Borscht Soup Recipe | Traditional Beet & Cabbage Soup from Scratch
This traditional borscht soup recipe is packed with beets, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, and fresh dill for a hearty, nourishing meal. Easy to customize with vegetables from your garden or add beef, pork, or sausage for an even heartier soup. It's budget-friendly, freezer-friendly, and perfect for preserving the harvest. Save this classic Eastern European recipe for cozy dinners all year long!
Servings: 6 servings
Calories: 119kcal
Cost: varies
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
- ½ 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
Ingredient Substitutions:
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- Butter - The traditional recipe calls for butter, but you could use olive, avocado, or coconut oil if you need a dairy-free option.
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- 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.
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- 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.
- Grating only half the beets gives the broth a beautiful color while keeping plenty of hearty chunks throughout the soup.
- Fresh dill makes a noticeable difference in flavor, so use it whenever possible.
- Homemade bone broth creates a richer, more nourishing soup.
- Like many soups and stews, the flavor develops even more after resting overnight in the refrigerator.
- Taste before serving and adjust the seasoning with additional salt, pepper, or dill if needed.
Nutrition
Serving: 1.5cup | Calories: 119kcal | Carbohydrates: 23g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 5mg | Sodium: 138mg | Potassium: 747mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 10g | Vitamin A: 2564IU | Vitamin C: 29mg | Calcium: 81mg | Iron: 2mg
