Awards, Memberships and Reviews
Categories: Recipes
From Paola’s Kitchen: Cold Borscht Soup
by Paola Malpezzi-Price - Wednesday, October 6, 2010
When Rick and I were in Poland about to begin our Krakow to Budapest bike tour in 2009 I tasted a delicious borscht soup. This recipe reminds me of that soup, although my memory may be faulty after a year! Knowing however that beets are abundant at this time of the year and Indian Summer makes cold soups acceptable, I found this soup quite alluring.
Ingredients:
About 1 and 1/2 pounds beets or 4-5 medium-sized beets
Two garlic cloves, sliced
Two large shallots, sliced
One bay leaf
One teaspoon coriander seeds (optional)
Three cloves
1/8 teaspoon cayenne or to taste
One tablespoon sugar
Two tablespoons red-wine vinegar, or to taste
One tablespoon olive oil
One tablespoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
One cup whole-milk yogurt
Chopped fresh dill or chives (optional
- Peel and slice the beets fairly thinly and put them in a large saucepan covered with 7-8 cups of water.
- Add the garlic, shallots, bay leaf, coriander, cloves, cayenne, sugar, vinegar, oil and salt and bring to a boil.
- Reduce to a simmer and cook for 15-25 minutes, or until the beets are tender.
- Check the seasoning of the broth. It should be sweet, sour, peppery and flavorful. (If necessary correct the seasoning, adding salt and/or cayenne and freshly ground pepper.)
- Cool slightly.
- Remove the bay leaf and puree the mixture in a blender.
- Chill in the refrigerator.
Just before serving, whisk in or spoon in the yogurt.
Enjoy!
Paola
Adapted from the NY Times Magazine, July 25, 2010.
Paola Malpezzi-Price - Paola Malpezzi-Price was co-founder of ExperiencePlus! Specialty Tours, and now advisor to Monica and Maria Elena as they run ExperiencePlus! Bicycle Tours. Paola retired in May 2014 from being the Chair of the Foreign Languages and Literature department and teaching French literature and culture, Italian literature and culture in translation and Women's Studies courses at Colorado State University. She has published two books: Lucrezia Marinella and the "Querelle des Femmes" in Seventeenth-Century Italy (2007) and Moderata Fonte - Women and Life in Sixteenth-century Venice (2003), both by Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.