Hot Russian Borscht Soup Recipe
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Once the weather starts cooling off, hot borscht sounds much more appealing to me than the chilled beet (beetroot) soups you see in summer. This Russian borscht soup has a chunky texture, with beets, cabbage, potatoes and kidney beans in chicken broth.
I love beets in soup, especially when there’s enough acidity to balance their natural sweetness. Here, lemon juice gives the broth a nice tang and tomato ketchup contributes some tomato flavor. Dill goes in near the end and you can garnish the soup with sour cream and/or green onions.
Borscht has deep roots in Ukrainian food culture and is also popular throughout Eastern Europe, including Russia. There are countless regional and family variations.
Russian Borscht Soup at a Glance
- Prep time: 25 minutes
- Cook time: 1 hour 45 minutes
- Total time: 2 hours 10 minutes
- Servings: 10
- Cuisine: Eastern European
- Main ingredients: Beets, cabbage, potatoes, kidney beans and chicken broth
- Best cooking method: Stovetop
- Storage: Refrigerate for 3 to 4 days or freeze for up to 3 months
Why This Hot Borscht is Worth Making
- Makes plenty: The recipe makes about ten servings, so there’s plenty for a family meal or several lunches.
- Mostly hands-off: Once the beets are simmering, there isn’t much to do for a while.
- Chunky texture: The vegetables aren’t blended, so the soup is chunky.
- Good for making ahead: The soup reheats well, so you can cook it a day or 2 before you need it.
Ingredients for Borscht
- Fresh beets: I always use fresh raw beets. They cook whole at the beginning of the recipe and their cooking water becomes part of the soup base. Don’t use pickled beets, as they would change the whole flavor.
- Yellow onion and carrots: These are cooked separately in a skillet before going into the soup, so they have time to become tender.
- Cabbage and potatoes: They go into the beet cooking water at different times so the quicker-cooking cabbage doesn’t spend the full potato cooking time in the pot.
- Kidney beans: Add the beans along with the liquid from the can. I don’t drain mine first.
- Chicken broth: Vegetable broth is an easy swap if you need a vegetarian borscht.
- Ketchup and lemon juice: Some borscht recipes use ketchup as part of the tomato base, while others use tomato paste, tomato sauce or fresh tomatoes. In this recipe, ketchup adds tomato flavor along with a little sweetness and acidity. Lemon juice adds the sharp acidity that borscht needs.
- Dill, sour cream and green onions: Dill weed cooks briefly in the soup. Sour cream and optional green onions are added when you serve it. I usually like to add both!
Is Borscht Russian or Ukrainian?
Borscht is especially important in Ukrainian food culture. UNESCO inscribed the culture of Ukrainian borscht cooking in 2022. UNESCO also notes that borscht is cooked in other countries across the region and that the inscription doesn’t imply exclusive ownership of the dish.
There are Russian borscht traditions too, along with Polish, Lithuanian and other Eastern European variations. This recipe fits within that wider family of beet-based soups and has long been presented as part of Russian cuisine.
My particular recipe is a hearty hot borscht. I’ve had a Polish-style borscht at Polonia, a restaurant in Houston, and that was much lighter and brothier than this chunky Russian-style recipe. I’ve also tried a borscht soup mix from the Polish store and enjoyed that variation too.
Hot or Cold Borscht?
Borscht can be served hot or cold. Cold beet soups are particularly refreshing in warm weather, while hot borscht tends to be a heartier choice for the cooler months. This recipe is intended to be served piping hot, with a dollop of sour cream spooned onto each serving, rather than stirred into the soup.
How to Make Russian Borscht Soup
The beets simmer whole until tender and are then removed. Potatoes and cabbage then cook in the beet water, while the onion and carrots cook separately in a skillet. Once the beets are cool enough to handle, they’re peeled, cut into matchsticks and returned to the pot. Chicken broth, kidney beans, lemon juice, bay leaves and dill are added later, then the soup is served hot.
Tips for the Best Borscht
- Use a generously sized pot: There are 16 cups of liquid before the vegetables go in, so a small saucepan isn’t going to cut it.
- Keep the beet water: Don’t drain the pot after cooking the beets. You need that liquid for the rest of the soup.
- Give the beets time to cool: They’ll be much easier to peel and cut once you can handle them comfortably.
- Don’t add the cabbage too early: Add it when the potatoes are about halfway cooked, as it doesn’t need as much cooking time as the potatoes.
- Discard the bay leaves: Take them out before serving the soup.
Substitutions and Variations
- Vegetarian version: Swap the chicken broth for vegetable broth.
- Dairy-free option: Leave off the sour cream or serve the soup with a dairy-free sour cream alternative.
- Gluten-free borscht: The main ingredients don’t contain gluten, although you should check the labels on your broth and ketchup if you do need the finished soup to be strictly gluten-free.
Handy Equipment
- Large Dutch oven or soup pot: A 7.5-quart pot gives you enough room for the liquid and vegetables without filling it right to the rim.
- Large skillet: You’ll use this for cooking the onion and carrots separately.
- Box grater: This makes quick work of grating the carrots.
- Vegetable peeler: Handy for removing any stubborn beet skin once the cooked beets are cool.
What to Serve with Borscht
Sour cream and sliced green onions are already part of the recipe, and bread is good for mopping up the broth. If you’re serving smaller portions of borscht as an appetizer, these potato pierogi are a nice choice as the next course, or you could serve them on the side.
How to Store Borscht
- Refrigerate: Transfer leftover hot borscht soup to shallow covered containers and refrigerate within 2 hours. Use it within 3 to 4 days.
- Reheat: Warm the soup on the stovetop until it’s thoroughly hot. Leftovers should reach 165°F (74°C).
- Freeze: Freeze cooled borscht in airtight containers for up to 3 months for best quality. Leave a little room at the top of each container for expansion.
- Thaw: Thaw frozen borscht overnight in the refrigerator before reheating. The potatoes will probably be a little softer after freezing and thawing.
- Make ahead: You can prepare this borscht soup recipe a day or so before serving. Keep the sour cream and green onion garnish separate until you’re ready to serve the soup.
Russian Borscht Soup FAQs
Beets give borscht an earthy sweetness, while lemon juice adds contrasting acidity. This recipe also has mild tomato flavor from ketchup and a fresh herb flavor from dill. Sour cream tames the lemon acidity when you serve it. If you like beets, known as beetroot in some places, you’ll probably enjoy the flavor of this soup.
Borscht is a soup. Some versions are quite substantial because they contain plenty of vegetables, beans or meat, although they still have a broth base.
Yes. There are no pieces of meat in the soup. You can swap the chicken broth for vegetable broth to make it vegetarian.
Disposable food-prep gloves are the easiest option when peeling and cutting cooked beets. Rinsing your knife and cutting board promptly also helps prevent stubborn stains.
Hot Russian Borscht Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 fresh medium beets (beetroot)
- 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
- 2 carrots, grated
- ½ head cabbage, finely shredded
- 14 ounce (400g) can kidney beans, with the liquid
- 3 medium potatoes, sliced
- 4 tablespoons cooking oil
- 2 bay leaves
- 4 tablespoons lemon juice
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon chopped dill weed
- 10 cups (2.4 liters) water
- 6 cups (1.4 liters) chicken broth
- 5 tablespoons ketchup
- Sour cream
- 2 green onions (spring onions) sliced
Equipment
- Large soup pot or Dutch oven, 7.5-quart or larger
- Large skillet (frying pan)
- Cutting board
- Chef’s knife
- Vegetable peeler
- Box grater
- Measuring cups
- Measuring spoons
- Wooden spoon or silicone spatula
- Slotted spoon or kitchen tongs, for lifting out the cooked beets
- Soup ladle
Method
- Add the water and whole beets to a large soup pot. Bring to a boil, cover and cook for about 1 hour, or until the beets are tender enough to pierce easily with a knife.
- Lift the beets out of the pot and set them aside to cool. Keep the beet cooking water in the pot.
- Add the potatoes to the beet water and cook for 18 minutes, or until tender. Add the shredded cabbage when the potatoes are about halfway through their cooking time.
- While the potatoes cook, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and carrots and cook for about 8 minutes, or until tender. Stir in the ketchup for the final 2 minutes.
- Once the beets are cool enough to handle, peel them and cut them into matchsticks. Return them to the soup pot.
- Add the chicken broth, black pepper, bay leaves, lemon juice and kidney beans with their liquid. Stir in the cooked onion and carrots, followed by the dill.
- Cook for another 8 minutes, or until the cabbage is tender and the soup is thoroughly hot.
- Remove the bay leaves. Ladle the borscht into serving bowls and add sour cream and sliced green onions if you like.
Notes
- Don’t forget to keep the beet cooking water because it acts as the soup base.
- Use fresh plain beets, not pickled ones.
- For a vegetarian borscht, use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth.
- Cool leftovers promptly and refrigerate them within 2 hours. Use refrigerated leftovers within 3 to 4 days and reheat them to 165°F (74°C).
- The soup can be frozen for up to 3 months for best quality. The potatoes may be softer after thawing.
Hot Borscht for Cold Weather
This Russian borscht recipe isn’t a 30-minute soup, although most of the long cooking time goes into getting the beets tender so it’s mostly hands-off. You end up with a big pot of chunky beet soup that gives you several meals and reheats well. I love the contrast between the hot, lemony broth and cold sour cream on top!
More Eastern European and Beet Recipes
If you like beet recipes, try my smoked salmon and beetroot salad. It has some of the same beet, dill and sour cream flavors, although it’s served cold as an appetizer. Herring potato salad with dill is another Eastern European dish I like making, and my red beet soup is tasty if you want to try another type of beet soup. You might also enjoy my Cambodian sour pork soup or this apple and parsnip soup.
