After several requests for my borscht recipe, here it is. Ukrainian Borscht… everyone knows what it is and many people around the world have fallen in love with this iconic beet soup.
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I love the deep ruby color of this borsch! It’s so healthy and nutritious; packed with beans (protein), beets (iron), carrots (carotene), potatoes (vit C, potassium, Vit B6), oftentimes cabbage is added (vit K, vit C, fiber, etc…). It feels so good serving this to my family.
Our Family’s Borscht Recipe (Beet Soup)
This is our family’s version of classic borsch and it’s one of the two soups my children absolutely love (Mom’s Meatball Soup being the second). Borscht is definitely on the regular rotation at our house!
This version keeps better because it is a meatless version but doesn’t lack in flavor because it uses good quality chicken broth.
Ingredients for Classic Ukrainian Borsch:
It’s best to have all of the ingredients prepped and ready to go which makes this soup super easy and care free. Start by peeling, grating, chopping, slicing and dicing all of the vegetables for borscht.
Once your potatoes are peeled and sliced, transfer them to a bowl of cold water to keep them from discoloring until ready for use.
Note on Using Cabbage:
We used to add cabbage but our children prefer it without so for years now we’ve been making it just like this without cabbage. If you prefer cabbage, add 1/4 to 1/2 small head of cabbage, thinly shredded, adding it when the potatoes are halfway cooked.
How to Peel and Cut Beets:
- Use gloves when handling beets or your fingertips will stain red for a couple of days.
- To peel beets, use a simple potato peeler like this one.
- You can slice the beets into matchsticks but it is way way easier to grate and children don’t mind the texture of grated beets. We love our food processor for this task as it grates more coarsely than on a hand grater so the beets still have some texture. It also keeps the counter and your hands clean (beat juice can be a pain to get out of clothing and porous surfaces).
How to Remove Beet Stains:
When you eat borscht often, you learn quickly to pace a napkin in your lap and bibs on children. If you do get beet juice on your clothes, address the stain right away.
- Use a paper-towel to blot off any excess juice.
- Run cold water over the opposite/under side of the fabric to push the stain out.
- If the stain persists, apply a stain removing agent (I have found that dish soap works well in a pinch) and launder clothing as usual.
Watch Natasha Make Classic Borscht:
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Classic Borscht Recipe (Beet Soup)
Ingredients
For Borscht:
- 3 medium beets, peeled and grated
- 4 Tbsp olive oil, divided
- 8 cups chicken broth , + 2 cups water
- 3 medium yukon potatoes, peeled and sliced into bite-sized pieces
- 2 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
For Zazharka (Mirepoix):
- 2 celery ribs, trimmed and finely chopped
- 1 small red bell pepper, finely chopped, optional
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 4 Tbsp ketchup or 3 Tbsp tomato sauce
Additional Flavorings:
- 1 can white cannelini beans with their juice
- 2 bay leaves
- 2-3 Tbsp white vinegar, or to taste
- 1 tsp sea salt, or to taste
- 1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
- 1 large garlic clove, pressed
- 3 Tbsp chopped dill
Instructions
- Peel, grate and/or slice all vegetables (keeping sliced potatoes in cold water to prevent browning until ready to use then drain).
- Heat a large soup pot (5 1/2 Qt or larger) over medium/high heat and add 2 Tbsp olive oil. Add grated beets and sauté 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until beets are softened.
- Add 8 cups broth and 2 cups water. Add sliced potatoes and sliced carrots then cook for 10-15 minutes or until easily pierced with a fork.
- While potatoes are cooking, place a large skillet over medium/high heat and add 2 Tbsp oil. Add chopped onion, celery and bell pepper. Saute stirring occasionally until softened and lightly golden (7-8 minutes). Add 4 Tbsp Ketchup and stir fry 30 seconds then transfer to the soup pot to continue cooking with the potatoes.
- When potatoes and carrots reach desired softness, add 1 can of beans with their juice, 2 bay leaves, 2-3 Tbsp white vinegar, 1 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp black pepper, 1 pressed garlic clove, and 3 Tbsp chopped dill. Simmer for an additional 2-3 minutes and add more salt and vinegar to taste.
Filed Under
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
So, which camp are you in? Do you love that dollop of sour cream at the end or the flavor that real mayo adds to borscht?
Natasha Kravchuk
Hi! I'm Natasha Kravchuk. Here you'll find delicious, trusted recipes with easy step-by-step photos and videos. 
Can you suggest an alternative to ketchup for those of us who prefer to use non-processed foods? I don’t know about the States, but here in Australia, it’s full of sugar. Can I just add sugar and then some lemon juice for tartness?
Cheerio!
Yes that would work fine as a substitute. You can also use a little tomato paste.
Tomato paste would probably work. Also you could substitute stevia for the sugar to make it healthier.
Here (across the ditch) in GodsOwn, Heinz Watties have a ketchup with 50% less sugar. Maybe they have it in Aussie too.
i love how you tried to name it Ukranian even though original link clearly states correct version of the name 😉
p.s. not a russian just realistic person from USA 🙂
Ha ha, yes, after posting that recipe (6 years ago), it was too late to change the link because it would be broken all over the internet, but I came to find out that the origin of borscht is actually Ukrainian. And, I came to find out there are ALOT of people who are very passionate about that fact. 😉
followed this link for “Krashiy Borscht”. Krasniy is the Russian word for red and also means beautiful. Ukrainian uses the word chervoniiy for red. So the name is Russian- even if the recipe is not.
Ha! Good point! 🙂
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borscht
If you follow this link, the English version of the word borscht, actually comes from Yiddish : “The English word borscht, also spelled borsch, borsht, or bortsch, comes from Yiddish באָרשט. The latter derives from the word борщ, which is common to East Slavic languages, such as Ukrainian or Russian. Together with cognates in other Slavic languages, it comes from Proto-Slavic *bŭrščǐ ‘hogweed’ and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bhr̥sti- < *bhares-/bhores- 'point, stubble'. Common hogweed was the soup's principal ingredient before it was replaced with other ."
I am looking to making this ‘peasant’ soup at the weekend, millions during WW2 cant be wrong!
I would love to hear how it turned out 😀.
Hi Natasha,
I just finished making this soup, love it!
Instead of Kidney beans I used Chick peas!
Dorothy, thank you for the nice review, I’m glad you like it 😃.
We loved this recipe. My wife June said it was “perfect”. We’ve never made borscht before but have always wanted to. We were inspired by this recipe and the fact that our dish was prepared with cabbage and beets taken directly from of our fall garden. We topped ours with creme fraiche which provided a nice taste accent. Thanks so much! We look forward to trying other recipes.
Thank you for sharing that with me :). I’m so happy you both enjoyed it!
Hi Natasha, this one looks so light and refreshing. And the color is so inviting! I was wondering is there a way to omit the onions but still have that onion taste? I have this huge problem with cooked onions and their texture.
Hi Tanya, you could put in the onion just peeled and cut in half and then fish them out and discard before serving the soup; that way you infuse the soup with onion flavor without the onion actually being in there. 🙂
Natasha thanks for the idea.. I sub brussell sprouts instead of cabbage because i didn’t have it and i added some veal shank extract i had saved. it came out pretty good. First time for me with this delicious earthy soup.
Thank you for the nice review and great job improvising the recipe 😁.
I made your soup and I loved it! Couldn’t resist to add a polish touch to it (brown sugar) to make it a little sweeter. Thank you for the recipe 🙂
That’s a great suggestion! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Dear Natasha, We made this version of your borscht last year and loved it! I would like to add beef to it…but still boil the beets as called for here. Any thoughts (or warnings) about merging this version with your Borscht with Beef recipe? Thank you!
I would probably just follow the borsch with beef recipe since that one is based on this one. 🙂 I hope you love it just as much!
5 star recipe i substituted vinegar@ lemon juice made sour beet juice took longer was well worth the flavour the beans were a classic ingredient
I’m so glad you liked it! Thanks John! 🙂
hello natasha i would like to ask if there are any other substitute for beets? I cannot find any beet availabel in the market in our hometown. Im from the Philippines by the way, just wanna try this exquisite soup
HI Deborah, since the base of borsch is beets, there really is not a substitute. Any other vegetable and it would be another kind of soup :). I wish I had another answer for you!
okay thank you very much natasha
Maybe you can get them canned or prepacked? They are not as good as fresh ones but still works. Best of luck with finding it, there is nothing in the world that is as healthy and slimming as bortsch.
We are celebrating our traditional Ukrainian Christmas this weekend and my husband and I are making the borscht. Everyone in the 8 sibling is assigned a portion of the huge meal and tomorrow we get together and make a million perogies. Great fun, lots of work, delicious meal. I am using your recipe along with the family recipe but yours is winning out. I’ll let you know how it works out.
Wow that does sound like alot of fun (and alot of work) but oh so delicious!!! 🙂
Hi Natasha,
Thanks for this wonderful recipe. This is th third time I have tried it but I think the first two times worked best. This time, I feel the kidney beans lacked flavor. It is still cooking so I am hoping they soak in the flavor soon. My family and I have loved this borscht.
I’m so glad you’re loving the recipe! Did you do anything differently this time that you can recall? Thanks for your feedback! It means alot to me 🙂
Hello Natasha, thank you so much for this perfect borsch recipe. I’d tried many recipes off Russian sites before and they’d never worked well while yours is just perfect. I’ve made it twice, with and without beans, and I like both versions. I will be making this borsch again and again! Thank you. Take good care of you and yours.
Kind regards from France.
Hi Olga! You are all the way in France! Wow!! I’m so happy you enjoyed the recipe. Thank you for sharing that with me 🙂
Our whole family–from our eight year old daughter to our 23-year old son!– loved this recipe. It was absolutely perfect. We didn’t have dill, so used parsley instead. I can’t imagine that anyone who didn’t like beets couldn’t be won over by this recipe. We had some biscuits with it, and forgot to put on the sour cream, but there was plenty of richness in the flavor! My son had never had borscht before, but he’ll be sure to make this recipe from now on.
I’m so happy to hear that and thank you for the wonderful review! 🙂
I have never made this dish before today, but I work for an older couple and often make them meals. This was one of the things they asked if I could make, and I had no clue where to start. Of course, I love to cook, and trying new recipes is always fun, but not all recipes you find on the web are worth their salt. THIS recipe on the other hand is spectacular! I sort of combined your recipe with meat and the recipe without. I also made a few adjustments from ideas I saw in the comments section (for instance instead of ketchup, I mixed a diced medium tomato with brown sugar, salt, and white vinegar in with the sauteed carrots and onions.) I also added garlic to the veggies, and sauteed the cabbage too before dropping it in the soup. Thank you so much for the wonderful recipe, and even though I improvised a little, I would have been totally lost without it! So delicious, 5 stars for sure!
I am so happy you loved! Thank you for such a wonderful and thoughtful review. I am all smiles! 🙂
I, too seriously appreciate the time and effort you put into making such a perfect blog. I myself am of Eatern European descent but my great grand-mother was the only one who really knew how to cook like this. Sadly, I never met her.:( But I always wanted to cook well from scratch, and I’m happy to find recipes to help me keep a part of her in mind. Thanks ever so much for sharing!
-Stan
You are welcome Stan and I hope you’ll find lots of new favorites on the site 😀 .
Natashka,
I just wanted to say that I’m SO glad I found your blog! I myself am a Russian-Ukrainian. I didn’t grow up cooking all the classic Russian/ Ukrainian dishes (I’m only 17) because my mom never really forced me to watch her cook. I was worried I’d grow up without the knowledge of a true Russian woman, but finding your blog has given me hope 🙂 Your blog is amazing!!!!!!!! Love it love it love.
Lina, thank you for your sweet comment☺️. I hope that you’ll find lots of favorites on the site.
This recipe is fantastic. All my hubby could say is “this is soooo good”. He had three large bowls full. Yesterday I made the recipe again and once again he ate to his hearts content. He hasn’t had good borscht soup since his mom died a long time ago. I didn’t change a thing – your recipe is fantastic just the way it is. The soup boullion in your pictures is great to use – I added lots. VERY YUMMY!!! I gave some to my physician as she is Hungarian and I know she will love it as much as we do. Thank you so much…now I will try your other recipes. I want to see what you have for cabbage rolls. Love your web site – you have one lucky hubby – no wonder he is smiling in the photo!!!!
Thank you so much for the awesome review! You’re so nice :-). I enjoyed reading your food story!
Great recipe! I’m not sure how the $5-6 cost was derived; where I am this is about $30. I made an 8x mega-batch and froze it in portions.
I think you’re right, it is more like $6-$8. I can definitely see it getting up to $30 with an 8x mega batch! 🙂