What is a Green Borshch?
Green Borshch is a traditional Ukrainian sour soup made of vegetable or meat broth and sorrel leaves. It is cooked usually in the spring season when the winter beets are over and young are too small to be cooked.
Is a Green Borscht a real Borshch itself?
Green Borshch has been known in the Ukrainian territories since ancient times and in fact, it’s a more ethnic variant of borshch than with beets. Actually, there is a hypothesis that Borshch was made of young spring leaves of the edible type of borshchivnyk (Heracleum plant) and has its name from it.
The ethnic recipe of a Green Borshch requires sorrel herb leaves to be added. Etnocook recommends taking young edible green leaves of sorrel or spinach dock plant (ukr. shchavel or kvasok).
Sometimes young beet leaves are added, this makes this soup taste more like the classic well-known Ukrainian Borshch.
How does Green Borshch taste?
Green Borshch can be served hot or cold. Traditionally Borshch tastes sour because of the beet kvass and Green Borshch is not the exception. However, the sour taste comes from the fresh sorrel leaves that are added at the end of cooking. Additionally, some sour cream can be added to every portion.
Best Traditional Green Borshch recipe (Ukrainian Sorrel Soup)
Tips and pieces of advice about Ukrainian Sorrel Green Borshch
- take any broth you like, meat, or vegetable. There is a possibility to skip cooking the broth and take just boiled water
- for this recipe Etnocook has used wild white mushrooms, however, any other edible mushrooms can be used
- if the sour cream is not added in the end, the Green Borshch will still have a sour taste because of the so-called "sorrel acid" (oxalic acid from sorrel leaves)
- after adding sour cream the sorrel acid disappears after the reaction between oxalic acid, calcium from the sour cream, and casein
- also while served a half of a hard-boiled egg can be added directly to a bowl with Green Borshch
Ingredients of the Best Traditional Green Borshch recipe (Ukrainian Sorrel Soup)
- broth
- water - 3 l
- whole chicken - 1 kg
- onion -
- carrot -
- salt - 5 g
- black pepper - 5
- bay leaf - 2
- cook separetly
- white mushrooms - 200 g
- Ukrainian Soup Green Borshch
- chicken broth - 2 l
- beans -
- green peas -
- green parsley -
- green dill -
- spring onion -
- salt -
- black pepper -
- sour cream -
- sorrel -
Instructions:
How to cook Green Borshch
Step One. Prepare all the ingredients for the Ukrainian Green Borshch
Wash all the vegetables and peel them, rinse the meat in cold water.
Step two. Cook the broth for Green Soup Borshch
Wash the poultry properly. Put it in a deep pot, take three liters of water, bring to boiling, change the water (fresh 3 liters), add bay leaf, salt, pepper, and cook for an hour after boiling. The heat must be low.
When it's done, drain the broth, take off meat and carrot, let them cool down, separate meat from bones.
Step three. Cook mushrooms for the spring Green Borshch
Soak dried mushrooms in cold water for an hour. It can be done overnight if the cooking is planned for the morning.
Fresh mushrooms must be washed, cleaned, cut.
Take a pan of fresh water and cook mushrooms after boiling for an hour on low heat.
Step four. Cut greens for Ukrainian Sorrel Soup Green Borshcht
Chop green onions, parsley, dill, sorrel leaves, mash garlic, slice cooked in broth carrot.
Step five. Prepare ingredients for Green Borscht
Take a deep ceramic pot with chicken broth, poultry meat, boiled mushrooms, greens, beans, peas, salt, and pepper to taste.
Step six. Adding beans and peas to broth
Bring broth to boiling and reduce the heat. Add beans and peas. Etnocook considers they go first because it takes more time to cook them.
Step seven. Put meat for Ukrainian Sorrel Soup
Put meat in a pot for future green Borshch. If the poultry is a home hen then it takes time to soften it. Cook under the covered lid on low heat for 10-15 minutes.
Step eight. Prepare greens for Borsch
Prepare all greens to be added into a pot with the high vitamin Ukrainian first course Green Borscht.
Step nine. Green onions for the Sorrel Borshch
Put young green onions into a pot. They can be cut into little pieces or bigger - the bigger pieces are the more vitamins will remain.
Step ten. Add garlic to Green Borshch
Add mashed garlic. Etnocook reminds that garlic can be also just sliced, however, mashed garlic has more aroma.
Step eleven. Put dill and parsley
In this step chopped dill and parsley are added to the spring soup.
Step twelve. Add carrot to Green Borshcht
Add boiled carrot from the broth, peeled, and cut into chunks.
Step thirteen. Put sorrel
Put sorrel into a pot with Green Borscht. As the leaves of this plant are very acidic, Etnocook's tip is to add them to the last when all the ingredients are done. Stir and close the lid, let the soup rest for additional 20 min.
Step fourteen. Add creams
In fact, this is an optional step. This soup is sour enough because of oxalic acid from sorrel leaves. Etnocook draws your attention that adding creams or sour cream will change the taste completely and make it more mild (in case of adding creams) and specifically sour if sour cream is added.
Actually, you can leave the Green Borshch as it is and add a tablespoon of sour cream into every portion directly after serving.
Any way, if you choose to add creams into a pot, open a lid and let the soup cool down before doing it.
Step fifteen. How to serve the Ukrainian Green Borshch
Serve the Green Borscht in deep bowls, add chopped greens, a tablespoon of sour creams, and halves of boiled eggs in each portion to taste.
