‘My grandma would always say the spoon has to stand up straight [in a borsch] – it has to be full of vegetables,” says the Ukrainian cook and food writer Olia Hercules in a video we made together of her plant-based borsch. She adds that, while borsch is a soup, it’s also a hearty meal in itself that gets better with time, so she advises making a big batch and enjoying the leftovers over the following days.
What strikes me about borsch is that, beyond the beetroot, the other ingredients are pretty flexible, making it a great fridge-raid recipe to use up all kinds of vegetables. Add potatoes and/or any beans, other root veg such as parsnips, turnip or swede, and greens in the form of beetroot leaves or any cabbage or kale – I use both red and green cabbage in today’s recipe, which is in support of the #CookforUkraine initiative.
