How to keep the color of beets in borscht: the features of cooking borscht, the secrets of housewives and the nuances of cooking vegetables

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Borscht is a type of soup made with beetroot, which gives it a pink-red color. Some say that the name of borscht came from a combination of the words "brown cabbage soup", while others - from the hogweed plant, the leaves of which were used as food. This dish was invented in Kievan Rus, although it has been cooked all over the world since ancient times. The most important thing when cooking this first course is to know how to keep the color of the beets in borscht.

Types of borsch

It should be noted that there is no single way to cook borscht. Everyone cooks differently: with poultry, lard, mushrooms, beans, fish. And according to European standards, it should not contain pork. Only one ingredient remains constant - beets. All borscht recipes are divided into two groups:

• Cold. It is preferred to cook in the hot season without the use of meat. Pickled, boiled beets are taken as a basis, parsley, onion, dill, garlic, sausage, boiled eggs and sour milk are added.products.
• Hot (red). Its preparation takes a lot of time, hostesses use meat broth, beets and many other vegetables. And it must be cooked so that the beets do not lose their color in borscht. The dish is served at the table with garlic, sometimes with donuts instead of bread.

What is added to borscht?

Borscht is a source of vitamins, so all vegetables should be taken fresh and of high quality. The main products needed to prepare a delicious rich and fragrant first:

• Meat. Everyone has a different preference: a mixture of beef and lamb, pork ribs, poultry meat (goose, duck, chicken or turkey legs), a set of smoked meats with lard.
• Vegetables. For a rich red color, dark and sweet beets are chosen. Hard potatoes are taken, and boiled vegetables are used for thick soup, adding fresh juicy cabbage and ripe tomatoes. In addition, you will need a carrot and a turnip.
• Seasonings. To enhance the taste, add black pepper - peas and ground. Significantly improves the aroma of garlic and herbs, consisting of dill, parsley and celery. In conclusion, you need to add a bay leaf.
• Various additives. You can add fish and canned fish, mushrooms, beans and even dried fruits to borscht. The main thing is not to make a mistake in the compatibility of products.

Everything is desirable to try and not be afraid to experiment. And most importantly - so that the beets in borscht do not lose color and look bright, colorful and rich.

How to cook fastbeets?

Many dishes are made from boiled beets. It is not recommended to clean and cut off the root before cooking and baking, otherwise it will brighten and lose mineral s alts. Rinse thoroughly, put it in boiling water and tightly close the lid. To speed up the cooking process, proceed as follows:

• put a pot of beets on the fire and boil them for an hour;
• remove from heat and hold for 10 minutes under running cold water;
• large root crops again cook on fire for a third of an hour;
• chill - and the vegetable is ready.

Beets in borscht do not lose color if, when boiling it, put half a teaspoon of sugar per liter of water into water. The same effect will be when adding citric acid and vinegar. It should be noted that in the best varieties of beets, the root crop has a flattened shape and thin skin.

How to keep beet color without vinegar?

Often mashed beets are used for borscht and salads. In order for its color to remain juicy and bright, it is thickly sprinkled with table s alt and left for a while in a plate until it is completely dissolved. At the same time, it is necessary to mix periodically so that all the contents are completely saturated. As soon as the s alt dissolves, the beets are poured with vegetable oil to consolidate the effect. The resulting mass is added to borscht. You can not be afraid that the color of the beets will change when boiled. This description will be the answer to the question of how to preserve the color of beets in borscht? You just need to remember that the beets were s alty, and do not overs alt the soup.

Chef's tips for cooking borscht

In order to be able to cook delicious and beautiful borscht, let's heed the advice of a professional. He makes the following recommendations:

• Meat. For borscht, a low-fat piece is more suitable, better without bones, from which a darker and more cloudy broth is obtained, and a specific smell also appears. Wash meat thoroughly before cooking.
• Bouillon. It is recommended to cook on low heat. With strong bubbling, the broth becomes cloudy. To improve the taste, onions are added to it - it cleans the dregs, carrots - gives a beautiful color, celery - improves the taste.
• Beets. For borsch, only raw beets are used.
• Roasting. It is made from carrots, onions and beets. So that the beets do not lose their color in borscht, the vegetables are stewed in a small amount of oil with the addition of broth and over low heat. At the same time, they give off all their flavor and acquire a rich shade.
• Sour. A small amount of tomato paste is put into the finished frying to give a special taste and color. For acidification, lemon juice or dry wine is sometimes used.
• S alt. S alt is added before laying the beets so as not to spoil the color.
• How to keep the color of beets in borscht? To do this, only after the potatoes and cabbage are ready, put the roast in the pan and no longer boil.
• Persist. Boiled borscht must stand for at least half an hour, during this time the vegetables will give their taste to the broth.
• Warm up. Ready soup can be reheated, but not boiled, otherwise it will become cloudy and its color will deteriorate.

Add acid to make borscht red

The fragrant and rich color of the soup stimulates the appetite and brings pleasure while eating. But here's the problem: often beets in borscht lose their color. What to do? You can give the soup a bright burgundy hue in many ways. One of them is the addition of acid. To do this, use:

• Apple or wine vinegar – Sprinkle beetroot before simmering.
• Tomato paste - added while cooking beet stew.
• Lemon juice - at the beginning of sautéing add a small amount of juice. It is used by those who do not like vinegar.

In order to make borscht beautiful and bright, you need to try several ways and choose the best one.

A few secrets to keep borscht bright

Some people don't like or can't eat fried vegetables, then there are other ways to make borscht rich in bright color. How to preserve the color of beets when cooking borscht without roasting? To do this, proceed as follows:

1. Remove the meat from the finished broth, put the beetroot, previously peeled and cut in half, into it. Add the rest of the vegetables to the broth. After a third of an hour, take out the beets, grate them and, after all the vegetables are ready, add them to the pan. Bring to a boil and turn off the heat, leaving to infuse.
2. Cook the beets in their skins. To do this, carefully washing the vegetable, lower it into boiling uns alted water and cook for an hour. Grate beets and add toready borscht, which is left on the fire for another two minutes.
3. Grate cleanly washed and peeled raw beets. Put in a bowl and pour over boiling water. After that, start cooking borscht. Add the beets to the fully cooked soup and keep on fire for about five minutes.

If the option you chose didn't give you the desired result, experiment again. Next, we will discuss why beetroot loses color when boiling borscht.

Cooking Tricks

Many are at a loss as to why the beautiful red color of borscht at the beginning of cooking loses its attractiveness towards the end and becomes yellowish. The secret is:

• Long beet processing. When beets are added immediately after the broth is ready, the pigment is digested and the broth acquires an ugly color. Beets are placed when the soup is completely ready, and kept on fire for no more than five minutes. On the second day, when heating the borscht, do not bring it to a boil so as not to spoil the color of the broth.
• Use special varieties of beets. The beauty and taste of your borscht depends on the variety of root crop you choose. Salad varieties of beets that have a maroon color on the cut are well suited.

Given these two features when cooking borscht, you can count on success.

How to cook red borscht without meat?

The hue of the borscht broth doesn't actually affect its taste, but the burgundy color stimulates the appetite and makes it more attractive. How to keep the red color of beets in borscht, ifcook it without meat? Consider two ways:

1. Beets are cooked separately: they are washed, placed with the peel in a pot of boiling water and boiled until tender for about an hour. It is undesirable to add s alt, from this it will become hard. Ready beets are taken out, tinder on a coarse grater or cut and added to the already prepared borscht, brought to a boil and the fire is turned off. Infuse and serve with sour cream.
2. The vegetable is baked in the oven: pre-washed beets are wrapped in foil and placed in a preheated oven for 50 minutes. After that, they are taken out, cooled, rubbed and added to the finished borscht without meat. The pot is left on the fire for another one or two minutes - and the soup is ready. Let it brew for at least 30 minutes - and you can eat.

Everything is done very simply. To make it beautiful and tasty, try different options.

The secret of hostesses: the reddest borscht

Many housewives try a large number of different recipes for cooking borscht - a soup that has millions of fans. The whole trick is how to cook the borscht to keep the color of the beets. Here is one of them:

• Peel the beets and cut them into 4-6 pieces.
• Dip the pieces into ready-made boiling broth and cook for a quarter of an hour.
• Add everything you need according to the recipe to the pan: vegetables, meat, herbs, spices in the usual order and quantity.
• After the potatoes and cabbage are ready, turn off the fire, take out the pieces of beets. In appearance, they will be pale and undercooked, but the housewives claim that this is the case.should be.
• Cool the beets a little and grate them. It turns out that inside its color remains bright.
• Add it to the soup, stir and leave for 15 minutes. You can no longer boil borscht.

According to the proposed recipe, borscht turns out to be bright, very rich beetroot color and pleasant taste. The hostesses claim that they have never seen a more colorful borscht.

Why does beetroot lose color in borscht?

Real borscht is a soup of always rich pink-red color. But many housewives complain that after being ready, the borscht takes on a pale orange or even brown hue. What is the reason? In the wrong preparation of the product. Experts give the following advice:

• To stew, vegetables must be cut, not grated.
• Particular attention is paid to the beet variety. It should be lettuce with a thin skin and a little flattened in shape. The cut is dark, without whitish veins.
• Vegetables must be stewed and before the end, add a little acetic acid, lemon juice or tomato paste.
• After adding the frying, the borscht is not boiled, but only brought to a boil and immediately turned off.

After being ready, the soup is infused and served. It does not lose color the next day.

Red borscht in a slow cooker

Ingredients are the same, nothing new:

• The meat is washed and cooked in a separate pan for five minutes. Thenthe contents are poured into a slow cooker, chopped vegetables are added, except for beets. Put s alt, herbs and seasonings. The timer is set to 20 minutes.
• While everything is cooking, prepare the beets: they are washed, peeled and rubbed on a grater or cut with a knife. Oil is added to the pan and the vegetable is stewed until tender, adding a little water. To preserve the color, it is allowed to put a little sugar and pour all the contents into a slow cooker. Borscht, delicious and brightly colored, is ready.

It should be noted that any skill comes with experience.

Instead of a conclusion

How to keep the color of beets in borscht? This is the main task when cooking everyone's favorite first course. Often the hostess is judged by her ability to cook borscht. Like any other folk dish, it is prepared according to numerous recipes, and as a result of experiments, you can find the best one. Each housewife has her own subtleties and secrets of its preparation, allowing to preserve the bright beetroot color and excellent taste.