Bulgarian Vegetarian Borscht

Easy no meat Bulgarian borscht. It’s flavorful and light, full of vitamins and minerals. The twist? It is served with cheese!

Start by washing your beetroot thoroughly. Place it in the deep pot, cover with water and bring to a boil. Cook on medium high heat for 1 1/2 hours uncovered. Take the beetroot out, peel it and cut into small cubes.

Wash leeks thoroughly and cut into thin circles. Heat some butter on a skillet and fry leeks on medium low heat.

Make an X shape cut on tomatoes. Place into a deep bowl and cover with boiling water. After 1 minute, transfer them into cold water. Then take tomatoes out, peel, remove the seeds and cut into small cubes.

Cut potatoes into cubes. Shred fresh cabbage, carrots and celery root. Place these vegetables into a pot, add tomatoes, cover with cold water and bring to a boil. Cook for 10 minutes, then add fried leeks and tomato puree. Fry all purpose flour on a dry skillet for a minute or two and then add it to your borscht. Cook for another 5 minutes, add 1 jalapeño pepper cut into small cubes and salt to taste. Lastly, add boiled beetroot.

Beat eggs with unsweetened greek yogurt. Add ground black pepper and lemon juice to the mixture. Pour this mixture into your borscht, bring it to a boil and remove from heat.

When serving this borscht, sprinkle with chopped dill. Serve shredded cheese on a separate plate.

You will need:

For borscht:

• Water – 6 cups
• Beetroot – 4 oz
• Fresh green cabbage – 8 oz
• 3 medium potatoes
• 1 large carrot
• 1 celery root
• 1 leek
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 jalapeno pepper
• Tomato puree – 1 cup
• All purpose flour – 1 tablespoon
• Butter – 1 tablespoon
• 2 eggs
• Greek yogurt – 1 cup
• Lemon juice – 1 tablespoon
• Salt – to taste

To serve:

• Chopped dill
• Grated cheese

Options:

1. You can make this borscht with yellow onion. In this case, cut the onion into small cubes and fry with butter on a skillet until it turns translucent. Then add all purpose flour, tomatoes and cook everything on medium heat for 5 minutes. Add this onion-tomato mixture into your borscht along with potatoes.