Kiev Borscht

3/4 cup dried white beans
1 1/2 lb pork ribs, cut into pieces (optional: mixed pork, beef, chicken, or lamb)
1 whole onion
3 carrots
1 medium-sized parsley root
Salt
3 medium-sized beets, sliced into strips
2 Tbsp lard
3 Tbsp tomato paste
1-2 Tbsp wine vinegar
1/2 celeriac root, sliced into fine strips
2 bell peppers, cut into strips
2 large tomatoes, sliced
3 medium-sized potatoes, diced
8-9oz white cabbage, shredded
1 bay leaf
4 cloves garlic
2 oz fatty bacon (salo)
Pepper
About 1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 bunch each dill and parsley, finely chopped
4 Tbsp sour cream

1. Soak the dried white beans in cold water overnight, then drain and boil in unsalted water until just soft. Set aside.
2. Wipe the meat and cook together with the onion, one whole carrot, and the parsley root in about 3 quarts of salted water until just soft, skimming off the foam from time to time. Remove the cooked vegetables from the meat stock.
3. Saute the peeled and sliced beets in 1 Tbsp lard, add the tomato paste and vinegar and sweat for 10-15 minutes.
4. In another saucepan lightly fry the celeriac and the remaining carrot, finely sliced, in 1 Tbsp of the lard. Add the peppers and tomatoes and sweat everything together for about 10 minutes. Add the beans, potatoes, the carrots, celeriac and vegetable mixture, and the cabbage to the meat stock, then add the sauted beets and bay leaf.
5. Grind the garlic with the bacon and one pinch of salt in a pestle and mortar and add to the soup. Bring everything to a boil, season with salt, pepper, and sugar and leave the borscht to cook over a very low heat for about another 30 minutes. Sprinkle with the herbs and serve with pampushky and sour cream.

Source: Culinaria Russia

Try #1 - July 20, 2012
Yum!  We like borscht.  I made several changes to this recipe, but that's the nice thing about soup - it doesn't really mess it up!  I used smoked beef sausage, omitted the parsley root, used a 15-oz can of beets (which is probably closer to 2 beets than 3), butter instead of lard, celery instead of celeriac root, and omitted the bacon.  I didn't have any fresh dill, so I just add some to the soup itself, instead of sprinkling it on top with the fresh parsley.  This was a good soup, although it did take a few hours because of all the chopping.  Even my mom liked the soup, and she doesn't like beets.