I have an old Mennonite cookbook from my mother’s collection that I use quite a bit. If you’ve never tried a good, old fashioned borscht, then you have been missing out on one of the best meals in a bowl there is.
This recipe is a compilation of several traditional Mennonite recipes. The nice thing about borscht is that you can change it around to suit what you have on hand, and it always works out.
Borscht
- 2 quarts water
- 2 lbs soup bone (pork preferred). I just use a pork butt steak.
Slow cook over night. Remove bones, cool, remove fat. I take out the steak, remove the fat, chop up the meat fine, and put back into the stock. Or just skip this whole section and just add a half lb or so of extra lean ground beef to a couple of boxes of fat-free beef broth into your slow cooker.
Into the de-fatted stock, add:
- 5-6 nice sized beets, pealed and sliced into thin strips
- 2 carrots, diced
- ½ medium green cabbage, sliced and chopped
- 2 medium potatoes, cubed
- 1 medium onion, chopped fine
- 1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
- A handful or so of dried beans (optional)
- 1 bay leaf
- A sprig of dill
- Some chopped fresh parsley
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 ½ tsp allspice
Slow cook it all for 8 hours on low heat setting. Add more water if it needs it. Serve with a dollop of fat-free sour cream.