My family's borscht recipe

Our version of Ukraine's national dish 🇺🇦

Borscht basically needs no introduction. (And yet I somehow managed to write 814 words on it, lol.) Apart from varenyky, the sweet-sour beet soup is probably the most recognizable of all Ukrainian foods.

As someone who spent the first nine years of her life in Ukraine, I’ve eaten a lot of borscht. Probably too much borscht, in fact, because by the time I reached my teenage years [already here in the States], I literally couldn’t stand it anymore and swore it off almost entirely. (Besides, all the new “American” food I was experiencing seemed so much more exciting.)

It wasn’t until the recent invasion of my home country that I started regaining curiosity – and having feelings of protectiveness – around our national dishes and ingredients. So, of course, I had to share my family’s version of this important recipe.

There are hundreds of ways to make borscht, which you’ll easily notice if you run a quick search online. There is no one “authentic” version. (However, borscht is a simple and homey food, so I’d be suspicious of any recipes that overcomplicate things or use out-of-left-field ingredients.) This one’s how my mom always makes it. If your family eats borscht too, let me know how it’s different/similar!

(Fun fact: the Anglicized spelling comes from the Yiddish. There is no ‘t’ in the Ukrainian and Russian spellings – we just say “borsh”.)

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