It's mid-October and the autumn colors around here are beginning to burst forth. Temperatures are up and down with some warm days, and some days feel more like November. There's nothing like a tasty bowl of hot soup (hopefully paired with a nice crusty homemade bread!) on a chilly day. Today's Musing offering is a recipe for a Polish food staple, Borscht or Beet Soup. This particular recipe is for a slow cooker, but is easily adapted for stove top cooking.
This recipe is very forgiving. I add and subtract ingredients depending on what I have on hand. The photo with this Musing is the soup I made this week. This time I omitted the potatoes and cabbage. I substituted homemade chicken broth for the beef broth, just because that's what I had available this week. Sometimes I substitute chopped leeks for onion. I didn't have tomato paste on hand this time, so I used tomato juice left over from a previous recipe. Beef stew meat can be replaced with other cuts of beef. Awhile back, I bought a large sirloin tip roast on sale, cut it up into one pound chunks and froze them for use later. I cut the thawed meat into small pieces and browned it before adding to the soup. I even added some chopped grape tomatoes that I had frozen for use later. (Do you end up with grape tomatoes that look a bit tired? Just freeze them whole. You can thaw and chop them and add to sauces, casseroles and soups!)
Hope you enjoy this recipe and don't be afraid to be creative.
This recipe is very forgiving. I add and subtract ingredients depending on what I have on hand. The photo with this Musing is the soup I made this week. This time I omitted the potatoes and cabbage. I substituted homemade chicken broth for the beef broth, just because that's what I had available this week. Sometimes I substitute chopped leeks for onion. I didn't have tomato paste on hand this time, so I used tomato juice left over from a previous recipe. Beef stew meat can be replaced with other cuts of beef. Awhile back, I bought a large sirloin tip roast on sale, cut it up into one pound chunks and froze them for use later. I cut the thawed meat into small pieces and browned it before adding to the soup. I even added some chopped grape tomatoes that I had frozen for use later. (Do you end up with grape tomatoes that look a bit tired? Just freeze them whole. You can thaw and chop them and add to sauces, casseroles and soups!)
Hope you enjoy this recipe and don't be afraid to be creative.
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