Borscht

With the weather dropping to just above freezing last night (what the heck is going on here?!), I thought it best to get a bit more harvesting done the past few days.  Borscht is such a delicious soup and perfect for cooking up a pot after pulling fresh beets, carrots and potatoes from the ground (oh, I wish my onions hadn't failed!).

I have always had vegetarian-style borscht; I can't even imagine it with meat or even beef stock.  It's incredibly healthy, easy to make, and delicious!  Using a food processor made this very quick to put together.

Ingredients:
Olive oil
1/2 large white onion
3/4 pound beets
1/3 pound carrots
2 medium potatoes
2 cloves garlic
5 cups vegetable or chicken stock
1/2 head cabbage, sliced
2 bay leaves
3 Tbsp dill, chopped, plus extra for serving
Lemon juice

1. Grate or shred in food processor all of the vegetables, except cabbage.  Heat 1-2 Tbsp olive oil in a large pot at medium heat then add vegetables.  Stir often for about 10 minutes when veggies should have softened a bit (yes, everything turns dark red very quickly).

Add stock, cabbage, bay leaves and 3 Tbsp fresh dill.  At this point, you can add 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper, but you'll have to finalize the seasoning later on.

Bring to a boil, then immediately reduce temperature.  Simmer for 20-30 minutes until vegetables are fully tender.  Depending on what texture you are looking for, the soup can be left as is, or blended with an immersion blender as I did. 

Add juice of 1 or 2 lemons - this is critical to brighten up the soup a bit.  Season to your preference with salt and pepper.  I like a lot of pepper in borscht!

Serve with sour cream and more fresh dill sprinkled on top.  Instead of sour cream, you can slide in a poached egg ... mmmm!