Borscht recipe: Ukraine's beetroot soup, Klopotenko's way

This borscht recipe follows the Ukrainian way of building the soup in layers: a broth from roasted pork ribs, beetroot added twice, once sautéed and once raw, and a smoked dried pear that gives the pot its quiet smokiness.

In July 2022 UNESCO inscribed the culture of Ukrainian borscht cooking on its list of intangible heritage in need of urgent safeguarding. The campaign for that recognition was led by Kyiv chef Ievgen Klopotenko, whose restaurant 100 rokiv tomu vpered sets out to cook Ukrainian food as it might have evolved without the Soviet era.

This version follows the structure of the recipe Klopotenko publishes on his website, with our own quantities. In Ukraine borscht is the first course.

Beetroot goes in twice: cooked for depth, raw at the very end for colour.

Ingredients

• 600 g pork ribs, cut into single ribs
• 2.5 litres water
• 100 g celeriac, in chunks
• 2 carrots
• 1 large onion, halved
• 3 medium beetroot (about 450 g), peeled
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 2 ripe tomatoes, diced
• 30 g butter
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 150 ml tomato juice
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 4 potatoes (about 500 g), peeled and cut into chunks
• 300 g white cabbage, finely shredded
• 1 head garlic, halved crosswise
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 allspice berries
• 2 smoked dried pears
• Salt
• Sour cream and chopped dill, to serve

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200°C and roast the ribs for 30 minutes, until browned. Roasting caramelises the surface for a deeper broth.
2. Put the ribs in a large pot with the water, the celeriac, one carrot in chunks and half the onion, skin on. Simmer gently for 40 minutes, skimming; the onion skin deepens the colour of the broth.
3. Melt the butter in a frying pan and soften the rest of the onion, finely chopped, with the second carrot, grated, the pepper and the tomatoes for 8 minutes. Add the tomato paste and juice and cook for 5 minutes more: frying the paste takes away its raw, tinny edge.
4. Grate two of the beetroot into the pan with the vinegar and cook for 4 minutes. The acid fixes the red pigment, which turns brown under long heat without it.
5. Add the potatoes, garlic, bay leaves, allspice and smoked pears to the broth and cook for 15 minutes, then stir in the beetroot base.
6. Add the cabbage and cook for 5 minutes, just until it wilts, so that it keeps a little bite.
7. Finely grate the last beetroot, press its juice into the pot through a sieve and switch off the heat; raw juice added at the end restores the bright colour. Salt, rest for 30 minutes and serve with sour cream and dill.

Tips for this borscht recipe

Borscht improves overnight in the fridge as the sweet, sour and smoky notes settle. If you cannot find smoked pears, use ordinary dried pears with a pinch of smoked paprika, the swap Klopotenko suggests. For another slow-cooked soup from Central and Eastern Europe, try our Hungarian goulash recipe.

Borscht FAQ

Can I make borscht vegetarian? Yes. Replace the ribs with vegetable stock and add white beans for body.

Why did my borscht turn brown? Beetroot pigment breaks down with long boiling and low acidity. Add vinegar or lemon juice with the beetroot and keep the final simmer short.

How long does borscht keep? Up to four days in the fridge, and three months frozen, though the cabbage softens when thawed.