts, but this time I would like to tell you a little bit about the health benefits of this vegetable.  You may not have been very fond of red beets before, but you might reconsider, once you are aware of its health benefits.

• Red beets are high in carbohydrates and low in fat and it is an excellent source of folic acid

• It is loaded with antioxidant that helps the body against heart disease, certain cancer especially colon cancer

• It is believed that red beets, when eaten regularly, may help against certain oxidative stress-related disorders

• The fiber in red beets helps to reduce serum cholesterol by 30-40%, and help in normalizing blood pressure

• The iron content in red beets is of a very fine quality and it makes a powerful cleanser and builder of blood

• It contains folic acid, thus recommended to be consumed by pregnant women, to lower the risk of spina befida and other neural tube defects in newborns

• Red beet juice stimulates the function of liver cells and protects the liver and bile ducts

• A mixture of red beet juice and carrot juice is an excellent aid in healing gout, kidney, and gall bladder problems

Even though most of the health benefits from consuming red beets is from the root of the plant, the leaves and stems should also be consumed, since these contain such nutrients as: beta-carotene, folic acid, chlorophyll, potassium, iron and vitamin C.

So, if you were not so fond of red beets before, are you ready to give it a try now?

You have nothing to lose, and lots of healthful stuff to gain.

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.

With all the frequent rain showers we experienced lately in our area, my garden is in its glory, and thriving.

If you love gardening, as I do, you will agree that no matter how much, and how often, you water your garden, it does not measure up to one good rain fall, and the plants just seem to grow in front of your eyes soon afterward.

This season’s  harvest already began in my garden, and, with great pleasure, I was able to pick some baby red beets, dill, chives, summer squash, zucchini, green beans, and basil.

My raspberries produced about a pint of fruit this year, and today I was able to pick a few blueberries already.  I am very excited about having fresh berries and herbs from my garden, and to share them with my granddaughter.

Don’t you just love the freshness of these veggies and fruits…..and best of all….I know these have not been sprayed with any chemicals.

Tip: If  you wonder what can one  do with red beet leaves, I have a recipe coming up in my future posts.