How to preserve the color of beets in borscht: features of preparing borscht, secrets of housewives and nuances of cooking vegetables

Many consider borscht one of their favorite soups. It’s so rich and aromatic – it’s a shame not to love it! But not everyone can make it bright red. During the cooking process, the capricious soup loses color and turns orange. Honestly, borscht doesn't have to be burgundy. Color has no effect on taste. But what if you just want to? Or household members bang their fists or spoons on the table and definitely demand red borscht! Let's see what we can do to give the soup just the right color.

Types of borscht

It should be noted that there is no single method of preparing borscht. Everything is prepared differently: with poultry, lard, mushrooms, beans, fish. And according to European standards, it should not contain pork. Only one ingredient remains constant - beets. All borscht recipes are divided into two groups:

Cold. They prefer to cook it in the hot season without using meat. Pickled and boiled beets are used as a base, parsley, onions, dill, garlic, sausage, boiled eggs and fermented milk products are added.
Hot (red). Its preparation takes a lot of time; housewives use meat broth, beets and many other vegetables. And you must cook it so that the beets do not lose color in the borscht. The dish is served with garlic, sometimes with donuts instead of bread.

How to cook Ukrainian borscht with sauerkraut and meat (recipe 2)

Borscht is a multinational dish. Many countries are fighting for the title of homeland of this soup. However, it is Ukrainian borscht that is most famous throughout the world. What's special about it? Try it!

To prepare we will need:

2 small or one medium beets
1 carrot
6 medium potatoes
300g sauerkraut
1 large onion 4 cloves garlic
1kg beef on the bone
1 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
salt, pepper, seasonings to taste.

Wash the meat and let it cook over low heat after boiling for 1-1.5 hours. Salt the broth. Don't forget to remove the foam using a slotted spoon. While the meat is cooking, prepare the vegetables. Peel the potatoes and chop into cubes.

Finely chop the onion, cut the beets and carrots into strips.

The onion is sent first for sautéing. Fry it until golden brown. Next, carrots are sent there, followed by beets.

What is added to borscht?

Borscht is a source of vitamins, so all vegetables must be fresh and of high quality. The main products needed to prepare a tasty, rich and aromatic first meal:

Meat. Everyone has different preferences: a mixture of beef and lamb, pork ribs, poultry (goose, duck, chicken or turkey legs), a selection of smoked meats with lard.
Vegetables. For a rich red color, choose dark and sweet beets. Hard potatoes are taken, and for a thick soup, boiled vegetables are used, adding fresh juicy cabbage and ripe tomatoes. In addition, you will need carrots and onions.
Seasonings. To enhance the taste, add black pepper - peas and ground. Significantly improves the aroma of garlic and herbs, consisting of dill, parsley and celery. Finally, you need to add the bay leaf.
Various additives. You can add fish and canned fish, mushrooms, beans and even dried fruits to the borscht. The main thing is not to make a mistake in combining products.

It is advisable to try everything and not be afraid to experiment. And the most important thing is that the beets in the borscht do not lose color and that it looks bright, colorful and rich.

How to make beetroot red?

Therefore, be sure to add to the prepared beets, before adding to the borscht, your choice: tomato paste, tomato sauce, a pinch of citric acid or a little vinegar. And then red borscht will delight you not only with its taste, but also with its beautiful rich color.

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How to quickly cook beets?

Many dishes are prepared from boiled beets. It is not recommended to peel it and cut off the root before cooking and baking, otherwise it will lighten and lose mineral salts. After washing thoroughly, place it in boiling water and close the lid tightly. To speed up the cooking process proceed as follows:

put a saucepan with beets on the fire and cook it for an hour;
remove from heat and keep under running cold water for 10 minutes;
cook large root vegetables over the fire again for a third of an hour;
cool - and the vegetable is ready.

Beetroot in borscht does not lose color if you add half a teaspoon of sugar per liter of water when cooking it. The same effect will occur when adding citric acid and vinegar. It should be noted that in the best varieties of beets, the root crop has a flattened shape and thin skin.

Little cooking tricks

It is better to pour beets with cold water rather than boiling water. Boiling water is also allowed, but useful substances are removed more and faster. You need to pour enough water into the container so that it is just above the vegetables. The entire cooking process must be monitored for the evaporation of moisture and added cold water from time to time, since the root vegetables need to remain completely in it at all times.

If you cook several pieces, it is better to choose specimens of the same shape and weight. The ends of root vegetables cannot be trimmed. It is advisable to select whole beets and wash them well before cooking to remove any dirt.

A suitable form of vegetable for cooking whole (not first courses) would be long cylindrical, rich burgundy color, sweet. For cooking you need low heat, without bubbling, under a lid. There are no clear recommendations regarding duration. Cooking time depends on the density and size of the root vegetables. On average, cooking will take from 40 minutes to an hour. If the vegetables are large, then more.

To test for softness and doneness, you can use a knife or toothpick to pierce the beets. It is considered ready if it is easily pierced. But you don’t need to do this every five minutes. It is enough to check once after 30 minutes of cooking. Otherwise, the vegetable will be all chopped up, the juice will leak out, and the brightness and integrity will be lost. The cooking process should be calm. The water for cooking beets does not require salting; this may slightly change the taste of the vegetable. At the end, you just need to drain the water and cool the beets.

How to preserve the color of beets without vinegar?

Often pureed beets are used for borscht and salads. In order for its color to remain juicy and bright, it is thickly sprinkled with table salt and left in a plate for some time until it is completely dissolved. In this case, it is necessary to stir periodically so that all the contents are completely saturated. As soon as the salt has dissolved, the beets are watered with vegetable oil to consolidate the effect. The resulting mass is added to borscht. There is no need to be afraid that the color of the beets will change when boiling. This description will answer the question of how to preserve the color of beets in borscht? You just need to remember that the beets were salted and not to over-salt the soup.

Acid will help

Don't be alarmed, we won't add hydrochloric or sulfuric acid to the borscht. Let's leave them for experiments in chemistry lessons. Tomato paste, vinegar or lemon will save us. The acid will help the beets remain bright (but this does not mean that after this treatment they will be digestible).

To turn the soup burgundy, use one of the following methods.

Sauté beets separately from other vegetables. After placing it in the frying pan, immediately pour in tomato paste and simmer.
If you don't mind borscht with vinegar (some are against adding it to this soup), you can use another method. Before sautéing, sprinkle the beets with a small amount of vinegar and mix well. Don't overdo it! Vinegar must be of good quality so as not to spoil the taste of borscht. It is better not to use a regular canteen. It is more advisable to take wine, apple or raspberry vinegar. The taste and aroma of the soup will be softer.
Would you like some vinegar? The color of beets can be preserved by using lemon juice. Everything is the same: add a small amount at the beginning of sauteing.

Acid-treated beets are added to the soup last, after all other vegetables. Otherwise, it may prevent the potatoes or cabbage from cooking well.

Chef's tips for preparing borscht

In order to be able to cook tasty and beautiful borscht, let’s listen to the advice of a professional. He makes the following recommendations:

Meat. For borscht, a lean piece is more suitable, preferably without bones, which produces a darker and cloudier broth, and also gives off a specific smell. Before cooking, meat must be thoroughly washed.
Bouillon. It is definitely recommended to cook over low heat. With strong bubbling, the broth becomes cloudy. To improve the taste, onions are added to it - it clears the turbidity, carrots - it gives a beautiful color, celery - it improves the taste.
Beet. For borscht, only raw beets are used.
Roasting. It is made from carrots, onions and beets. To prevent the beets from losing their color in the borscht, the vegetables are stewed in a small amount of oil with the addition of broth over low heat. At the same time, they give off all their aroma and acquire a rich hue.
Acidify. A small amount of tomato paste is added to the finished frying to add a special taste and color. Lemon juice or dry wine is sometimes used for acidification.
Salt. Salt is added before the beets are planted so as not to spoil the color.
How to preserve the color of beets in borscht? To do this, only after the potatoes and cabbage are ready, they put the fry into the pan and do not boil anymore.
Insist. Cooked borscht must sit for at least half an hour; during this time, the vegetables will give their flavor to the broth.
To warm. The finished soup can be heated, but cannot be boiled, otherwise it will become cloudy and its color will deteriorate.

Recipes for beetroot borscht

With meat broth, borscht turns out nutritious and rich. For vegetarians and during Lent, make a dish using water and fry vegetables in vegetable oil. Well, in the summer when it’s hot, you won’t want to eat hot soup; a cold beetroot soup will help out.

Classic dish

It is advisable to take pork on the bone. Use fresh cabbage and one large root vegetable for cooking.

Composition for 3.5 liters of water:

beets – 1 pc.;
pork – 400 g;
onion – 2 pcs.;
carrots – 2 pcs.;
300 g cabbage;
4 potatoes;
tomato. paste – 70 g;
vinegar essence – 1 tsp;
garlic – 3 cloves;
ground pepper;
vegetable oil – 3 tablespoons.

Step by step recipe

The piece of meat is washed, filled with water, and a whole peeled onion is sent to it (it is taken out before the potatoes). Cover with a lid and set to boil. Do not forget to remove the gray foam from the surface of the liquid. Boil the meat for 50-60 minutes, remove it from the broth, remove the bone, cut the flesh and put it back at the same time as frying it.

Throw diced potatoes into the water; when the liquid boils, reduce the gas. The carrots and beet roots are grated, the onions are chopped, and the cabbage is shredded.

The first frying is made from onions and carrots. Pour oil into a frying pan, add onions, after 3-4 minutes add carrots, fry until tender, add to broth, add apple cider vinegar. Pour a little oil into the frying pan again, add chopped beets, fry for 5 minutes, add tomato paste. You can add 3-4 tablespoons of tomato juice, or cut 2-3 tomatoes, add water and simmer for 3 minutes. The contents are poured into a saucepan, followed by chopped cabbage, pepper, bay leaf, and salt. Let it boil for 7 minutes, squeeze garlic cloves into the borscht, boil for 2-3 minutes. Before serving, sprinkle with herbs.

Advice!

You can add bell pepper to the recipe; cut it, fry it, or add it raw when the potatoes are cooked.

Red borscht with chicken broth

Cooking chicken takes less time than other types of meat. Chicken makes an appetizing and aromatic borscht. You can use both chicken legs and brisket, this will not affect the result.

Products for 3 liters of liquid:

potatoes – 3-4 pcs.;
chicken – 400 g;
1 onion;
raw cabbage – 350-400 g;
1 carrot;
beet root vegetable – 1 pc.;
tomato. pasta – 2 spoons;
tomatoes – 2 pcs.;
oil;
spices.

Lenten recipe

Soup without meat is eaten on days of fasting, also when they want to cleanse the body, and by those who do not eat meat at all. Borscht tastes no worse than a meat dish and is good for the stomach.

Compound:

500 g cabbage;
2-3 potatoes;
1 carrot;
1 onion;
2 beets;
2-3 tomatoes;
butter - 3 tablespoons;
garlic;
seasonings

Recipe

Prepare the food: all vegetables are peeled, washed, cut into strips, potatoes into cubes, onions into half rings. Tomatoes are scalded with boiling water, peeled and finely chopped.

Boil water in a saucepan (3 liters), add potatoes, cook for 15 minutes. Pour oil into a frying pan, fry all the vegetables: first onions, then carrots and beets, after 6 minutes add tomatoes, simmer for another 3 minutes, add water, add a spoonful of vinegar and sugar. The second root vegetable is grated, poured with boiling water, vinegar is added, and allowed to brew. Pour the infusion into the pan at the end of cooking.

When the potatoes are cooked, add the fry, then add cabbage, garlic, seasonings, and bay leaf. Add the greens at the end and let stand for 10 minutes.

Beetroot cold borscht

In the heat you cannot do without liquid food. Cold soups are prepared as a first course in the summer. It is better to cook the broth with lean meat - white chicken or veal will do. After cooking, allow the broth to cool, then use it as a base for borscht.

Products:

carrots – 1 pc.;
beet root vegetable – 2 pcs.;
1 onion;
potatoes – 3 pcs.;
eggs – 2 pcs.;
fresh cucumber – 1 pc.;
sugar – 1 spoon;
green onions – 1 bunch;
dill;
vinegar;
sour cream.

How to cook

Boil the whole root vegetable (half an hour) and grate it. Add chopped potatoes to beet broth or meat broth, cook until tender, and salt. Place beets in a saucepan, boil for 2 minutes, leave to cool.

Chop the cucumber, boiled eggs, green onions, and add all the ingredients to the broth. Add greens, mix, pour sour cream on.

Interesting!

Provitamin “A” is more easily absorbed by the body from boiled carrots than from fresh ones.

Ukrainian dish

Ukrainian borscht always turns out rich, thick, and satisfying. Its basis can be meat broth or boiled beans. For sourness, add a spoonful of lemon juice, although tomato sauce and garlic are usually enough.

Components:

potatoes – 4-5 pcs.;
pork – 0.5 kg;
1 table beet;
1 carrot;
butter – 3 tablespoons;
1 sweet pepper;
1 onion;
fresh tomatoes – 3 pcs.;
tomato sauce or fruit drink - 3 tbsp. l.;
cabbage – 350 g;
garlic – 2-3 cloves;
herbs, spices.

How to cook

Wash the meat, put it in a saucepan, pour 4 liters of water, and set to cook. When boiling, remove the foam with a slotted spoon, reduce the heat, and salt the water. Boil the meat for 50 minutes, remove it and cut it into pieces.

The potatoes are cut into cubes, transferred to the broth, and boiled for 15 minutes (the time depends on the type of potato). Add sweet peppers to the broth. Frying is done in two pans. At the first stage, onions and carrots are fried in oil. On the second, simmer the beets for 7-10 minutes, pour in tomato sauce, chopped tomatoes, and fry for another 5-6 minutes.

Add the fryings one by one to the pan and let the water boil for 2 minutes. Add shredded cabbage. Then chopped garlic, ground pepper and pieces of boiled meat are sent.

To keep the cabbage crispy, cook it for 2-3 minutes, turn off the gas, and leave the lid slightly open. Those who like soft cabbage need to boil the vegetable for 10 minutes, then cover the pan tightly with a lid and leave to brew for 15 minutes. Before turning off the gas, add chopped dill to the borscht. Add a spoonful of sour cream or mayonnaise to the borscht.

Borscht with beef

For beef borscht, a three-liter pan will be enough for 2 days for a family of 3 people. Beef broth is not as fatty as pork broth and is easier to digest by the body. It's better to take veal, it cooks faster.

Components:

beef – 0.5 kg;
root vegetable - 1 pc.;
potatoes – 3 pcs.;
carrot – 1 pc.;
cabbage – 300-400 g;
onion – 1 head;
tomato sauce – 2-3 spoons;
oil;
greenery;
spices;
garlic.

How to cook

Boil the beef for 60 minutes, take it out, cut it, and leave it in a bowl.

Cut the potatoes into boiling water and fry them after 20 minutes.

It is prepared in a frying pan: onions are sautéed in oil, then carrots are added, fried for 2-3 minutes, grated beets are added, after 5-7 minutes, tomato sauce is poured in and lightly fried.

Bring in the boiled beef, when everything has boiled for 10 minutes, add the cabbage to the pan and add salt. Add spices and garlic, cook for 5 minutes, turn off, cover with a lid.

Advice!

A pinch of ginger will add a new taste to the borscht; add it 5 minutes before turning off the heat.

Add acid to make borscht red

The aromatic and rich color of the soup stimulates the appetite and brings pleasure while eating. But here’s the problem: beets often lose color in borscht. What to do? You can give the soup a bright burgundy hue in different ways. One of them is adding acid. For this use:

Apple or wine vinegar - sprinkle on beets before stewing them.
Tomato paste - added during the preparation of stewed beets.
Lemon juice – add a small amount of juice at the beginning of sautéing. It is used by those who do not like vinegar.

In order for the borscht to turn out beautiful and bright, you need to try several methods and choose the best one.

Other useful tips

There are some additional tricks to help preserve the color of borscht when cooking:

When frying, you can add a little (literally a couple of pinches) of sugar and flour. This mixture will caramelize the beet chunks and keep the juice from leaking too much. However, in this case you need to add it literally grain by grain - and stir the frying often, otherwise the taste and smell of burnt sugar will kill the entire dish.
In addition to a piece of raw beets, you can add beet juice to the borscht. To do this, grind raw beets, squeeze out the juice through cheesecloth or simply with your fingers. The beets themselves are sauteed with carrots and tomato paste - but the collected juice is poured into the pan literally a couple of minutes before they are ready.
Finally, the color of borscht very much depends on the color of the beets. If you take sugar or hybrid beets instead of red beets, no matter how hard you try, you won’t get a bright color: both sugar beets and their random hybrids with red beets produce only pale pink, yellowish or colorless juice. But good varieties of table beets (such as Kuban borscht) have a bright and rich color.

A few secrets to keep borscht bright

Some people don't like or can't eat fried vegetables, then there are other ways to make borscht a rich, bright color. How to preserve the color of beets when cooking borscht without resorting to frying? To do this proceed as follows:

Remove the meat from the prepared broth and place in the previously peeled and halved beets. Add the remaining vegetables to the broth. After a third of an hour, take out the beets, grate them and, after all the vegetables are ready, add them to the pan. Bring to a boil and turn off the heat, leaving to infuse.
Boil the beets in their skins. To do this, after thoroughly washing the vegetable, place it in boiling unsalted water and cook for an hour. Grate the beets and add to the prepared borscht, which is left on the fire for another two minutes.
Grate cleanly washed and peeled raw beets. Place in a bowl and pour boiling water over it. After this, start preparing the borscht. Add beets to the fully prepared soup and simmer for about five minutes.

If the option you chose did not give the desired result, experiment again. Next, we will discuss why beets lose color when cooking borscht.

other methods

Don't want to add acid to borscht? Don't add! It can be made red in other ways. For example, use sugar. When you have sautéed the beets, add a little sugar and stir. This will not only help preserve the color, but also give the soup a unique flavor. By the way, sugar used to be added to almost any first and second course - soups, meat, sauces. This was done in order to enhance the taste of the dish. Unfortunately, now this tradition is almost forgotten. We recommend that it be revived. You will feel the difference! Roughly speaking, sugar is a kind of analogue of monosodium glutamate. Only harmless. Any dishes with the addition of a minimal amount of sugar turn out much tastier.

What if you don't want to roast the beets? It's OK. We can make borscht burgundy without this step. There are several other ways to preserve the desired shade of soup. They will especially appeal to people who do not like to add a lot of fried foods to their first courses.

This method is incredibly simple. When your broth is ready, remove the meat from it. Now put the whole peeled beets into the boiling broth. If the vegetable is too large, then the “full size” may not have time to cook entirely. Cut large beets in half or into quarters. Next, lower the potatoes into the broth and cook the borscht as usual. After 10-15 minutes, remove the beets and set aside for now. Wait until the soup is almost ready. Now you can grate the beets, add them to the rest of the ingredients and cook for about 3-5 minutes. “To be on the safe side,” so that the color is certainly preserved, the grated vegetable can be sprinkled with vinegar or lemon juice. But this is no longer necessary.
You can do it differently. Cook the beets separately. Whole, in peel. Wash the beets well and add hot water to cover the roots completely. Important detail: there is no need to salt the water! Salt will make the beets tough. You need to cook the vegetable for 50-60 minutes. You can also bake beets in the oven. Wash it, wrap it in foil and place it in a hot (180-200 degrees) oven. Beets are baked from 50 minutes (small) to one and a half hours (very large). You can do without foil, but then the root vegetables will shrink (this will not affect the taste).

Delicious recipe!
Whole bell peppers for the winter - cooking recipes So, we have ready-made beets. We need to grate it and put it in the already cooked borscht. Then the color will be perfectly preserved. Let the soup simmer for just a minute or two and remove from heat.

And the last method is also very simple. When you start preparing the soup, wash, peel and grate the beets raw (!). Now put it in a bowl (preferably a metal one - it will retain the temperature better) and pour boiling water over it. That's it, they forgot about the beets! Prepare borscht as usual. And when there are literally 5 minutes left until the end of cooking, drain the water from the beets and add it to the soup. That's it, boil for 5 minutes and that's enough. The borscht will turn out to be a very rich shade.

Now you know why your favorite soup may change color. And what to do to avoid this. We wish you successful culinary experiments and bon appetit. And also inspiration. And your borscht will definitely turn out exactly the shade you worked so hard to achieve!

Borsch! There is so much in this word... This dish is the dream of every man and the advantage of every woman. Each housewife has her own trump cards in preparing this soup. Its quality depends on many factors, including the choice of ingredients.

To make borscht rich, bright and tasty, you need to know certain subtleties and life hacks. Here we will get acquainted with the main ones.

Cooking tricks

Many are at a loss as to why the beautiful red color of borscht at the beginning of cooking loses its attractiveness towards the end and becomes yellowish. The secret is this:

Long-term processing of beets. When adding beets immediately after the broth is ready, the pigment is digested and the broth takes on an unattractive color. The beets are added when the soup is completely ready and kept on the fire for no more than five minutes. On the second day, when heating the borscht, do not bring it to a boil so as not to spoil the color of the broth.
Use special varieties of beets. The beauty and taste of your borscht depend on the type of root vegetable you choose. Salad varieties of beets that have a dark burgundy color when cut are well suited.

Considering these two features when preparing borscht, you can count on success.

What affects color?

To understand how to get red borscht, you must first understand why you are not achieving results. After all, it also happens that during the cooking process the soup looks rich burgundy, and at the end of cooking it turns into orange.

The color of borscht depends mainly on the beets. Therefore, if it doesn’t turn out red for you, perhaps you are doing the wrong thing with this vegetable. Two main “beetroot” rules:

Beets lose color from prolonged heat treatment. Perhaps you are adding this vegetable to the soup too early? Or do you just cook the borscht for a long time? To prevent the dish from losing color, try cooking the beets for no more than 10-15 minutes. It should be borne in mind that even if you managed to make the borscht burgundy, it may “shed” when reheated. Therefore, try to heat the soup quickly, in small portions. If you have a microwave, it's best.
Borscht requires the use of special varieties of beets. It’s better to take lettuce or dark burgundy. Or the “Kuban borscht” variety - it is rich red, with dark veins.

Now let’s figure out what to do to preserve the color we need.

How to cook red borscht without meat?

The shade of the borscht broth, in fact, does not affect its taste, but the burgundy color stimulates the appetite and makes it more attractive. How to preserve the red color of beets in borscht if you cook it without meat? Let's consider two ways:

The beets are cooked separately: they are washed, placed with the peel in a pan of boiling water and cooked until tender for about an hour. It is not advisable to add salt, as this will make it hard. Take out the finished beets, grate them on a coarse grater or cut them and add them to the already prepared borscht, bring to a boil and turn off the heat. Infuse and serve with sour cream.
The vegetable is baked in the oven: pre-washed beets are wrapped in foil and placed in a preheated oven for about 50 minutes. After this, they are taken out, cooled, rubbed and added to the prepared borscht without meat. Leave the pan on the heat for another minute or two and the soup is ready. Let it sit for at least 30 minutes and you’re ready to eat.

Everything is done very simply. To make it beautiful and tasty, try different options.

Borscht with fresh cabbage and beets according to the classic recipe (recipe 1)

This recipe is the most popular among experienced housewives. For beginners, we will look at it step by step.

Ingredients for 3 liters of water:

Beef on the bone 1kg
Fresh cabbage 500g
4-5 potatoes
1 carrot
1 onion
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 cloves garlic
salt
spices for borscht
2 tbsp vinegar

Rinse the meat and place in a saucepan. Cook over low heat after boiling for an hour.

The readiness of beef is determined by the degree to which the meat separates from the bone.

While the broth is preparing, let's prepare the vegetables.
Shred the cabbage using a vegetable slicer or knife. Cut the peeled potatoes into cubes. Peel the beets and carrots and cut into strips. Finely chop the onion. Once the meat is cooked, you need to remove it and separate it from the bone. Then cut it into pieces.

To make the broth clear, skim off the foam that arises during the cooking process more often!

Add the chopped meat to the boiling broth.
Cabbage goes there too. ...and potatoes. We send the beets with the addition of tomato paste to simmer in a frying pan hot with oil. After 10 minutes, add vinegar and wait a couple more minutes. Then remove from heat. We also sauté carrots and onions until golden brown. Add onions, carrots and beets to the soup. Garlic is an important part of borscht! We add it, after chopping it with a knife, at the very end of cooking. It gives borscht that unique aroma and taste!

Remove the pan from the heat, let the borscht “rest” for 30 minutes and proceed to tasting with sour cream and herbs. Bon appetit!

Housewives' secret: the reddest borscht

Many housewives try a large number of different recipes for preparing borscht, a soup that has millions of fans. The trick is how to cook the borscht to preserve the color of the beets. Here is one of them:

Peel the beets and cut them into 4-6 pieces.
Dip the pieces into the prepared boiling broth and cook for a quarter of an hour.
Add to the pan everything that is needed according to the recipe: vegetables, meat, herbs, spices in the usual order and quantity.
After the potatoes and cabbage are ready, turn off the heat and remove the beet pieces. They will look pale and undercooked, but housewives claim that this is how it should be.
Cool the beets a little and grate them. It turns out that the color stays bright inside.
Add it to the soup, stir and leave for about 15 minutes. You can no longer boil the borscht.

According to the proposed recipe, the borscht turns out to be bright, very rich beetroot color and pleasant taste. Housewives claim that they have never seen more colorful borscht.

Why does the soup turn pale?

First of all, let's figure out what causes the loss of color and how to make sure that the beets in the soup do not turn pale, but are red. The fact is that the pigment that gives beets and all borscht a rich red hue is not very stable. The color of beets is destroyed by two factors:

Long-term heat treatment. The pigment is not thermally stable, and therefore, during prolonged cooking or frying, it disintegrates.
Alkaline environment. It is provided by a number of products - beans, cabbage or carrots. Borscht without cabbage is the same nonsense as without beets.

Hence the conclusion: in order for the borscht to retain its bright red color, the beets cannot be digested in it, and contact with alkali must be avoided for a longer time. Now let's see how this all looks in practice.

Advice

All recommendations given below are indicative only. There is no single canonical recipe, for violation of which a heretic is excommunicated from cooking.

Why do beets lose color in borscht?

Real borscht is a soup that is always rich pink-red in color. But many housewives complain that after cooking, the borscht takes on a pale orange or even brown tint. What is the reason? Improper preparation of the product. Experts give the following advice:

To stew, vegetables must be chopped, not grated.
Particular attention is paid to the beet variety. It should be salad-like with a thin peel and slightly flattened in shape. The cut is dark, without whitish streaks.
Vegetables must be stewed and before finishing, add a little acetic acid, lemon juice or tomato paste.
After adding the frying, the borscht is not boiled, but only brought to a boil and immediately turned off.

Once ready, the soup is infused and served. It does not lose color the next day.

What to add to borscht so that the beets do not lose color

Now that you understand the principle of properly preparing red borscht, let's look at other ways to preserve the colors of the soup.

How to properly cook borscht with beets and vinegar so that it is red

The acid fixes the dyes. Therefore, even when washing clothes, vinegar is added to the water to prevent them from fading. In Soviet times, to prevent cotton fabric from fading, it was immediately washed in vinegar water, this was a guarantee of maintaining its bright color.

The same technique applies to classic borscht. Beets are one of the few vegetables that contain betacyntin, a natural pigment that gives them a dark burgundy color. This natural dye, just like all the others, responds to the effects of vinegar and does not fade during heat treatment.

Therefore, you can add vinegar to the borscht, or rather, to the same dressing. It doesn't have to be acetic acid! It can be natural, not chemical, vinegar - apple or grape, which have a lower strength level. For apple it is 4-5%, for grape (wine) it is usually about 6%. It is also worth paying attention to rice vinegar, which is now sold in many stores. Look for it on the shelves with ingredients for making sushi. Its strength is only 3%.

To compensate for the sourness that vinegar will add to borscht, sugar is added to the dressing. It will smooth out the taste of the dish. As you know, together with salt, sugar is one of the main taste regulators.

As for the quantity, for a 3-3.5 liter pan, 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon will be enough, depending on what type of vinegar you use.

Lemon or how to make borscht red without vinegar

If you do not want to use vinegar for medical or other reasons, take another acid - citric acid. Well, if we’re going to use it, then, of course, it’s better to take it in its natural form, that is, lemon juice. For 4-5 liters of soup, 1 tablespoon of juice will be enough, which you will get from about 1/3 of a fresh lemon.

Pour the juice into the roast immediately before frying it and, in the same way as vinegar, compensate with sugar.

Cook the beets separately and in advance so that the borscht turns out richly red

Another interesting way to preserve the color of beets is to boil them until tender in advance. Everyone probably cooked it in its uniform for herring under a fur coat or another salad? You can do the same for borscht.

The “uniform,” or rather the peel, will retain the coloring pigment inside and prevent it from going out into the water. But there is one “but”. Under no circumstances cut off either the “butt” or the “tail”! Having damaged the “uniform” with your own hands, you will make an exit for the pigment to the outside, through which part of it will escape. Therefore, rinse the vegetable very well, using a brush or the hard side of a dish sponge.

What to do if the vegetable is large and you don’t need as much? Once you cut the beets, you can no longer cook them in water. But it can be baked in the oven. It is believed that this method is even more useful. Well washed, wiped dry, unpeeled red vegetable is wrapped in foil, put in the oven and baked there at a temperature of 180-200 degrees. Check readiness with a toothpick. In the same way, you can bake not the whole, but any part of it.

Red borscht in a slow cooker

The ingredients are still the same, nothing new:

The meat is washed and cooked in a separate pan for five minutes. Then the contents are poured into a slow cooker, chopped vegetables, except beets, are added. Add salt, herbs and seasonings. The timer is set for 20 minutes.
While everything is boiling, prepare the beets: they are washed, peeled and grated or cut with a knife. Add oil to the frying pan and simmer the vegetable until tender, adding a little water. To preserve the color, you can add a little sugar and pour the entire contents into a slow cooker. The borscht, tasty and bright in color, is ready.

It should be noted that any skill comes with experience.

Why is the borscht not red?

Do I need to salt the water when cooking beets?

Under no circumstances should beets be peeled or the tail cut off before cooking. If you break the integrity of the beets, the juice will leak out and the beets will become watery. - There is no need to salt the water during cooking. ... - after cooking, immediately drain the water and pour cold water over the beets for a few minutes.

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