Sweet, Sweet Borscht

Those of you who have been to Prairie Cottage Perogies on the Bypass in Langley would know how delicious this borscht is because I've basically done my best to copy their recipe. I just made this for my soup club day at school and was glad to hear how much others enjoyed it too. So for my soup club friends and beyond, here's my "recipe"... Don't worry about the amounts too much - if you've ever made soup before, I trust you can gauge or eyeball how much you want.

A small pork roast (we make it without the meat sometimes too)

A few slices of bacon (we never make it without the bacon)

2 Onions

4 Garlic cloves

3 Celery stalks

3 Carrots

5 Potatoes

1/2 a Green cabbage

3 Beets 

Can of beans in maple syrup or molasses (optional - not great for you but delicious)

Chicken broth

2 Bay leaves

~ 2 tsp Sugar

~ 2 tbsp Cider vinegar

Salt and pepper

Sour cream

Fresh dill

Salt and pepper the pork roast and quickly brown all sides in a stewing pot. Then cover 2/3 of the roast with water in the pot. Bring to a boil and then lower heat to a simmer for 2 1/2 hours.

Next chop all your veggies and the bacon. We usually grate at least half of the beets and slice the rest. In your soup pot, heat up some olive oil and add the onion, garlic, bacon, celery and carrot. Cook until softened. Then add the potato, cabbage, any sliced beets, bay leaves, salt, pepper, and the stock from the pork roast once it's finished and bring up to a boil. Make sure you've set the roast aside on a cutting board to rest for 10 minutes once it's out of the stock before shredding/chopping. Once the stock starts bubbling turn the heat down to a simmer. Now you can gauge how much extra chicken stock to add in, depending on how much the stock from the roast filled up your soup pot with the rest of the veggies in it. Also add the can of beans with the chicken stock. Once you've added chicken stock, let it all simmer until the potatoes and sliced beets are cooked. Then you can add in the shredded roast meat, grated beet, sugar, and cider vinegar. You can keep it on a low simmer but you don't want to cook the meat or grated beets too much. Top each bowl with sour cream and chopped fresh dill.

Like I said, we make it without the pork roast too and sometimes it's really nice to have it a lot lighter! Hope you like it! Let us know how you make your borscht. :)

No borscht for Sammy