• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Russian Best

Russian Life & People Digest

  • Home
  • Articles
  • Questions and Answers
    • History and Politics
    • Culture and Science
    • People and Language
    • Lifestyle and Attributes
    • Russian Sports
    • Food and Drinks
    • Traveling Russia
    • Economy and Geography
    • Russian Military
    • Books & Movies
Browse: Home / Food and Drinks

Is borscht a Russian or Ukrainian cuisine?

Question by Gyudon: Is borscht a Russian cuisine or Ukrainian cuisine?

Answers and Views:

Answer by Laura
It’s Russian cuisine.
Borsch is made of broth, beets, and tomato juice with various vegetables. Vegetables include onions, cabbage, tomato, carrots, and celery. Broth is usually made from beef and is heated while ingredients are added. Borsch can be made vegan, served hot or cold. Typically, it is served with white bread and Smetana.

Read all the answers in the comments.

Give your own answer to this question!

See other posts in Food and Drinks

Reader Interactions

Comments ( 3 )

  1. Lions, Vikings, and says

    russian, but is eaten in both countries

    Reply
  2. 4 THOSE WHO GIVE IT says

    Borsch (also borsh, barszcz, borshch or borsch) is a soup of Slavic origins[1] that is popular in many Eastern and Central European countries. In most of these countries, it is made with beetroot as the main ingredient[2][3], giving it a deep reddish-purple color. In some countries tomato may occur as the main ingredient, while beetroot acts as a secondary ingredient. Other, non-beet varieties also exist, such as the tomato paste-based orange borsch and the green (zelioni) borsch (sorrel soup).

    The soup is a staple part of the local culinary heritage of many Eastern and Central European nations.

    It made its way into North American cuisine and English vernacular by way of Slavic and Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe. Alternative spellings are borshch[4] and borsch[5].

    It is called in various languages: Azerbaijani: borș, Czech: boršč, Estonian: borš, Lithuanian: barščiai, Polish: barszcz, Romanian: borș, Russian: борщ, borshch, Slovak: boršč, , Turkish: Borç (due to the emigration of White Russians to Turkey after their defeat in the Russian Civil War), Ukrainian: борщ, borshch, Yiddish: בארשט, borsch.

    The name was earlier applied to hogweed soup,[6][7] and originally to the plant hogweed.

    Hot and cold borsch
    Pink color of traditional Lithuanian cold borsch (šaltibarščiai). Often eaten with a hot boiled potato, sour cream and dill.

    There are two main variants of borsch, generally referred to as hot and cold. Both are based on beets, but are otherwise prepared and served differently.

    Hot borsch

    Hot borsch (mostly Ukrainian), the kind most popular in the majority of cultures, is a hearty soup. It is almost always made with a broth made of beets. It usually contains heavy starchy vegetables including potatoes and beets, but may also contain carrots, spinach, and meat. It may be eaten as a meal in itself, but is usually eaten as an appetizer with thick dark bread.

    Cold borsch
    Cold borsch exists in many different cultures. Some of these include Lithuanian (šaltibarščiai), Polish (Chłodnik, literally 'cooler'), Belarusian, Ukrainian and Russian (swekolnik) cultures. As a traditional European cold soup, it is akin to preparations like gazpacho, Hungarian cold tomato and/or cucumber soups and meggyleves
    ==================
    Polish variants

    The basic Polish borsch (barszcz) recipe includes red beetroot, onions, garlic, and other vegetables such as carrots and celery or root parsley. The ingredients are cooked for some time together to produce kind of clear broth (when strained) served as boullion in cups or in other ways. Some recipes include bacon as well, which gives the soup its distinctive, "smoky" taste.

    Other versions are richer as they include meat and cut vegetables of various kinds where beetroots aren't the main one (though this soup isn't always called barszcz, but rather beetroot soup). This variation of barszcz isn't strained and vegetable contents are left in it. Such soup can make the main course of obiad (main meal eaten in the early afternoon).

    Barszcz in its strictly vegetarian version is the first course during the Christmas Eve feast. It's served with ravioli-type dumplings called "uszka" (lit. "little ears") with mushroom filling (sauerkraut can be used as well, again depending on the family tradition). Typically, this version does not include any meat ingredients, although some variants do.

    A key component to the taste of barszcz is acidity. Whilst barszcz can be made easily within a few hours by simply cooking the ingredients and adding vinegar, lemon juice or citric acid; the traditional way is to prepare barszcz several days before and allow it to naturally sour. Depending on the technique; the level of acidity required and the ingredients available, barszcz takes 3–7 days to prepare in this way.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borscht
    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

    Reply
  3. DIMAgic says

    Well, both countries will say it's they cuisine. But Ukrainian borscht is known to be the testiest one.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Popular Posts

Pushkin's Tatiana writing a letter to Onegin

Onegin’s Tatiana Was Only Thirteen?

Russian shashlik

My Favorite Russian Food

Dacha – Home Away From Home

Subway Dog

Subway Dogs of Moscow

Cape Cod on the Rocks

What is a cocktail with vodka and cranberry juice called?

Categories

Recent Comments

  • Pat on What does Nazdrovia actually mean?
  • Ted on Where can i send free SMS messages to Russian mobiles?
  • PutinPow on What does Nazdrovia actually mean?
  • bigdogg on What does Nazdrovia actually mean?
  • HAMISH A McDONALD on What Russia would be like today if Nicholas II had not been executed?

Copyright RussianBest.com © 2025 · About · Privacy Policy · Disclaimer: RussianBest.com is an informational website, and its content does not constitute professional advice of any kind.