Looking to duplicate a beet-less vegetable borscht soup that my mother-in-law used to make...
My mother-in-law used to make the most delicious vegetable soup that everyone in the family referred to as borscht. She grew up in Romania but was of German descent. Unfortunately, I never thought to watch her make it from beginning to end and now she's gone. It was basically a "clear" beef or lamb broth with onions, carrots, potatoes, parsnips (I think), lots of dill, and maybe some other herbs like parsley. It did not contain tomatoes or celery. Some of the family would add a dollop of sour cream to their bowl before eating although I preferred it without. I haven't had any luck searching online so I thought I'd ask my fellow Chowhounders before I attempt to recreate it on my own. Has anyone else ever had something like this? Thanks!
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To those of you who so kindly responded to my plea for help in finding a recipe for this soup, I just wanted to give you an update.
Last night I made the recipe that toveggiegirl linked to in her post. It came out SO good and very similar to what my MIL used to make. I followed her instructions for making the broth (I used lamb since that's what my MIL used). I did that last night. Then this afternoon when I came home from work I put the rest of it together with the vegetables and let it simmer away. I didn't have any sorrel or parsley root but used parsley and parsnip instead and used about 4 times as much fresh dill as the recipe called for. (I recently put up another post inquiring about sorrel and parsley root and know now that I can find both of these at a good farmers' market, so next time I'll try it with both of those ingredients.). In the meantime, it came SO close to what I was looking for. My husband and I just sat there grinning at each other, spoonful by spoonful, as we ate it. :o) Thanks again for your help!!
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re: magiesmom
Yeah, I would never have thought to use lamb stock either except that we know that's what she used. The soup then has small chunks of the lamb meat in it as well. It's all very subtle, no overpowering taste of lamb. It's one of the things that made this particular soup so different than other vegetable soups. That, and all that fresh dill!
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Ok, I found a recipe that looks similar to the one I recall. Does this sound right?
http://www.ukrainianclassickitchen.ca...›2 Replies-
re: toveggiegirl
Oh my gosh, toveggiegirl! This looks like it could be it! The picture looks exactly like what my mother-in-law used to make. She even used Maggi seasoning. I never thought about the garlic chives but I wouldn't be surprised if they were in there... she grew so much stuff in her garden and I know she grew that. And I'll check out the sorrel too. This gives me such a great place to start. Thank you SO much! I'm going to try to make it this weekend and I'll report back when I do. You guys are great! Thank you for your responses. My husband will be thrilled! ...I already am. :-)
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todao
Jan 2, 2011 01:51 PM
Inasmuch as beet juice is the foundation for "borscht", it's odd to usethe term "Beet-less" borcht; kinda like saying " barley-less Krupnik" It appears to me you want to make a vegetable soup without beets. This one may be worth looking at:
http://toolkit.bootsnall.com/food-and...›3 Replies-
re: todao
todao, I know it does sound odd to refer to it as a borscht seeing as how it doesn't contain any beets but that's what my husband's family called it and I was hoping that someone out there with the same cultural background may be familiar with this vegetable type soup that was referred to as a borscht. I'll check out chefj's suggestion to look for a Polish vegetable soup with the ingredients that I'm looking for. Thanks both of you for the suggestions!
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re: schmoopy
buttertart
Jan 3, 2011 09:10 AM
There's a white borscht referred to as such in Polish food that has no beets anywhere near it. Dang tasty too. (This isn't what you're after, it has no discernable vegs in it.)
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