Vegetarian Borscht

While beet soup (Eastern European Borscht) is sometimes made with beef broth/stock, this one is made with a veggie broth.  And, since I didn’t have the regular purple beets in my fridge, the color on this one will not be the intense purple you might be used to, but it will be the red of the tomato sauce.  Never the matter — use the beets you desire!

Borscht, served with sour cream. Add fresh shredded parsley for even more interest.

This week, I’m co-hosting Angie’s Fiesta Friday 119 with  Ahila @ A Taste of Sri Lankan Cuisine.  If you are not sure what a link party is, it’s a way to network with people of common interest — in this case, tasty home-made food and recipes — and if you blog yourself, it’s a way to increase interested visitors dropping by,  who are curious about new foods — just as you’ll likely be curious about their creations!  I’ve found some great chefs and cooks to Follow this way.

At any rate, check out Fiesta Friday!

A bunch of veggies — note golden beets and what I call “target” beets!

Anyhow, what I like about this recipe is you can prep up everything except the cabbage fairly quickly, toss it in the slow cooker, head to work, and come home, finish up the cabbage slicing, toss that in, and a half hour later, you are ready to eat.

To the veggies, add the tomato sauce and broth (and spices), and just stir around a bit before leaving the slow cooker to do its thing.

Green/white cabbage, or red/purple cabbage — again, what was to hand! (But I did finally get the purple in!!!)

Prep time:  30 minutes total
Cook time: 7-8.5 hours in a crock pot
Rest time: Naw.
Serves:   4 bowls, probably 7-8 cups. 

Borscht

• 4-5 medium beets, any type.  Skin and chop coarsely
• 4 ounces sliced carrot
• 4 ounces celery stalk, chopped coarsely
• 1 bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 onion, preferably large, peeled and halved
• 12 ounce can or jar of tomato sauce
• 2  cups veggie broth, low sodium
• 1 teaspoon smoked ground paprika
• salt and pepper to taste (I didn’t add any salt)
• 2-3 cups cabbage, sliced thin and then diced.  Red or white.
• 2 tablespoons vinegar
• for optional garnish:  a dollop of sour cream, and/or several sprigs of fresh parsley, to be plated into the individual bowls.

Combine all the ingredients up through the “salt and pepper to taste” in a crock pot.  Set the timer for 6 to 8 hours on LOW — I used 8 hours, and then go away or whatever.  Ten hours later I came back from work,and my crock pot was in “warm” mode.

Using an immersion blender (or you can use your food processor, but I find that messier if I have to do that), blend the cooked ingredients as far as you prefer.  I didn’t want a full puree, so I stopped before that.

Add the cabbage and vinegar, and stir a bit.

Allow to cook in the crock pot another 30 minutes, on HIGH this time.

Remove and serve, adding a dollop of sour cream if you do dairy, and perhaps some fresh parsley (which I didn’t have to hand).  Eat, enjoy!

Here, the borscht has been pureed to semi-chunky, then the cabbage and vinegar were added. The slow cooker ran another 30 minutes after this.

This dish stores well in the fridge, and re-heats fine in the microwave.  Or heated back up on the range, if you’d prefer.

 

 

 

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