Borscht Soup

     Hey everyone!! Guess what?! I had one page view since last night! From someone in Germany :) Thank you person from Germany for viewing my page! Did I ever mention I'm part German? And Scottish, French, Norwegian, Italian, and something else I always forget. I just remember that in total there's seven. Sometimes I remember them all but usually one or two happen to evade my mind whenever I try to pull em up to tell someone. 
     Anyways, enough with the blabber. Good morning everyone!! I thought I'd include one of my great low calorie, vegetarian, healthy, super tasty recipes in this new post. Just so you guys know, it's not that I'm some needs-to-be-skinny obsessive person, it's just that I have some ballet competitions coming up which I do actually need to lose weight for. But that doesn't mean I can't eat yummy food! 
     So today I'll be sharing my mom's great Borscht soup recipe. It's a really popular Russian soup, and if you ask me, it is the absolute best soup in the entire world!! It mostly consists of beets, cabbage, carrots, potatoes; which sorta sounds gross but I promise you, IT IS NOT.
     Here it is:
This is just a picture I found on the internet but that's pretty much what my mom's looks like too.

Ingredients:
-Beets, 4 small cubed (about 1/2" cubes)
-Carrots, 1 large cubbed
-Cabbage (i usually use white, but i think purple is fine too), 1/2 medium sliced into thin ribbons
-Potato, 2 medium cubed
-Garlic, 6 cloves crushed and chopped fine
-Large onion (yellow), sliced into thin rings
-Large tomatoes, 3 peeled and chopped
-Balsamic/red wine vinegar, 1 Tbsp
-White sugar, 1 Tbsp
-Vegetable stock seasoning, 2 cubes
-Water, 2 1/2-3 L
-Black Pepper, 1/2 tsp
-Salt, 1 tsp
-Butter, 1 tsp
-Optional: ~Fresh dill to garnish (about 1/2 cup chopped)
           ~A dollop of sour cream to serve, or you can substitute it for plain yogurt which tastes good too. I don't use it but you might want to (keep in mind that will bring the calories up a bit too, for those of your worried about that)


Instructions:
1.Combine soup stock cubes and 2 L of water in a separate bowl or pot.
2.Melt butter in a big pot on medium. Add cubed beets and carrots, stir well to coat with butter. Sautee for about 5 minutes. 
3.Add onion rings, diced tomatoes, vinegar and sugar. Add in 2 Tbsp of the soup stock you prepared in step 1. Give it a little stir. Lower heat to a bit below medium.
4.Simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5.Add sliced cabbage, stir to moisten. Put lid on pot. Continue simmering for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. 
6.Add remainder off soup stock, potatoes, garlic, pepper, and salt. 
7.Cook at medium (do not boil!) until potatoes are tender.
8.Simmer for another 15-20 minutes on low for best flavour, or if you're really hungry you can serve now.
9.Before serving, sprinkle the optional dill, and stir a little bit to distribute the flavor. Serve, add optional dollop of sour cream.
Note: some will prefer the soup without the dill.


Serves about 6 or 7 nice big bowls.




Nutritional information: per serving
Calories: 95
Total fat: 1.3 g
Potassium: 650 mg (about 20% daily value)
Dietary Fiber: 3.1 g
Sugar: 8.5 g
Protein: 2.6 g
Vitamin A: 70%
Vitamin C: 40%


     
     And that's it! I hope you guys try it. It makes a really good hot dinner for those cold rainy days. I don't know about you but I sure get a lot of those where I live.
     Until next time :)
                                        -Morgan