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Red Beet and White Bean Borscht with Caraway Seeds

45 minutes·Serves 4

This soup gets its tang from pickle juice, a secret passed along to me by a Ukrainian friend who grew up making borscht. I think it adds something special but the soup tastes perfectly good without it. When prepping the beets, make it easier on yourself by just focusing on the gritty bits—it doesn’t have to be perfectly skinned. Wear an apron or shirt you don’t care about; you want to avoid getting beet juice on anything that’s not already pink. If your beets come with greens, chop them up and add to the soup in Step 3. I use cannellini beans for this dish but just about any white bean will do.

Ingredients

  • ½ teaspoon caraway seeds
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
  • ½ small red cabbage, sliced, roughly chopped
  • 2 carrots, peeled, thinly sliced
  • 2 medium beets, peeled, chopped
  • 1 medium Yukon Gold potato, chopped
  • 1 ½ teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
  • 4 cups vegetable broth
  • 1 (15-ounce) can white beans, drained and rinsed
  • 2 teaspoons dried dill
  • 2 tablespoons unsweetened pickle juice
  • Freshly ground black pepper

Serving suggestion

Avocado, sliced

Fresh dill, chopped

Instructions

  1. 1Heat the caraway seeds in a large soup pot over medium heat, and toast for 1 minute. Remove from the pot.
  2. 2Add the oil and onion to the pot and sauté until fragrant, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add the cabbage, carrots, beets, potato, and salt and continue to sauté until the vegetables begin to soften, about 10 minutes.
  3. 3Stir in the vegetable broth, white beans, and dill and bring it to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer until the beets and potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. If the soup is thicker than you’d like, add more water or vegetable broth.
  4. 4Turn off the heat. Stir in the toasted caraway seeds and pickle juice. Taste, and add salt and pepper, if needed. Use an immersion blender if you like a smooth soup.
  5. 5Serve with sliced avocado and chopped dill.

Easy Ingredient Swaps

↔Any thin-skinned potatoes for the Yukon Gold

↔White vinegar or lemon juice for the pickle juice

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