Oil-Free Vegan Borscht
Check out the deep colour of this oil-free, vegan borscht! (Remember: colours = vitamins!) This recipe takes you back to the ole’ country. Complex flavours of beets and root veggies, loads of fresh garden herbs, and creamy cashew sour cream on top make this borscht outstanding. During the Covid-19 Social Distancing, I was looking for good (healthy) recipes that could be made from fridge stable and pantry friendly ingredients. This Borscht right here delivers! Beets, Cabbage, Carrots, Onions all fuse together to make a dreamy healthy soup with deep flavours that will keep you satisfied and healthy on a cold day. If you are social distancing (or in the future, when you’re camping or going to a cabin), there’s no reason to let your healthy eating slip. These are great veggies to have on hand for this exact purpose!
We tend to eat this soup, the way we eat all soups: with a serving of roasted potatoes on the side that are cut into rounds. It makes us feel like we’re eating a slice of bread. (One can dream!)
A quick word about beets: buy them from the Farmer’s Market. Beets, sadly, are like corn when it comes to GMO cross-contamination. Even if your beets are from an “organic” farm, if there is a conventional beet farm next door, there’s a good chance you’re eating frankenbeets. I like to buy my beets from the farmer’s market which come from small scale community farms usually situated away from huge industrial ones.
Oil-Free Vegan Borscht
Ingredients
Borscht
- 2 tbsp olive oil (optional. I usually make it without.)
- 1 med. onion (diced)
- 6 cups beets (cubed or shredded)
- 2 big carrots (cubed or shredded)
- 2 celery stalks
- 3 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2-3 Yukon gold potatoes
- 2 cups cabbage (shredded or finely sliced)
- ½ red pepper, chopped (optional)
- 2 bay leaves
- salt & pepper to taste
- 1 bunch dill (divided)
- 1 bunch parsley (divided)
- 1 lemon, juiced
- chives (optional)
- 1 can white beans (optional)
Cashew Sour Cream
- 1 cup cashews
- 1-2 lemons, juiced
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Directions
- Decide what texture you would like your soup to be (cubed, finely chopped, or shredded). I like finely chopped because it uses less dishes.
- Also, start with soaking the cashews if you intend on making the Cashew Sour Cream.
Borscht
- Add about 4 cups of water to a soup pot. Set over high heat.
- Add Onions, Beets, Carrots, Celery, Bay Leaf, Garlic, and Tomato Paste. Stir and bring to boil.
- Boil on high until most of the water evaporates. Turn to medium and carefully continue "boiling" until all the water has boiled off and the tomato paste begins to toast. Just before the ingredients start to burn, add 2 cups of water to deglaze the pan, then add the rest of the water (8 – 10 cups depending on how "soupy" you like your borscht to be).
- Add in the Cabbage, Potatoes, Salt, Pepper, and about 2 Tablespoons each of Parsley and Dill.
- Cover and simmer for 40 – 50 minutes until everything is well-cooked.
- Just before serving add the juice of one lemon (or more) to the pot.
- In each bowl add a handful of mixed fresh herbs (Parsley, Dill, Chives) and a big dallop of Cashew Sour Cream.
Cashew Sour Cream
- This is the fast way to make Cashew Sour Cream. The "real" way to make Cashew Sour Cream usually takes more than 24 hours if you include soaking the cashews and then letting the water drain afterward as it sits in the fridge. We don't have that kind of time, ever. So I hope you enjoy this quick version, although it's not quite as smooth.
- Pop the cashews into a bowl of boiling water and let them sit for about 30 minutes. (This is instead of soaking them all night to make them soft.)
- Once the cashews are soft, drain the boiling water and rinse the cashews.
- Put all of the ingredients in a blender and blend them until smooth. You might need about 1/4 cup of water to help blend.
- Enjoy!