There are many versions of this soup, but I think my Ukrainian mother-in-law’s recipe is the best. His recipe does not contain celery, cabbage or tomato paste. She uses red potatoes instead of Yukon Gold and white onion instead of yellow. It also includes some of the youngest and most tender beet leaves (greens). I usually dice the potatoes and julienne the beets. We use Better Than Bouillon (beef) + water for the broth. She says you can also use canned broth or beef bones with little meat, if you prefer. At the end, we mix 1 TAB of flour with a little water and add about 1 cup of sour cream and the juice of half a lemon… we put everything in the pan and let it simmer for 10-15 minutes. Then add the fresh dill and taste…you may need to add more lemon juice. The soup has a nice color, like a soft pink magenta.
If food could be velvet, this would be it. It’s liquid velvet. Actually, I think it should be called Velvet Soup. 😋 It’s so good, it’s hard to stop eating it!
FYI: To save time and effort, I tried doing this once with these peeled, pre-cooked and packaged beets and it DID NOT work! Don’t even try that! You have to do it the old fashioned way… use raw beets and peel them yourself… it’s SO worth it!
