Ukrainian borsch with lard and baked beet

Ukrainian borsch with bacon and beets, baked in the sleeve, only at first glance seems to be a difficult dish. In fact, cooking is very simple. So, boil the broth in advance, bake beets, which, by the way, can be done the night before. The next day, it remains to load chopped vegetables and browned onions with carrots into boiling broth, add a dressing of bacon with garlic and get thick for dinner, so that the spoon will stand and delicious Ukrainian-style borsch with bacon.

Ukrainian borscht with lard and baked beet must be served with fresh rye bread and green onions.

Preparation time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Servings: 8

Ingredients for cooking Ukrainian borsch with lard and baked beet:

2 l of beef broth (chicken, beef, pork);
150 g cold smoked salted lard;
250 g of potatoes;
250 g cabbage of Peking or white;
150 g onions;
200 g carrots;
300 g of beets;
5 cloves of garlic;
100 g tomatoes or ketchup;
10 black peppercorns;
salt, sour cream, greens.

A method of cooking Ukrainian borscht with lard and baked beets.

First, bake beets. Roasted root vegetables have a natural rich taste and sweetness - qualities that are lost during cooking or stewing.

So, wash the vegetables, grease them with olive oil (thin layer), pack them in a sleeve, tie them tightly, put them on a cast iron skillet. Put the pan in a cold oven, gradually heated to 180 degrees. Medium sized root vegetables cook for 1 hour.

While vegetables are being baked, we are preparing the basis of Ukrainian borscht. You can also have time to cook chicken broth, but it will take more time to cook beef or pork than to bake vegetables. Therefore, their preparation should be taken care of in advance.

Chop onions finely, rub a carrot on a large grater, put in a pre-heated pan, greased with vegetable oil. Add the chopped tomatoes or ketchup (tomato paste), simmer on medium heat for about 15 minutes.

Put the soup pot with the broth on the fire, add the potatoes, cut into small cubes.

Put potato cabbage or Peking cabbage, chopped into thin strips.

We remove the baked beetroot from the sleeve, clean, cut into strips.

When the cabbage and potatoes are cooked, add the stewed carrots with onions and tomatoes and baked beets, cut into thin strips, salt to taste, bring to a boil again and remove from the heat.

Salted lard cut into small cubes. You can take an ordinary salty brisket, but with smoked it will turn out better.

In a mortar, first rub the black peppercorns, then add the peeled garlic cloves and a small pinch of salt. When the garlic turns into mush, gradually add cubes of bacon.

All these manipulations can be done in a blender, but I prefer the old fashioned way, by hand.