Borsch – Ukrainian Beet Soup {In Pressure Cooker}
Borsch – Beef and Beet Soup is a traditional Ukrainian soup that is hearty, healthy and delicious! Made with beef, lots of vegetables and beans it is bound to become your favorite, just like it has been ours!
As a true-born Ukrainian, it is my duty to share a recipe for an authentic Borsch that graces our tables weekly and is the first thing that is requested when we come back from vacations. Rich with vegetables, beef, beans, and vibrant beets this Borsch is our family’s definition of comfort food.
Every single Ukrainian home cook has their own version of this soup and here I will show you mine. Growing up, we didn’t make this soup with meat but did add lots of beans as a replacement. Beans add lots of protein and make this Ukrainian Beet Soup very filling.
Variations in Beef Borscht
Some people make this ruby-colored borsch with shredded cabbage, but in our family, we don’t add any. If you do decide that you want some cabbage in it, just shred 1/4 of a medium-sized head of cabbage and add it to the pot at the same time you add cubed potatoes.
Why Use a Pressure Cooker
The base of this delicious beet soup is made with beef broth. Cooking beef until tender usually takes several hours. Using my beloved pressure cooker (I have Instantpot Pressure Cooker) I can get the same delicious flavor, just at a fraction of the time.
Can I use a regular pot to cook Borsch?
Of course! That is how it’s been done for generations and generations. Just account for the fact that if you do choose to start with beef broth for the soup, you might want to start several hours ahead to allow the beef to cook through and become tender.
Now here’s the recipe!
Ingredients for Ukrainian Beet Soup – Borsch {In Pressure Cooker}:
To cook the beef:
- water
- beef, chuck, or tenderloin
- onion, whole, peeled
- medium/large carrot, peeled
- black peppercorns
- salt
For Sautéed Vegetables:
- onion
- carrots
- beets
- bacon
- tomato paste or can of tomato sauce
- kosher salt
- black ground pepper
Also:
- yellow potatoes
- Better than Bullion Beef or Chicken Base.
- white beans, drained
- black beans, drained
- Kosher salt, to taste
- chopped dill
- chopped parsley
To serve:
- Sour cream
How to make Ukrainian Beet Soup – Borsch in the Pressure Cooker:
- To a large 6 qt pot add 2 Qts of water, 1.5 lbs of beef, 1 whole onion, one whole carrot, 1/2 tbsp salt & 5-7 black peppercorns. Cover with lid, close the lid valve to “pressure” and set the pot to “pressure cook” for 60 minutes.
While the meat is cooking render the bacon and sauté the vegetables:
- Render 4 strips of chopped bacon in a skillet over medium heat until crispy. Remove the bacon and discard the fat.
- Add 2-3 tablespoons of oil to the same skillet and 1.5 cups of diced onions and sauté, stirring continuously, until golden brown, about 5-8 minutes.
- To the onions add 1.5 cups shredded carrots, stir and continue cooking over medium heat for about 5 minutes until lightly golden.
- Now add 3 cups of shredded beets and stir.
- Season with 1 tsp of kosher salt, 2 tsp of black ground pepper, 2 tbsp of tomato paste, or 7.4 oz of tomato sauce and stir everything to combine. Cover with lid, turn the heat to low, and cook until the beets are soft, string several times throughout, about 25 minutes.
- After the time has expired on the pressure cooker, open the valve to “steam”, cover the valve with a towel so that the steam does not splatter as it escapes the valve, and allow the pressure to be released.
Open the lid, remove beef to a separate bowl and shred it to smaller pieces. Collect and discard the cooked vegetables, peppercorns, and any impurities with a fine mesh skimmer. - Add 4 cups of cubed potatoes and 1 heaping spoon of Better than Bullion Beef or Chicken Base to the broth. If using cabbage, add 1/4 head of shredded cabbage at this time as well.
Cover with lid, close the steam valve to “pressure”, set the pot to “pressure cooker” and timer to 3 minutes. Then open the steam valve to “steam”, cover with a towel and release pressure.
- Open the lid, check the potatoes for doneness by pressing one piece against the side of the pot. If the peace breaks easily, with little resistance the potatoes are done. If they’re not, just cook for another minute or so.
After that, add the drained beans, bacon, and shredded beef. - Bring to a boil, then add the sautéed vegetables and turn off the heat. Stir. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
- Add 1/3 cup chopped parsley, 1/4 cups chopped dill, stir, cover with lid.
- For the best flavor profile, allow the flavors to mend for 2-3 hours as the soup cools before serving. This soup makes really good leftovers because it tastes even better the next day.
Serve with a dollop of sour cream, a good piece of bread, a wedge of purple or sweet onion and salt.
Enjoy!
Here are some other Soup recipes:
- Borscht – Red beet soup recipe.
- Summer Soup – Soup filled with meat and vegetables.
- Chicken Noodle Soup – Creamy chicken noodle soup recipe.
Ukrainian Beet Soup - Borsch {In Pressure Cooker}
Borsch - Beef and Beet Soup is a traditional Ukrainian soup that is hearty, healthy and delicious! Made with beef, lots of vegetables and beans it is bound to become your favorite, just like it has been ours!
Ingredients
To cook the beef:
For Sautéed Vegetables:
- 1.5 cups peeled and finely diced onion
- 1.5 cups peeled and shredded carrots
- 3 cups peeled and shredded beets
- 4 strips bacon chopped
- 2 Tbsp tomato paste or 1 - 7.4 oz can of tomato sauce
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 2 tsp black ground pepper
Also:
- 4 cups yellow potatoes peeled, diced into 1/3 inch cubes
- 1.5 Tbsp Better than Bullion Beef or Chicken Base.
- 1/4 head cabbage shredded
- 1 can canned or cooked white beans drained
- 1 can canned or cooked black beans drained
- 1 tbsp kosher salt to taste
- 1/4 cups chopped dill
- 1/3 cups chopped parsley
To serve:
- sour cream
Instructions
Cook beef & make the broth
-
To a large 6 qt pot add 2 qts of water, 1.5 lbs of beef, 1 whole onion, one whole carrot, 1/2 tbsp salt & 5-7 black peppercorns. Cover with lid, close the lid valve to "pressure" and set the pot to "pressure cook" for 60 minutes.
While the meat is cooking render the bacon and sauté the vegetables:
-
Render 4 strips of chopped bacon in a skillet over medium heat until crispy. Remove the bacon and discard the fat.
-
Add 2-3 tablespoons of oil to the same skillet and 1.5 cups of diced onions and sauté, stirring continously, until golden brown, about 5-8 minutes.
-
To the onions add 1.5 cups shredded carrots, stir and continue cooking over medium heat for about 5 minutes until lightly golden.
-
Now add 3 cups of shredded beets and stir.
-
Season with 1 tsp of kosher salt, 2 tsp of black ground pepper, 2 tbsp of tomato paste or 7.4 oz of tomato sauce and stir everything to combine. Cover with lid, turn the heat to low and cook until the beets are soft, string several times throughout, about 25 minutes.
Bring Everything together:
-
After the time has expired on the pressure cooker, open the valve to "steam", cover the valve with a towel so that the steam does not splatter as it escapes the valve and allow the pressure to be released.
-
Open the lid, remove beef to a separate bowl and shred it to smaller pieces. Collect and discard the cooked vegetables, peppercorns and any impurities with a fine mesh skimmer.
-
Add 4 cups of cubed potatoes and 1 heaping spoon of Better than Bullion Beef or Chicken Base to the broth. If using cabbage add it together with the potatoes. Cover with lid, close the steam valve to "pressure", set the pot to "pressure cooker" and timer to 3 minutes. Then open the steam valve to "steam", cover with towel and release pressure.
-
Open the lid, check the potatoes for doneness by pressing one piece against the side of the pot. If the peace breaks easily, with little resistance, the potatoes are done. If they're not, cook for another minute or so.
-
After that, add the drained beans, bacon and shredded beef.
-
Bring to a boil, then add the sautéed vegetables and turn off heat. Stir. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
-
Add 1/3 cup chopped parsley, 1/4 cups chopped dill, stir, cover with lid.
-
For best flavor profile, allow the flavors to mend for 2-3 hours as the soup cools before serving. This soup makes really good leftovers, because it tastes even better the next day.
-
Serve with a dollop of sour cream, a good piece of bread, a wedge of purple or sweet onion and salt. Enjoy!
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Still to try this recipe with my newly arrived Ukrainian refugee guests. They are not familiar with a pressure cooker so I will help. Is there somewhere I can find your recipe available already in Russian or Ukrainian please? I can’t find a way to copy and paste into my translate app….
Many thanks! Our guests are keen to make this dish for the Village’s Harvest Lunch on Sunday but are worried how long it will take to cook. The Pressure Cooker will save so much time and gas or electric energy!!
Hi Stella,
Sorry, I do not have it available in Russian or Ukrainian 🙁 Hope the Villa Harvest Lunch went well.
About the most reliable horseradish I’ve found is “Heluva Good” brand, made in upstate NY. For real horseradish enthusiasts, it is about medium sharp. It’s usually fresh, which makes a big difference.
One cannot prepare Slavic cuisine without horseradish.
My great aunt, who lived alone on a small farm without running water or central heat well into her 80s used to grate her own. Tante Helen was a true Babushka. She grew the big roots in her dooryard. When she was making it, the smell would knock you to your knees. It was horseradish of considerable authority.
This is very close to my family’s recipe. As we had a farm, we rarely used beans, as we usually had some piece of lamb, pork, or beef that could simmer all day on the wood fired range. My mother most often used beef. No potatoes and no cabbage were in her recipe, but she used a lot of beets.
One day, my brother sat down (he was about 12 years old) and ate about half the contents of my mother’s enormous soup pot. Of course, if one consumes that much borscht, all that red color has to go somewhere. He went to tinkle, and the family flew into crisis.
Fortunately, we had a sensible old French-Canadian doctor. (These days they would give you an MRI and thousands in bloodwork to determine you were OK.) Old Doctor Gardine still had a leather medical bag and would make house calls. He listened to my brother’s story.
The Canadians enjoy a very similar dish (and truly magnificent cabbage rolls) as much of Manitoba was settled by Ukrainians. The old physician listened to my brother, and then swatted him on his ass. “I like beetroot soup as well, but next time don’t be such a pig.”
One thing that irks me is the cost of beets. Beets are not hard to grow, yet a bunch of three pale, apologetic beets costs over three dollars at my local market.
Fortunately, I have access to Ocean State Job Lots. They stock Belvedere brand bottled vegetables from Poland. These are very good, and a bargain. You can taste the earth in them (terroir). Their petite beets are just the right size, and they offer grated beets that make borscht the correct deep, rich red. As long as I have stock on hand, I can now make a good soup in 45 minutes. I use two jars of petite beets and one of grated beetroot, along with other ingredients.
I admit to adding sauerkraut and horseradish to my borscht lately, as I like the bite. In my mind, crushing or pressing a few cloves of garlic and a tablespoon of fresh, minced dill into every serving is necessary, along with a dollop of good sour cream. Enjoy!
Thank you so much for sharing, Timothy!
Your poor brother lol. I liked your comment about adding the horseradish to the borshch, I’ll have to try that some time.
Horseradish is particularly tasty in cold borscht. Try as I may, I still don’t enjoy akroshka, but a bowl of cold borscht is a perfect dinner on a hot summer evening.
About the most reliable horseradish I’ve found is “Heluva Good” brand, made in upstate NY. For real horseradish enthusiasts, it is about medium sharp. It’s usually fresh, which makes a big difference.
One cannot prepare Slavic cuisine without horseradish.
My great aunt, who lived alone without running water or central heat well into her 80s used to grate her own. She grew the big roots in her dooryard.
If I wanted to keep it vegetarian, do I still need to make the broth while not using any meat?
If you wanted more flavor, you can definitely make the broth with meat and then just not use it. If you wanted to not any meat in the soup at all, you can just use plain water or vegetable broth.
I made this recipe today & it was amazing! Beef was perfectly tender & I love that rich red color!
The only confusing part was the ingredients list. You have it listed for 2QT of water but the instructions mention 3QT. I went with 3QT but it ended up being too much for my 6QT Instant Pot. Water level was at the max line & I had to spill some out to add the veggies & beet. You also didn’t state what pressure to cook it at so I assumed it was High.
Otherwise, fantastic recipe & this will be my go-to from now on!
I’m getting ready to make this recipe and found the same 2qt vs 3qt confusion that Yana did. Going from Yana’s comments, I’m going to use 2 quarts and high pressure too.
I have another question – I got raw beets and then roasted and peeled them before discovering the recipe called for raw beets. In step 5 of sauteing the vegetables, I guess I don’t need to cook for the full 25 minutes before “Bringing everything together”.
I’ll report back if I get a chance – your recipe sounds great, I can’t wait!
I guess you answered your question and you were right 🙂 If you have cooked and peeled beets, you can just grate them and add them last, before bringing the soup to a boil and quickly turning off the heat.
YES!! I’m so happy to see a PC recipe, I was beginning to think I am the only one who uses one! Marina, my PC recipe inventory is so limited, now that I know you use one as well, I will be checking back quite often in hopes that you will start posting more pressure cooker recipes:)
In the meanwhile, I will give this borsch a try!
I have been using a manual one ever since I got married, but not many people had a PC or knew what it was, so now that it is more popular, I will definitely post more 🙂
Thank you!
Beautiful colour; beautiful ingredients : autumn comfort food at its peak ! Thank you !
Thank you!
yum!!!!! looks delicious , especially on this cold rainy day …….I can imagine the smell.
Thank you Luba!
I was wondering if u have any other favorite pressure cooker recipes? Cuz I have a instant pot pressure cooker and I always cook my borsch in there Definitely saves me so much time
Hi Tatyana,
I will be posting several recipes soon, but I use my pressure cooker for anything that requires longer time to cook, like beef, bullion, and other things like that. Stay tuned!