Cold classic borscht with boiled beets and tops

Step-by-step preparation

Cooking time: 1 hr 20 mins

1. STEP 1

   

   How to make cold borscht? Prepare the necessary ingredients for the dish. For borscht you need young fresh beets with lush tops. If you do not grow one yourself, you can usually buy such beets at the market in the second half of summer.

2. STEP 2

   

   Separate the beet tops from the root vegetables. Remove withered and limp leaves. Peel the beets, cut each vegetable into 4 parts.

3. STEP 3

   

   Place the quarters in a saucepan, add 800 ml of water and boil for about 25-35 minutes depending on the size of the beets. Check the readiness of the beets with a knife or skewer. Cook beets in a steel pan; in no case should you use white enamel pans, as the beets will quickly turn them pink.

4. STEP 4

   

   Boil the potatoes in their skins until tender, peel them and grate them or cut them into small cubes.

5. STEP 5

   

   Boil the eggs hard, cool, peel, cut into small cubes or grate on a fine grater.

6. STEP 6

   

   Also grate the cucumbers on a fine grater or cut into small cubes. The skin, if it is not rough, damaged or bitter, does not need to be cut off.

7. STEP 7

   

   Remove the finished beets from the broth.

8. STEP 8

   

   Wash the beet tops thoroughly, shake off the water and dip them in the hot broth left after cooking the beets and let stand for 5-7 minutes. This is not necessary, especially if the tops consist of young and small leaves. My leaves were very large and harsh, so they needed to be softened. Then remove the tops from the broth and shake. You can put the leaves not in the broth, but pour boiling water over them separately.

9. STEP 9

   

   Finely chop the beet tops and dill.

10. STEP 10

    

    Cool the beet broth.

11. STEP 11

    

    Meanwhile, grate the boiled beets using a fine or medium grater.

12. STEP 12

    

    Combine prepared vegetables, eggs and herbs in a metal pan.

13. STEP 13

    

    Salt everything to taste.

14. STEP 14

    

    Pour the cooled beet broth into the vegetables. Mix everything carefully and put in the refrigerator for 25-30 minutes. Taste the dish for salt and add more salt if necessary. Instead of beet broth, you can use kefir or a mixture of kefir with beet broth, then you will get cold borscht with kefir

15. STEP 15

    

    Pour the finished borscht into plates, adding a slice of lemon to each. Better yet, squeeze the juice from the lemon directly onto the plate. Alternatively, instead of lemon, you can put halves of a cut boiled egg and season with sour cream. Bon appetit!

Comments on the recipe

tatyanochka2022

03.08.2023

4.7

Today was a hot day, so for the first course I made cold classic borscht with boiled beets and tops. I took one beet - a large one, boiled it, let it cool and grated it on a coarse grater. I dipped the tops - some of the softest, youngest leaves - into the hot beet broth for 5 minutes, having previously removed the hard veins. I chopped it up and added it to the greens. My potatoes were medium sized. After boiling it, I cut it into small cubes, and also chopped eggs and cucumbers. I seasoned the borscht with cold beetroot broth (I kept it in the refrigerator after it had cooled). Instead of lemon I used citric acid, it gave a pleasant sourness. I also put mayonnaise in the borscht, added salt and sugar, just like in okroshka. It turned out great! Borscht, in general, is one of my favorite dishes, and cold borscht turned out not only tasty, but also original! It also turned out to be very light and refreshing, which is very important in the hot weather. Thank you very much for the recipe!