Want to cook a tasty and simple first course, hearty, but with a low calorie content, and at the same time saturated with vitamins and useful elements? Try green borscht! It actually meets all these characteristics and does not require a lot of money and time for cooking.

Green borsch is especially relevant in the summer, when there are a lot of various greens and fresh vegetables, but you can also cook it from frozen leaves. Traditionally, the soup is prepared on a light chicken broth with the addition of eggs. The latter makes the dish balanced and more nutritious.

Classic green borsch with sorrel and egg

You will need:

  • Chicken weighing 1.5-1.8 kg or 2 liters of finished broth;
  • 2.5 liters of water;
  • Bay leaf;
  • black pepper peas;
  • 1 medium onion;
  • 1 medium carrot;
  • 3 potatoes;
  • a large bunch of sorrel;
  • eggs - half on a plate;
  • greens to taste - dill, parsley, onions.

Cooking:

  1. Cook the chicken, water, onion and spices. The broth is cooked for about 1.5 hours after boiling. Strain the finished broth. Chicken meat can be removed and added to the finished soup or used separately.
  2. Peel vegetables, cut potatoes into cubes, and carrots into slices. Chop sorrel into several parts.
  3. Add carrots and potatoes to the boiling broth when they become soft - sorrel and greens. After 5 minutes, turn off the heat, leave the soup under the lid for 15 minutes.
  4. Boil hard boiled eggs. Before serving, add half an egg and a spoonful of sour cream to each plate. You can take 3 eggs for the whole pan, chop them finely and add at the end of cooking.

On beef broth

You can use beef or pork broth for making green borscht.Such a broth is cooked longer, it is more satisfying, saturated, but also difficult for digestion. If the children will eat soup, it is better to use light types of broth.

 

For beef broth, ham with bone, brisket and neck are best suited. These parts of the carcass contain connective tissue, due to which the dish will be thicker. For 1 kg of meat you need 1.5-2.5 liters of water, depending on the desired broth strength. Also added to the pan are onions, carrots, celery root, bay leaves, black peppercorns.

The meat is poured with cold water and cooked for about 3 hours. The foam formed on the surface must be removed, and the finished broth should be filtered, so that it is transparent. Next, you need to cook green borsch according to the classic recipe.

Cooking in a slow cooker

The slow cooker is perfect for preparing first courses - a special lid and temperature control preserve the taste and aroma of all the components of the dish.

You will need:

  • 2.5 liters of any broth;
  • 400 g of raw pork or prepared meat from the broth;
  • 1 medium carrot;
  • 1 medium onion;
  • 4 potatoes;
  • a large bunch of sorrel;
  • 3 chicken eggs;
  • salt pepper;
  • fresh herbs to taste.

Cooking:

  1. Peel and finely chop the onions, grate the carrots on a coarse grater. Turn on the “Frying” or “Baking” mode and heat 2-3 tablespoons of vegetable oil in the multicooker bowl. Sauté the vegetables until the onions are clear.
  2. If you use raw meat, cut it into cubes, fry with vegetables for about 5 minutes. The meat, previously boiled for the broth, will need to be added at the end along with the sorrel (4 steps).
  3. Peel and chop carrots and potatoes. Pour the broth into the bowl, add the vegetables. Cook in the “Soup / Bean” mode for 40 minutes.
  4. While the borsch is cooked, wash and chop the sorrel and greens. Put them in a bowl, add spices and salt, leave in the "Heating" mode for 15-20 minutes.
  5. Boil hard-boiled eggs; when serving, add half a boiled egg and a spoonful of sour cream, fresh greens to each plate.

Lean Green Borsch


It is not necessary to use meat and animal products to cook green borsch.

 

The lean version of this dish is suitable for fasting and vegetarians, is digested much easier than traditional and is not inferior in taste.

At the heart of green meatless borsch is a vegetable broth. It is made from aromatic roots and spices. For 2 liters of water, take one piece of large carrots, onions, a quarter of a large celery root and a couple of its stems, thyme, bay leaf, garlic, black pepper and peas. You can add fennel, tomato, leek, allspice.

Vegetable broth is boiled for 20-30 minutes after boiling, filtered and used like any other. Also, eggs are not added to lean soup. To add protein to the dish and make it more satisfying, you can use porcini mushrooms, champignons or soy products.

With sorrel and spinach

Usually, sorrel is used for green borscht - because of its availability - but you can add spinach greens to it. This leafy vegetable is rich in nutrients, and when boiled it softens sorrel from sorrel.

You will need:

  • 2.5 liters of chicken stock;
  • 1 carrot;
  • 3 potatoes;
  • 50 g of fresh sorrel and spinach;
  • fresh dill;
  • salt, black pepper;
  • 100 ml cream of 10-20% fat content.

Cooking:

  1. Peel and chop carrots and potatoes. Boil the broth, add the prepared vegetables and cook until the potatoes are soft.
  2. At this time, wash the spinach and sorrel, finely chop the sorrel, and chop the spinach leaves into 2-3 parts, depending on size. Add greens to the pan, warm for another 5 minutes. Pour in the cream, salt, pepper, after 2 minutes turn off the heat and let the soup brew for 15-20 minutes.
  3. When serving, add finely chopped fresh dill to the soup.

Green borscht “Botvigna”

Botvigna (batsvinne) is a traditional dish of Belarusian cuisine. Instead of sorrel, it uses young beets with leaves - tops, hence the name. Such greens in the season is inexpensive, it can be frozen or canned for the winter.

 

To prepare it, slightly modify the classic recipe for green borsch, replacing sorrel with beet leaves. They, together with young root vegetables, are finely chopped and added to the pan 10 minutes after the potatoes. Like a traditional sorrel soup, Botvini is served with sour cream and boiled egg halves. The broth for such a soup can be chicken, beef or vegetable.

Bon Appetit!

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