I’m a winter person. No matter how cold my hands and feet are, no matter how much I resemble a South Park character, I love cold weather. Sunny, dry, cold days are my favourite. I get to enjoy some vitamin D during the day and come home for a hearty bowl of hot soup at night.
Our Russian friend Andrey prepared an amazing borsch a long while ago. I asked him for instructions and tweaked his recipe a bit. It turned out delicious and if you don’t believe me, ask Alvaro.
Dairy-free borsch
Yield: Serves 6
Ingredients
Broth
- 2 kg ossobuco
- 1 onion, coarsely chopped
- 1 carrot, coarsely chopped
- 2 celery stalks, coarsely chopped
- 1 bay leaf
- water
Soup
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 3 beetroots, in thin slices
- 3 carrots, in thin slices
- 3 parsnips, in thin slices
- 1 can coconut cream (optional but highly recommended)
Directions
Broth
- Optional step: roast ossobuco in a hot oven (220 C) for 45 minutes.
- Cook ossobuco with coarsely chopped onion, carrot, celery, bay leaf, and enough water to cover everything. Bring to a boil and simmer for a minimum of two hours. If you have a slow cooker and some time in your hands, cook it in low for a minimum of 8 hours. If you don’t have one, what are you waiting for??
- Reserve meat and marrow, strain broth and discard bones and vegetables.
Soup
- Peel and cut beetroots, carrots and parsnips in thin, 3-4 cm long strips.
- Heat the oil in a heavy-based pot. Sautée beetroots for 5 minutes, add carrots and sautée for another 3 minutes, add parsnips and sautée for another 3 minutes.
- Add broth and cook for another 5 minutes.
- I like to purée most of the vegetables and leave some whole, but you can choose to go either way.
- Add the meat, season with salt and pepper, serve.
- Optional: whisk the coconut cream and add a dollop to the soup.
Notes
- If you don’t have ossobuco, you can use oxtail, soup bones or even chicken. I’d dare to say you can even use vegetable stock and make it vegetarian.
- If you don’t have coconut cream (Ayam is the only brand I’d recommend because it has only coconut and water), pop a can of (Ayam) coconut milk in the fridge the night before, then scoop the cream that has solidified on top and whisk it.
sounds delicious Gaby 🙂
i;m not a winter person, looooove warm weather!
Looks delicious, so perfect for winter. I am neither a winter nor a summer person, I like them both for different reasons.