Borscht

Originally Ukrainian in origin, borscht is beet soup...hence that amazing magenta color. Borscht is incredibly delicious and warming in your belly, and it's crazy good for you. It's crazy easy to make. It's crazy cheap to put together. It's crazy!

Like many "traditional" foods, the recipe for borscht has a thousand-and-one variants, all of which claim to be the most authentic. There's borscht served hot. There's borscht served cold. Polish borscht is spiked with bacon and is swimming in grease. Romanian borscht uses fermented wheat to create a sour taste. There are even "white" versions that contain cubes of rye bread, horseradish, hard-boiled eggs and sausage...how's that for a variant!

My version is simple and allows the amazing beet to take center stage, dude. It's so awesome.

First, you gotta pre-roast the beets. Not everyone agrees with me on this, but they're just being silly. Roasted beets taste better than boiled beets. End of story.

So, roast your beets first. In case you missed the post about how exactly to do that, click here. How many should you roast? As many as you can get your hands on. The more the merrier!

Once your roasted beets have cooled, peel them and trim off the tough root on the bottom. Cut them into bite-sized pieces and set them aside while you prepare the rest of the soup. In a big 'ol stockpot, warm a good dash of olive oil over medium heat and add:
1 BIG or two small onions, diced

Cook until they're translucent-y, then add:
4-5 carrots, chopped
5-6 yukon potatoes, unpeeled and diced

Sautee the veggies for about 5 minutes. Then throw in your cut beets and cover the whole mess with water. The beets will create an amazing broth...the more water you add, the more broth you'll get. So fill 'er up, baby!

Let the whole thang rock 'n roll for about 25 minutes, just until the potatoes are soft, then season it up with salt (meaning: do the salt-and-taste, salt-and-taste dance till it gets perfect). Borscht tastes best when it's been allowed to sit unheated after the cooking process so, if you can, let it hang out on the back of your stove till dinnertime. The flavors will meld and the beets will "bleed" into the broth to further illustrate the awesomeness of such an amazing vegetable. Reheat it on the stove and enjoy!