Ukrainian Borscht, Made the Way It Is at Home
The UAFest kitchen team
August 2026 · 9 min read
The food court at Riverside Park, Carleton Place
Borscht is the dish Ukrainians argue about most and agree on least. Every family cooks it slightly differently, and every one of them is convinced theirs is the correct version. What follows is the common ground: a beetroot and cabbage soup built on a real broth, soured so it stays deep red, and finished with garlic, dill and sour cream.
In 2022 UNESCO added Ukrainian borscht culture to its list of intangible heritage in need of urgent safeguarding. That listing is about the cooking itself — the growing, the fermenting, the passing of the pot from one generation to the next — which is a fair description of what happens in a festival kitchen every year.
What makes a borscht Ukrainian
Three things carry the dish: beets, cabbage and a sour element. The beets give sweetness and colour, the cabbage gives body, and the acid — lemon juice, vinegar, beet kvas or the brine from pickled tomatoes — keeps the red from turning brown as the pot simmers.
Beyond that the variations are regional and personal. Southern versions lean on tomatoes. Western ones can be meatless and thin, especially during fasting. Some cooks add beans, some add prunes, and in Poltava the pot may hold dumplings called halushky. The recipe below is the everyday version most Ukrainian homes in Canada cook.
The order things go into the pot
Borscht rewards patience in a specific sequence. Broth first, and it should taste good on its own before a vegetable ever touches it. Potatoes and cabbage next, because they need the longest simmer. The beets go in near the end, cooked separately with the acid so they keep their colour.
The last five minutes are for garlic and dill, and then the pot rests. Borscht eaten straight off the stove tastes like its parts. Borscht eaten the next day tastes like borscht — this is the one point nearly every Ukrainian cook will agree on.
Borscht at the festival
At UAFest the borscht is cooked in volume by the kitchen team and served through the food court alongside varenyky, cabbage rolls and grilled sausage. It comes with sour cream and a slice of bread, the way it is eaten at home, and on a September afternoon by the river it disappears faster than anything else on the menu.
Recipe
Ukrainian Borscht
Beet and cabbage soup on a beef broth, soured to hold its colour, finished with garlic, dill and sour cream.
- Prep
- 30 minutes
- Cook
- 2 hours 30 minutes
- Total
- 3 hours
- Makes
- 8 servings
Ingredients
Broth
- 1 kg beef short ribs or brisket on the bone
- 3 litres cold water
- 1 onion, halved and left unpeeled
- 1 carrot, halved lengthwise
- 2 bay leaves, 6 black peppercorns
- 1 tbsp salt, plus more to finish
Soup
- 3 medium beets (about 500 g), peeled and coarsely grated
- 2 tbsp sunflower oil
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp lemon juice or white vinegar
- 1 tsp sugar
- 4 medium potatoes, cut into 2 cm cubes
- 300 g white cabbage, shredded thin
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 1 carrot, grated
- 1 red bell pepper, diced (optional)
To finish
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed with a pinch of salt
- 1 large bunch dill, chopped
- Sour cream, to serve
- Rye or dark bread, to serve
Method
- 1Build the brothPut the beef in a large pot with the cold water. Bring it slowly to a simmer and skim off the grey foam as it rises. Add the halved onion, carrot, bay leaves, peppercorns and salt, then cook uncovered at a bare simmer for 2 hours. Lift out the meat, strain the broth, discard the aromatics and pull the beef into bite-size pieces.
- 2Cook the beets separatelyHeat the sunflower oil in a wide pan. Add the grated beets, tomato paste, lemon juice and sugar with a ladle of broth, cover, and cook gently for 20 minutes until tender. The acid is what keeps them red — beets simmered loose in the pot turn the soup brown.
- 3Fry the baseIn a second pan soften the diced onion and grated carrot in a little oil for 8 minutes, adding the pepper for the last 3. Keep it just short of colour.
- 4AssembleReturn the strained broth to the pot and bring to a simmer. Add the potatoes, cook 10 minutes, then add the cabbage and cook 8 minutes more, until both are almost soft.
- 5Bring it togetherStir in the beets, the fried onion and carrot, and the pulled beef. Simmer 10 minutes and taste for salt and acid — it should be clearly sour under the sweetness of the beets.
- 6Finish and restTake the pot off the heat. Stir in the crushed garlic and most of the dill, cover, and leave it alone for at least 20 minutes. Serve with sour cream, the remaining dill and dark bread. It is better the next day.
Notes from the kitchen
- For a meatless pot, use a mushroom or bean broth and add a tin of white beans with the cabbage. This is the version cooked during fasting weeks.
- No fresh beets in the shop? A jar of pickled beets with their brine will carry both the colour and the acid — reduce the added lemon juice.
- Borscht freezes well before the garlic and dill go in. Add them after reheating.
Borscht, varenyky, cabbage rolls and grilled sausage are all on the menu at Riverside Park in September.
Sunday, September 13, 2026 · 12 PM – 6 PM · Riverside Park, Carleton Place
What people ask
Borscht is Ukrainian in origin, and in 2022 UNESCO inscribed the culture of Ukrainian borscht cooking on its list of intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent safeguarding. Versions of the soup are eaten across the region, and the dish travelled with people, as food does.
The beets were boiled in the pot without acid. Cook them separately with lemon juice or vinegar and add them near the end, and the soup stays red.
Yes. Ukrainian cooks make a lean version throughout the fasting calendar, built on mushroom or bean broth. Beans replace the meat for body, and the method is otherwise unchanged.
The beet-and-cabbage borscht here is served hot. There is a separate summer soup, kholodnyk, made with kefir and young beets, which is served cold.
The UAFest food court in Carleton Place serves it on festival day — Sunday, September 13, 2026, 12 PM to 6 PM at Riverside Park, about 45 minutes west of Ottawa.
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