The cool months are here and we are extremely excited about one of the best things that come with them – SOUPS!

As one of our Café at the Bakery regular specials, Borsch Soup, is a soup popular in several Eastern European Countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and others. The dish uses beetroots as one of its main ingredients, which gives the dish a distinctive red colour. It shares the name with a wide selection of sour-tasting soups without beetroots, such as sorrel-based green borsch, rye-based white borsch, and cabbage borsch.

Soup is not complete without one (or maybe two!) slices of bread.

Our bread of choice to complement this nice sweet and sour, winter dish is our classic New York-style rye loaf. A loaf handcrafted using single origin wheat and wholemeal wheat from the Gwydir Shire, plus single origin rye from Coonamble.

Café at the Bakery – Borsch Soup

Serves:

4 -6

Preparation/Cooking timeTime:

Approximately 1hr – 1.5 hrs

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 200 g sirloin, diced
• 1 1/4 tsp salt,
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 carrots, diced
• 1 large potato, peeled and diced
• 1/2 small red cabbage, thinly sliced (around 3 cups)
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp dried coriander
• 1 litre (4 cups) beef stock
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 large beetroots, peeled and grated (2 cups)
• 3 1/2 tbsp red-wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup chopped dill
• 1/4 cup sour cream

Instructions:

1. HEAT oil in a large pot over medium-high. Pat beef dry with paper towels. Sprinkle with ½ tsp salt and pepper, then add to pan. Cook, stirring until no pink remains, 1 to 3 min

2. REDUCE heat to medium. Add onion, garlic, carrots, potato and cabbage. Cook, stirring until vegetables are slightly tender, 5 min. Stir in tomato paste, sugar, coriander and cook 1 min. Add broth and bay leaves. Boil, then reduce heat to medium-low.

3. SIMMER, covered, until cabbage is very tender, about 15 min. Stir in beets, vinegar and remaining ¾ tsp salt. Continue simmering until beets are tender, 10 min. Let stand, covered, for 5 min. Stir in 3 tbsp dill. Remove and discard bay leaves. Ladle into bowls and serve with a dollop of sour cream and remaining 1 tbsp dill.