Polar Vortex Beef Borscht

By Liza Schoenfein January 30, 2019

Photographs by Liza Schoenfein

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: about 3 hours
Serves: 8

2½ pounds beef chuck cut into 2-3 inch pieces
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
32 ounces lower sodium beef broth
½ cup tomato paste
½ cup apple cider vinegar
¼ cup honey
4 dill fronds (about 6 inches long, about half a cup), tied into a bundle with kitchen string
1 teaspoon dill seed
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
1½ pounds of beets (red, or a mixture of red and golden), peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
1½ pounds small waxy white or Yukon gold potatoes, quartered
1 pound sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes), halved
1 cup baby carrots, halved (or a cup very roughly chopped regular carrots)
1 pound savoy cabbage, shredded

Garnish with sour cream or a nondairy version such as Toffuti Sour Supreme and chopped fresh dill.

1) Place meat in a large pot and add onion, garlic, broth, tomato paste, vinegar, honey, dill fronds, dill seed, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil; then lower heat and simmer for 1½ hours.

2) Fish out the wilted dill fronds. Add beets, potatoes, sunchokes, carrots and cabbage and cook about 1½ hours more, until meat is tender but vegetables are still in tact.

3) Garnish and serve.

Liza Schoenfein is senior food writer for the Forward. Contact her at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @LifeDeathDinner. Her personal blog is Life, Death & Dinner.

Liza Schoenfein is a former food editor of the Forward and author of the blog Life, Death & Dinner. Follow her on Instagram @LifeDeathDinner.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO