You don’t have to be an experienced cook to make this easy and frugal traditional borscht recipe (aka beet and cabbage soup). This recipe is so versatile, which is great for using up leftover veggies or whatever produce is growing in the garden. Whether you choose the vegetarian version served alongside a loaf of homemade artisan bread or add beef, pork, or sausage, it’s equally delicious.
This recipe is from my friend Anna at The House and Homestead. Anna says, “I come from good Ukrainian stock. I know this because my mother never lets me forget it. I’m reminded at every family gathering, at every communal meal, and pretty much every other chance my mother gets to tell me (or anyone else).”
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Frugal – Like Anna, I love to glean wisdom on living frugally from generations past. One of my favorite resources is historical recipes. There is something very special about sorting through Grandma’s old recipe cards and continuing her legacy of resourceful living. When working with a tight budget, soups come to the rescue. They incorporate all kinds of odds and ends from the garden and pantry, making sure nothing goes to waste.
- Easy – I love a basic recipe that’s easy to make. This one is no exception! Some of my other favorite easy soup recipes are my from-scratch tomato soup, simple old-fashioned ham and bean soup, Great-Grandma’s fish stew, this delicious slow cooker cream of broccoli soup, and, of course, hearty beef stew.
- Versatile – I love that this recipe is customizable for whatever you have in your refrigerator (or growing in the garden). This hearty soup is as rich in flavor as it is in color. It makes an impressive presentation at the table as a precursor to a larger meal or as a stand-alone dish.
What Is Borscht
Originating in Eastern Europe, borscht is a deep, ruby-colored beet-based soup that incorporates whatever else is growing in your garden to create a hearty, healthy meal. It’s a great tool to stretch your food budget and weekly meals just a little bit further.
Every home should have a Borscht recipe, regardless of whether you’re Ukrainian or not. This traditional Ukrainian soup combines the earthiness of beets with the freshness of dill and other vegetables.
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Ingredients
A full ingredients list, including measurements, can be found in the printable recipe card below.
- Diced Tomatoes – These can be a large, 28-oz can of commercially prepared or a one-quart jar of home-canned tomatoes.
- Beets – Choose 2 or 3 medium to large-sized peeled beets. Grate half and dice the other half for the best texture and color.
- Fresh Dill Weed – Traditional Ukrainian borscht uses fresh dill, but 2 ½ Tablespoons of dried dill can be used in a pinch.
Variations & Substitutions
Anna’s mother always made vegetarian borscht, but the beauty of this soup is that you can pretty much throw in whatever you have on hand to make use of fresh ingredients and make your meals really stretch.
- Butter – The traditional recipe calls for butter, but you could use olive, avocado or coconut oil if you need a dairy-free option.
- Water – For a vegetarian version, you can use water or vegetable broth, but beef or chicken bone broth can also be used for a deeper flavor profile. I pressure-can homemade chicken broth, so that’s usually what I have on hand.
- Optional Ingredients – You can add in bay leaves, green beans, peas, beet greens and shredded pork or pork sausage as desired. With hungry guys in my house, we usually opt to add in pork from our home-raised American Guinea Hogs.
How to Make a Traditional Borscht Recipe
Step 1: Sauté the onions, celery and cabbage with the butter until soft and translucent.
Step 2: Add the can of diced tomatoes and the garlic, as well as all of the water or broth.
Step 3: Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce to medium heat and let simmer.
Step 4: Peel the beets, carrots and potatoes. Dice half the beets and carrots and grate the other half. Dice the potato.
Step 5: Add the beets, carrots and potatoes to the broth. If you would like to add any other optional vegetables ( beans, peas, beet greens, etc.), do so now.
Step 6: Allow the soup to simmer on medium until the diced beets and potatoes are soft (test them with a fork or by biting into them!), about 15 minutes. Remove the soup from the heat and stir in chopped fresh dill weed and salt, and black pepper.
Step 7: Serve soup hot with a dollop of sour cream or homemade yogurt and a slice of homemade bread and butter (this Artisan bread or rye bread is equally amazing!).
Storing and Reheating Instructions
Borscht will freeze exceptionally well, and it’s a great way to use up all sorts of late summer and fall vegetables from your garden that you might not think to combine otherwise (like tomatoes, carrots, beets and dill).
To freeze, allow your soup to cool completely and transfer to an airtight container. (You’ll need to leave an inch or two for expansion.) Freeze for up to three months.
When you’re ready to enjoy, defrost the borscht in the refrigerator overnight and gently reheat it on the stovetop over low heat.
FAQs
Traditional Ukrainian borscht starts with beets for its red color and sweet taste (learn how to grow beets here). It also includes cabbage, carrots, and onions. Sometimes, meat or sausage is added. For a veggie version, mushrooms or plant-based proteins can replace the meat.
Borscht comes from Eastern Europe, with versions in Russia, Poland, and Ukraine. Regarding the debate of whether Borscht is Ukrainian or Russian, it’s believed to originate from Ukraine; however, Russia now has its own similar version of this traditional dish.
For a hearty dinner, I add pork sausage to the borscht recipe and top it with a dollop of sour cream, more fresh dill and sometimes even a hard-boiled egg. Then, I serve it alongside homemade artisan bread slathered in butter.
Other Posts You May Enjoy
- How to Make Bone Broth
- How to Can Bone Broth
- Slow Cooker Cream of Broccoli and Ham Soup
- Bean and Ham Soup Recipe
- Old-fashioned Beef Stew Recipe – Instant Pot or Slow Cooker
- Homemade Tomato Soup (From the Pantry)
Did you make this recipe? If so, please leave a star ⭐ rating and your comments in the recipe card below (this really helps me out)… then, snap a photo and tag me on social media @melissaknorris so I can see! I love getting a glimpse of what you all make in your kitchens.
Traditional Borscht Recipe
Equipment
- Soup Pot
- Kitchen Utensils knife, cutting board, etc.
Ingredients
- 1 cup celery diced
- 1 cup onions diced
- 1 cup cabbage chopped
- 2 cloves garlic grated or pressed
- 1 Tablespoon of butter for sautéing onions and celery
- 8 cups water or beef broth/chicken broth
- 1 can diced tomatoes 1 quart home-canned or a 28-oz can of store-bought
- 2 large beets or 3 medium beets, half grated and half diced
- 1 large carrots or 2 medium, grated
- 1 medium potato diced
- 1/2 cup fresh dill weed
- salt and pepper to taste I love Redmond Real Salt. Use code “Pioneering” for 15% off
- bay leaf optional
Instructions
- Sauté the onions, celery and cabbage with the butter until soft and translucent.
- Add the can of diced tomatoes and the garlic, as well as all of the water or broth.
- Bring to a boil over medium high heat, then reduce to medium heat and let simmer.
- Peel the beets, carrots and potato.
- Dice half the beets and grate the other half.
- Grate all the carrots.
- Dice the potato.
- Add the beets, carrots and potato to the broth. If you would like to add any other optional vegetables (ie. beans, peas, beet greens, etc.) do so now.
- Allow soup to simmer on medium until diced beets and potatoes are soft (test them with a fork or by biting into them!), about 15 minutes. Remove soup from heat.
- Stir in chopped fresh dill weed and salt and black pepper.
- Serve hot with a dollop of sour cream and a slice of bread and butter (rye bread is best!)
Notes
- Butter – The traditional recipe calls for butter, but you could use olive, avocado or coconut oil if you need a dairy-free option.
- Water – For a vegetarian version, you can use water or vegetable broth, but beef or chicken bone broth can also be used for a deeper flavor profile. I pressure-can homemade chicken broth, so that’s usually what I have on hand.
- Optional Ingredients – You can add in bay leaves, green beans, peas, beet greens and shredded pork or pork sausage as desired. With hungry guys in my house, we usually opt to add in pork from our home-raised American Guinea Hogs.
I just made this soup I used packaged beef bone broth & added a red chilli , tastes pretty good
Do you have a suggestion for substituting tomatoes. Is there something I can add in its place and would it still be good?
We bought a container of borscht on Amazon and added:
1. beef broth
2. some string beans
3. diced, fried sausage
4. diced garlic
Should be good!
An AMAZING soup addition is to use Pork SpareRibs, and Pork Hock to start your soup for the bone broth, and the meat addition. Simmer on low heat for the first 1/2 hour and skim the foam from the bones out of the stock before adding other ingredients!
I absolutely love this recipe! I made it using the 3x portioned ingredients.
My dad and I used to make this soup when I was younger, but when he got sick, I couldn’t find the recipe to make it. This one tastes exactly how I remember it!
I have a question. I had a lady from Ukraine that cooked borscht and she added at the end mayonnaise but she also told me sour cream its better. In your recipe is it different because its from a different part of Ukraine?
Hi Melissa! I have your new preserving book but this recipe isn’t in there. Can I pressure can this for the same time as your veggie soup recipe? Omitting the cabbage of course.
Thanks!
No, because you can’t can pureed beets.
If you cook them long enough before you skin them, put them in a blender and they will be pureed. Easy peasy.
This is a very good recipe and I make it for my Ukrainian friend and she loves it! She told me also that she eats this soup cold on hot days in the summertime.
It’s offensive to Ukrainians to refer to our country as “the” Ukraine – it’s not a territory – that is Russian propaganda. Ukraine was, is and shall be a proud independent country. UNESCO, the UN’s cultural agency, has registered “Ukrainian borscht,” the beet-based soup, as part of Ukraine’s “intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent safeguarding,” a move that Ukraine’s culture minister lauded as “victory in the borscht war.”
🙏
Delicious!!!I first had Borscht at 9 y.o..Thought I ‘d have to fake liking it…I LOVED IT!!Now my 21 y.o.sin gets to enjoy this AMAZING borscht Thank you! P.s.I love that it is rich in iron and so healthy.
In your recipe, you put the potatoes into the pot after the tomatoes.
In my experience, potato does not cook with tomato – it can stay hard.
Your beets – there are several types.
I assume that yours are what we in Australia and UK call beetroot, and are purple in colour.
This looks great.
One Ukrainian friend sent me a video of her making ‘borsh’ (maybe did not translate well from Russian) and I found this to help me.
I’m a big fan of borscht, but most people serve it as a fall/winter dish, including some that mention it here. Great, yes, but a favorite of mine is to have it in the summer. After it cools, put it in the blender and purée it. Keep it in a pitcher in the refrigerator and serve as a cold soup, or just enjoy a little cold glass of it. (I won’t mention that a bit of vodka in it makes a different spin on a Bloody Mary! Oops, I did)
I made 3x the recipe for a group of 21 women who loved it.
I added kielbasa. We topped the bowls with sour cream.
The soup was cheered to express our support for Ukraine during this time of the Russian invasionl
good
Enjoyed all your information re: borscht history, etc. My 4 grand parents came from the Ukraine (about 1900) . My Mother and Aunts made borscht but a little different from your recipe. As you said, they used what they had.
I make it vegetarian. Several other ethnic foods my Mom made but I would have no way of spelling them.
Great Recipe, thanks for sharing 🙂
Hi, Thanks for sharing this authentic ukranian borscht recipe. I made two large pots and shared with a neighbour! Namaste 🙂
We always add slices of boiled egg ,which I find yummy but that is my Grandma’s Ukrainian version .Love Borscht
You don’t put celery into borscht.
you use what you have.
Seems like a great recipe!
My Ukrainian great-grandmother used to add parsnips and some salo to borshch, too. I never tried adding salo to borshch, but parsnips do add great flavor. They are difficult to find in modern times, though.
Today I’m making Rabbit Borscht. My husband’s family is Ukrainian and 1/2 of family is Eastern European. I’ve made borscht for years…we usually use a beef roast for base, lots of beets and the fresh green tops. We take the potatoes and boil, then saute with butter and lots of dill. We also used Sour Salt…hard to find, so today I’m going to try the apple cider vinegar. I’m going to cut up the rabbit (from a friend’s family who raises meat rabbits), brown and then add everything into an electric pressure cooker. What’s great about borscht is that if you don’t have something like cabbage, you can still make it…Thanks for your recipe! I’m going to follow as much as possible and let you know how it all comes out tonight!
Omg—when my grandmother made this she used sour salt (otherwise known as citric salt). We ate it cold with sour cream and a hot boiled potato in each dish.
My family has Ukrainian friends who introduced us to Borscht when we visited more than 15 years ago. It’s one of my favorite cold-weather meals and always reminds me of warm hugs.
This borscht recipe is very authentic and exactly how my parents make it. They always make it vegetarian as this is how they made it in Ukraine. I am very proud of my Ukrainian heritage!
I didn’t think I liked borscht but this was really good. My husband thanks you.
If you want to intensify the beet flavour, roast 2-3 beets wrapped in foil at 375 for about hour. Once cooled, grate or chop and add near the end after the potatoes are cooked through. add some Red wine vinegar. This is the way my mom and baba made it…
I found your explanation of Borsht and your general explanation of Ukrainian food and its sensibility 100% relatable. It’s as if I wrote it myself.
Although I’m the American daughter of immigrants, Ukrainian pride was instilled in me from birth. We are strong, resourceful, and food is an expression of love and the source of comfort. I’m so proud of my heritage!
Um… Where’s the recipe? I’ve made this before and love, but now the recipe space is just filled with an ad. Was hoping to make this tonight, but I guess I’ll to wing it.
We just updated the website and it took a little time to get the recipe cards up, but it’s there now!
Thanks so much, Melissa! I’m glad to see it back up there and updated. Guess I just had bad timing. But I think I remembered it pretty well, lol!
This is a great recipe! I used beef tenderloin sauteed first in a little olive oil salt and pepper to brown then removed and followed the rest of the recipe, added the beef back in after the onions and cabbage had sauteed. I added two bunches of beet greens, one bunch kale, green beans and it turned out perfectly. I now have a big pot to separate and freeze meals for later. Thanks for this great find.
I’m not Ukrainian .. but if I could choose to be, I would ! Love the Ukrainian people and their culture. I notice they haven’t needed govt funding to practice their culture either ! Very touching to see the multi generational dancing. I make borscht every summer now after my friend showed my the frying pan / boiling pot method many years ago 🙂
Tried your recipe. It was excellent!! It so reminded me of being with my grandma. Thank you for sharing.
Hi there, thank you for this recipe. I barely know what borscht is but had a ton of beets and cabbage. Made this recipe and it’s amazing! I didn’t have any potato so I added peas. Wish I had fresh dill but it still works well without! I also threw in one spoonful of vinegar. Did not think I’d be into beet soup but I am really happy with how this turned out. Thank you!
I lived in Ukraine for a year and always looked forward to my host mother, Galina, making borscht on a weekly basis. Some recipes for the soup were so intimidating that I psyched myself into not trying to recreate this favorite. Literally fifteen years later, I finally tried it, thanks to this recipe. Borscht always requires a few steps with all the vegetable-chopping, but this recipe made the process more accessible. My host mom always add beef stew-chunks, so I incorporated those into the soup. I have now made it twice and my kids and husband really enjoy it. Thank you so much!
Any idea how many cups this recipe makes?
Hi Amy,
Ya know, I’ve never measured it out exactly and when I asked my mother she wasn’t even sure! But my best estimate would be about 12 cups or so, give or take. It also depends on your preferences and if you want to add an extra beet or handful of veggies, etc. But I would guess it’s around 12 cups in the end.
Thanks for this wonderful recipe. I’ve been making borscht for years, using a variety of recipes and this is, by far, the best I’ve tried. I added a little bit of left-over meatloaf that I had in the fridge and used plain yogurt instead of sour cream. Your borscht will become a staple in our household.
Quick question: does this recipe freeze well? Any tips for freezing?
Yes! I freeze it in Ziploc bags. Flavor unchanged!
Hi Anna,
Thanks for posting this recipe and the stories. My fiance is Ukrainian and is still there. I just got back home from Kharkiv, and I fell in love with Ukraine. My family roots are Balkan, and I felt strangely at home there.
I wanted to ask, where are you homesteading?
Thanks again for the recipe. I Aldo AM going to make Okroshka and want to surprise Ira with my culinary acumen. 🙂
Dave
Thank you, have been making borscht this time of year for the past few seasons. Am in full agreement with the frugality of using what’s at hand. Like the old world, Ukrainian references, and making do. The way many people have had to. And I love borscht topped with sour cream!
Tried making borscht for the first time yesterday and this recipe came out great. Thank you for sharing.
Coming from a Ukrainian family, we ate borscht all the time. It was never my favorite soup. When I made your recipe, I LOVED it and I make it all the time. Thanks so very much.
Red or green cabbage?
Green cabbage. Beet greens are great too, if buying beets with the tops.
My Baba and my mother always made borscht with just potatoes,onions,peas and dill and of course beets and then they would put whipping cream into your soup before serving by just bringing it to a boil I find that it is much better than adding sour cream or yogurt. Its heavenly.
Making a huge pot of this for my freezer. Snow is on the ground and more is expected this week, so I went hunting for a recipe that looked like what my mom made, growing up. Can’t wait to get this on the stove! Question…is there a preferred type of potato for this?
Thank you! I grew “too many” beets and carrots and your recipe was helpful and liberating. We are having borscht tonight thanks to your mom. I hope you can tell her thank you for me.
I’ve eaten Borscht many times and it is actually originally from russian jews/hebrews who made it for Pesach/Passover and also for Sukkot. As a Nazrine, we usually serve it up right after the “communion” where we tear the unleavened bread and blessing it as our Messiah did.
You are incorrect. Borscht origins were Ukrainian or from what is now Ukraine and spread from there.
You are incorrect (somewhat) also while he was correct (somewhat). It did originate in that area, by the Jews and others, in Ukraine.
What? You did not know that there were Jews in Ukraine???
Hi there. Just wondering how you would incorporate the ground pork or pork sausage into your borscht soup recipe? I don’t see any mention of quantity and also may I ask how much soup does your recipe make? I may double up and make a double or triple batch and portion it all out and freeze.
Ok thanks for any help and tips that you may have. God bless you from Sk Canada
Sha
In Ukraine, when they add the meat, it is cooked separately like in a slow cooker and then added at the end for those who want meat. If you want to add while cooking, you can dice up some pork pieces and brown them in the pot first then continue on its the recipe. Not quantity specific. As little or as much as you want or have on hand.
Melissa,
Love your site and articles. Could you please add a PDF of your we pages and articles. I don’t want to miss a thing but there are times I don’t get to get on the puter for days at a time the PDF would help me keep up and I would bet a bunch of others.
Keep up the excellent work and God Bless my friend.
enjoyed your comments
am interested in the canning and freezing methods
In canning , even with new sealing tops I frequently get lost a leaky seal and then fungus ..can you help ?
Looks so delicious. With the ugly weather outside, I can’t think of anything better than a big pot of borscht.
We’re supposed to get snow tomorrow and I might have to dig up a few of the beets left in the ground to make a pot!
Thanks for the great recipe for borscht. I have my mom’s yellowed, splattered, 3×5 card for hers, but this one adds fresh dill – looks delicious! One suggestion for a lower fat version – use plain yogurt to top instead of sour cream – is that a sacrilege? Hope not, because it’s really good that way.
Snowing again – guess it’s time to make a pot of soup…mmmmmm!
Hi Christie, I often use plain yogurt in place of sour cream mainly because I always have yogurt, not the case with sour cream. 🙂
Christie I often use yogurt (shhh! Don’t tell my mom!). I think it’s sacrilege in her eyes, but not mine! I often have Greek Yogurt in my fridge which makes the perfect substitute. The soup could always be eaten without sour cream (and bread and butter) for a really low-fat version, but I have to admit it wouldn’t be quite as good;)
lol, Anna I love this, I”m the same with cornbread, my Grandmother would skin me for using yellow corn instead of white.
Right? What they don’t know can’t hurt them;)
I always add a half cup of apple cider vinegar.
John – My Baba would always add vinegar as well, and never put in potatoes. Then it would can beautifully.