What to cook for lunch today? How many times in your life have you already asked yourself this question. And why not put aside the culinary delights and cook the simplest and most delicious borsch? Rich, nutritious and healthy, it is a signature dish in many housewives. But each one has its own, regardless of the fact that the same ingredients are used. Today we’ll talk about what to make red soup. There is nothing complicated in this, you just need to adhere to some rules.
Red cabbage borsch
In order to cook a bright and unusual first course, you first need to make a broth. Cook half the chicken, it will take about 40 minutes. In a separate cauldron, put a quarter of a head of red cabbage, chopped into thin strips, salt and pepper. Add julienne carrots and bell peppers. Put out for 30 minutes.
And, the main secret that will be useful to those who do not know what to do without beets. To borsch was red, it is necessary to fry fresh tomatoes, diced in a separate pan. Remove the chicken from the broth, chop and lower it back. It remains to add stewed vegetables and tomatoes - and you can turn it off. Such a soup will be slightly paler than usual. In addition, he is gaining taste for almost a day. This is a feature of all vegetable soups.
Slavic dish
Foreigners are not too fond of our traditional food, and borsch and okroshka are condescendingly called “liquid salad”. But this does not apply to those who at least once tried this dish. Usually already at the table, enthusiastic exclamations begin and a request for a recipe. It is at this moment that it is important to explain what to do to make the borscht red.
Each housewife has her own little secrets that make the dish especially tasty. But the preferences of each of them are also significantly different. Therefore, today there are countless variations of the dish. In the south it is cooked with fish, in the north with mushrooms. Beans, sauerkraut, bell peppers, smoked meat are added to it - whoever likes it. Today we are considering the basic recipe, as well as what to do to make the borscht red.
Cooking broth
It is most important. To make the dish tasty and rich, you must definitely cook a piece of meat with a bone. It can be pork or beef. You also have the opportunity to vary the amount of fat, someone likes borscht on a rich broth, others even remove a thin film that forms on top.
Well, now the main thing. What to make borscht red? When the meat is already half cooked, you need to add peeled carrots and a teaspoon of turmeric to it. It will take about an hour for the vegetable to boil completely. After that, add the rest of the ingredients, and immediately before turning off we take out the carrots, grate and lower them back. Now the broth has acquired a rich color. It remains to make a frying, a little "paint over" it - and a delicious meal for lunch is provided. And if you like the golden brown color, then you can do without it.
Borsch dressing
Today, multicookers greatly facilitate the life of a woman, so many of us began to leave the process of cooking the broth on her. It is good to return from work in the evening, knowing that most of the work has already been completed. The same with cooking borsch. Do you know what to make borscht red? To do this, prepare a special gas station.
You need to heat a little oil in a pan, add onions, then carrots. When the vegetables are fried, it is the turn of tomatoes or tomato paste. When the whole mixture is fried, remove the pan from the heat. Wait until the rest of the ingredients are ready and lay out the dressing. Now you know what to do to make borscht red.
We use spices
To make the dish interesting to taste and at the same time bright, you need to add sweet pepper to it. There is one variety that is best suited for this. This is paprika, sweet peppers. In ground form, it is sold in small bags. When added to vegetable and meat dishes, it gives them a beautiful reddish tint.
So, we have cooked the broth. Now you need to put the potatoes in water and bring to a boil. Once the potatoes are ready, the turn of cabbage will come. You can add canned red beans. It remains to wait only a few minutes and you can turn it off.
But we have not yet told all the tricks to make the borscht red. A step-by-step recipe also involves a description of the preparation of a dressing. A cast iron pan is best suited for this. We pass in it onions, chopped in half rings. To make the borscht thick and saturated, it is recommended to roll it in flour before frying. Red pepper and tomato paste are also added here. If the borsch is cooked in the summer, add a couple of fresh tomatoes and a large spoon of ground paprika. It remains to put the contents of the dressing in a pan and let it brew for 15 minutes.
Acid guard color
There are many more tricks that every mistress uses. Today we find out what to do to make borscht red. Citric acid is widely used in the kitchen and may very well help. In order for the vegetables to give a saturated color, they are passerized with a small amount of acetic acid or lemon juice. Acidic medium does not allow the color to collapse in the broth.
If there is no citric acid, then you can use sauerkraut. The only moment - you can put it in the pan only after the potatoes are ready, otherwise it will not fall apart and remain solid.
The benefits of vitamins
And we continue to consider what needs to be done so that the borsch is red. There is another great way. Borsch is cooked as usual, according to your favorite recipe. But when the dish is ready, the color is not red, but orange. You need to let it cool a bit. Now take the darkest tomatoes, for example, the variety "Black Prince". Remove the peel from them and grind in a blender. Now the resulting mass needs to be mixed in borsch and left to brew for several minutes. A dish according to such a recipe turns out amazingly tasty and healthy.
Instead of a conclusion
Red borsch is not at all difficult to cook. Of course, the brightest red color is obtained if beets are added. Its juice gives the broth a rich, unique color. But if you need to exclude it from your diet, then try replacing it with tomatoes, ketchup or tomato paste, add red cabbage and bell pepper, and experiment with spices. All this will give the broth the desired shade. Its intensity will depend on the components used and their quantity.
In addition, not everyone likes the rich color of the dish. Someone prefers it to be slightly golden, which is achieved by boiled carrots or onions, cooked in husks.
Today we examined the basic subtleties with which you can make the color even more beautiful by spending minimal effort.