When it comes to borscht I feel like every woman has her own recipe which of course is the best. But I never tried to go fancy with mine and usually would pick the easiest route there is to speed up the process of making this beet soup and be done with it.
Back when I lived in Crimea, I used to make borscht more often than I do here in the US. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've only made it once last year. Even though I often feel like eating a warm bowl of soup, my husband 
But anyways, here is my first borscht of 2018 and guess what?! I didn't not even have any potatoes to throw into it, this should speak for itself and make it clear that I am not one of those people that strictly follow recipes, but that is okay. If you're feeling lazy this recipe is just for you :).
Ingredients:
- 1 bay leaf;
- 2-3 whole allspice berries;
- salt and pepper to taste;
- 3 small beets (grated);
- 2 cloves garlic (minced);
- 1 small onion (diced);
- 1 mini sweet pepper (chopped);
- 2 roma tomatoes (pureed);
- 1 small carrot (chopped);
- 1 cup cabbage (shredded);
- 15 oz red kidney beans (canned);
- 2,5-3 qt veggie or meat broth (or water if you're making your own);
- 1 potato (diced) - I wanna call this an optional item since I didn't have any at the time of making my borscht;
- meat of your choice - like I mentioned above, everyone has their own recipe for this hearty dish, a lot of people use some sort of meat on the bone to cook it, you can use beef ribs, chicken legs or anything else you can think of, if you wanna make it vegetarian you will need to use vegetable broth.
Alright with all the ingredients out of the way, we can start making this. If you really wanna put a lot of work and invest some time into cooking borscht, you will need to look for a serious recipe elsewhere, sorry! I am only trying to show how to make this super quick, even though you will have to start from scratch.
Oh yeah, you don't need to make your own broth for it and use a store bought one instead, it is up to you. I used chicken broth I made myself, since I had some around and am trying to avoid red meats when I can.
Directions:
Start off with making your own broth or heat up store bought broth in a cooking pot, throw in meat of your choice, once it's cooked add in your shredded cabbage, bring to a boil and continue cooking until done.
In the meantime, heat up your skillet and fry up your diced onion, carrot, pepper and beets. Once they're half way done add in pureed tomatoes and minced garlic to the mix and continue cooking for about 5 more minutes. Then combine it with the rest of your soup, add beans and spices and simmer with a lid on (partially covered) for about 10 more minutes, or until the vegetables are tender and fully cooked.
I heard some people add a table spoon of vinegar into their borscht, I personally have never tried it, so you may do that at your own risk! One more thing I overheard is that a teaspoon of sugar is recommended, this one I tried and I agree with whoever came up with this idea!
Aaand one more thing is that there are several ways I'm aware of to have your beets in a borscht, you can either cook them with the rest of the vegetables just like I described above, or you can boil the beets separately and grate them into the soup once it is done, or you can grate them into the soup while they are fresh (raw), this last one I have never tried I must admit, but boiling beets prior to adding them into borscht doesn't really make a huge difference in my opinion, so you're more than welcome to approach this any way you like.
I am pretty sure this is by far the longest recipe I have ever written here on Steemit. Kinda crazy to think about considering this is just a soup.
Anyways, let's talk toppings, shall we?! Usually borscht is served with a spoon of sour cream on top and chopped dill, this is probably the most traditional way to serve it I can think of, but I am not a huge sour cream eater so I decided to skip it and just sprinkled some dried parsley instead, you can never go wrong with parsley in my opinion. Enjoy my lazy recipe, I did :D.
