500 g of beef with bone and fat
2 liters of water
1 beet, grated
2 carrots, cut into inch long pieces
1 carrot, grated
1 onion, quartered
1 onion, coarsely chopped
3-4 potatoes
2-3 cups chopped cabbage
1 clove garlic
3 bayleaves
1 tsp salt
6 oz tomato paste or 3 tomatoes (peeled and crushed)
vegetable oil

place beef, 1 quartered onion and 2 carrot (cut into inch long pieces) into 2 liters of water. bring to a boil and continue boiling for about 10 minutes. Skim off the scum on top. Reduce heat to low and continue heating for 1 hour. If the water becomes too low (the beef is uncovered) add boiling water to the pot. After 1 hour add the potatoes, peeled and sliced about 1 cm thick. Increase heat to medium and let cook.

While the potatoes are cooking, peel and grate 1 large beet. Also coarsely chop 1 onion and grate 1 carrot. Cover the bottom of a frying pan with oil and heat until the oil is hot. Then add the onions and fry until just golden in color. Remove the onions with a slotted spoon so as not to remove the oil then add the beets and carrots. Fry beets until slightly soft then add the onions back in. Add 2-3 bay leaves and the tomato paste or tomatoes and 1 teaspoon salt. After a short time of frying add some of the broth from the meat/potatoes pot. If the pan of vegetables starts to become dry, add more broth.

Add chopped cabbage to the soup and cover again. Once the potatoes are soft, add the beet mixture and then press 1 clove garlic into the soup. Let cook another 10-15 minutes for flavors to blend. Shortly before the soup is finished, some of the potatoes can be removed and crushed then added back in. This will serve to thicken the soup slightly. Alternately, potatoes boiled the day before could be substituted for raw potatoes so that they will naturally begin to break apart while cooking.

Once finished serve the soup garnished with sour cream.

last updated 3/28/99