Borscht

Tonight we make Borscht. Tonight is also the night I cut my thumb while attempting to cut a potato and TC finishes making Borscht. 

Today was not my day for finger safety. One finger was crushed in a slamming window and my thumb is missing a rather large chunk. It took hours to stop the bleeding. Once I finally figured that action need to be taken to stop the bleeding, I put cornstarch on the wound to force a clot. It's working awesomely. 

Anyway, the borscht got made, and let me tell you, I was not looking forward to it. Ever since I was a child, I have had a fear of beets.  Not that beets are scary in and of themselves, but I was continuously warned that beets would stain. I would get in trouble if I stained something, so beets would inevitably get in trouble for eating the food my family made for dinner. I have never liked beets since. 

Ingredients:
2-3 Beets
2-3 medium Potatoes
4 tbsp Olive Oil
1 med Onion, Finely Chopped
2 Carrots, Grated
1/2 head Cabbage, shredded
1 can Kidney Beans
10 c. Water
6 c. Broth (we used Pacific Foods Organic Vegetable broth... must learn to make my own broth)
5 tbsp Ketchup
1/2 c. Lemon Juice
1/4 tsp Salt
2 tbsp Dill, Chopped

Directions:

• Fill pot with the 10 cups of water. 
• Add beets 

• In a stock pot cover and boil for 1 hour. See notes.
• Grate carrots and dice onions
• Shred cabbage
• Saute carrots and onions together. When they are almost done, add the ketchup.
• Remove beets and let cool
• Slice potatoes and add them to the beet water. 
• Boil potatoes for 15-20 minutes
• 10 minutes into potatoes boiling, add cabbage
• Peel and slice beets to look like matchsticks
• After the potatoes have finished the 15-20 minutes, add the beets to the pot.
• Add broth, lemon juice, pepper, salt, and kidney beans (with juice)
• Add the carrots and onions to the pot.
• Add the dill
• Bring to an almost boil and let simmer for 30 minutes
• Optional - Serve with a dollop of sour cream

So the boiling of the beets, as you'll read in the notes, significantly depleted the amount of liquid in the pot. I started with 10 cups and have about 2-3 in there now. 

He couldn't find gloves. I would have just let my hands get stained. 

The sauteed mix about to get stirred in. 

There is a container under the grater, but a lot of it still ended up on the plate. Clever TC... using a plate. I usually just make a big mess on the counter. 

Clever TC again... grated all the carrots at once. Very sneaky. 

Here we have the final product! So tasty!

Notes:
This recipe has been modified from the original Natasha's Kitchen post. The order of operations of the original post was confusing to me. I felt that I should clarify a few things. Example, I was confused about when to add particular items. Should I add the broth before the potatoes have finished? The original recipe is unclear. I said no. Wait to add the broth. 

[VE] When a recipe tells you to boil something for an extended period of time, you don't need to have the stove on high the entire time. On my stove, things still boil at a 6. Important note: We had to add about 16oz of water to compensate for the low fluid. 

Don't cut your thumb at the beginning of this recipe. You won't be able to do a lot of the tasks if you cut your thumb. That being said, today's recipe has been prepared by TC!

I know you're concerned about the amount of beet juice I got all over my counters. Well, HA! Jokes on you! TC handled the beets so the mess was contained. 

We had Baked Bananas: Part 2 for dessert. So good!

Review:
As someone who is not fond of beets, I was not looking forward to this. I also am not a fan of the vegetable broth we got (I have a really hard time with the taste of celery). That being said, this recipe is delicious. We both got second helpings. I had mine with sour cream, TC had his straight up. I wholeheartedly give this recipe a 5. TC says, "We're definitely having this again" and he gave it a 5 as well.

Total Score:
5

And now a little bonus...