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 CEO & publisher 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.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO