• Capital: Kiev
• Population: about 45 millions
• Area: 603 628 km²
• Currency: Ukrainian hryvnia

For my Ukrainian recipe I made borscht. It is a delicious soup with beef, vegetables. It gets its signature purple color from the beets it contains. It is served hot with a spoonful of sour cream. Amazing!

Borscht

Ingredients:

• 1 pound chuck roast
• 1 large onion
• 2 carrots
• 2 celery stalks
• 4 cloves garlic
• 4 beets
• 1/2 head green cabbage
• 2 sprigs celery
• 2 sprigs dill
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 28 ounces can peeled whole tomatoes
• 2 russet potatoes
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar or more (depending on your taste)
• 2 32 ounces beef broth cartons
• 1 teaspoon caraway seeds

Directions:

To start, prepare all your ingredients. cut the potatoes in 1 inch cubes. Cut the beets in 1/2 inch cubes. Dice the onion and finely dice the garlic. Slice the carrots and celery. Cut the cabbage in thin strips. Cut the chuck roast in 1 inch cubes.

Season the meat with salt and pepper. In a large dutch oven, heat some olive oil on high  heat. Once the oil is very hot, and throw in the eat. Brown the meat in batches to avoid overcrowding the pan. Reserve all browned meat in a plate. Add the onion to the dutch oven and cook until translucent. Make sure to scrape the bits of browned meat left in the pot while cooking the onions. Once the onions are translucent, add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute.

Add the broth, the reserved meat, 2 sprigs dill, 2 sprigs parsley and bay leaf. Bring to a boil on high heat, reduce the heat to low and let cook for 1 hour covered.

After 1 hour, run the broth through a sieve, reserve the broth on one side and the meat on the other. Remove the herbs.

In the same dutch oven, melt 2 tablespoons of butter and saute all the vegetables together for 5 minutes.

Add the broth and the meat to the vegetables. Crush the tomatoes with your hand in the soup. Let cook for an additional 20 minutes or until all the vegetables are cooked (try them with a fork).

Before serving, add the vinegar to the soup, stir and add salt and pepper as needed. Quickly roast the caraway seeds in a dry pan and add them to the sour cream (make sure you have enough sour cream to add 1 to 2 tablespoons per plate). Put some soup in a bowl, add some sour cream in the center and decorate with some dill if you have some left. Serve!

Smačnoho!