Prepared lean borscht with mushrooms. When Great Lent begins, the most important post in the year of the life of an Orthodox Christian, certain dietary restrictions arise.

Great Lent is the most significant of all fasts. Unfortunately, for so many, fasting is a diet. Tribute to fashion. Fasting has a much deeper meaning than the usual restriction in food. Without going into the essence, food restrictions are more a way of self-discipline, for spiritual purification. “True Fasting is the removal of evil, the curbing of the tongue, the laying off of anger, the taming of lusts, the cessation of slander, lies, perjury.”

Although, if you think about it, abstinence when eating, the vast majority will only benefit. But only reasonable abstinence, if you are not sick, not old, and no one is forcing you. We must remember that harming your health, such as exhausting yourself with diets, is a mortal sin. During fasting, meat, fish, eggs, and milk are excluded. Smoking, alcohol are excluded. Of the permitted - plant foods, vegetables and fruits, pickles, mushrooms, black bread, nuts.

But, as my grandmother used to say: “you won’t be full, you need something substantial with bread”

I remember that in childhood, during fasting, lean borscht was cooked at home. and, given their "meat" nature, it is quite difficult to adapt to Lenten cuisine. But, on reflection, it is easy to understand that if you replace meat with mushrooms, then borscht from the usual becomes lean.

Lenten borscht. Step by step recipe

Ingredients (pot 3 l)

• Dried white mushrooms 50 g
• White cabbage 150 g
• Potato 2 pcs
• Onion 1 pc
• Beetroot 1 pc
• Carrot 1 pc
• Beans (dry) 0.5 cup
• Garlic 1-2 cloves
• Tomato paste 1-2 tbsp. l.
• Salt, ground black pepper, hot pepper, Bay leaf Spices

1. If you approach the preparation of any dish, even borscht without meat, with imagination, then the dish will turn out to be tasty, original, and very healthy. many.

   Beans and vegetables for lean borscht

2. Mushrooms can be any, but edible. Remember: all mushrooms can be eaten, but some only once in a lifetime, the last one. Therefore, when choosing mushrooms for borscht, remember this. In the old days, mushrooms were harvested in season. Dried, salted, soaked, canned.
3. Seasonally dried porcini mushrooms are ideal for lean borscht. An hour and a half before cooking, dry mushrooms must be soaked.

   Dried porcini mushrooms are ideal for lean borscht

4. Soak the beans in water in advance, preferably overnight, otherwise it is simply impossible to cook them until tender. Pour 2 liters of cold water into a saucepan, throw soaked beans into it. Add a pinch of salt and one bay leaf.

   Boil beans until tender

5. Bring to a boil, and, reducing the heat to a minimum, leave to boil under the lid. It is necessary that the beans are cooked until half cooked. Usually the cooking time is highly dependent on the beans, the time can be from 30 minutes to 1 hour. But, usually, soaked beans after 30 minutes already reach the desired degree of readiness and are perfectly cooked during further cooking.
6. While the beans are cooking, peel all the vegetables and leave them in cold water.
7. Crush whole cloves of garlic with the handle of a knife, simply flatten and chop coarsely. Onion cut into large strips. Cut the carrot lengthwise into 4 parts and cut into thin slices.
8. Usually we do not fry vegetables for borscht, but if you wish, you can fry onions and carrots in vegetable oil to the desired condition.
9. Cut the beets into strips. Strictly speaking, the size of the sliced ​​​​beets is up to your taste. But you shouldn't grate it, it's better to cut it.
10. Add beets, garlic, onions and carrots to the borscht. Add salt and pepper to taste. Throw away the bay leaf - it has already done its job and the first dish has received the aroma and the desired taste.

    Add beets, onions, carrots and garlic

11. Cook beans with vegetables for 15 minutes at a low boil.

    Boil borscht at a low boil

12. Add soaked porcini mushrooms. If the mushrooms are large, they can be cut into pieces.

    Add white mushrooms

13. Cut the peeled potatoes into cubes and add to the soup. Grandmother never cut potatoes into borscht at all, she cooked them whole. And she crushed the boiled potatoes with a spoon right in the borscht.

    Add diced potatoes

14. Bring to a boil, and cook over low heat for another 15 minutes, until the potatoes are cooked.
15. Next add tomato paste. By and large, you can also tomatoes, if any. But it's not tomato season, so better pasta. Stir to dissolve the paste. Let boil for 5 min.

    Add tomato paste

16. Cut the cabbage with a knife in the form of straws - very thin straws. The thinner, the better. Sauerkraut is often added, but to be honest, I am not a fan of boiled cabbage. sauerkraut. I like fresh in borscht White cabbage.
17. Add chopped cabbage. Keep in mind that cabbage “absorbs” salt, so you should try borscht. Taste and salt if needed. Any borscht improves the taste if you add hot pepper to it. It can be either a fresh pod or a pinch of dried hot pepper ground together with seeds.

    Add chopped cabbage

18. If the first dish will be consumed immediately, then after laying the cabbage, you need to cook for another 10 minutes. If the borscht, as is customary with us, will “infuse”, then it should be cooked for 1-2 minutes, then turn off the fire and let it stand under the lid. During the "infusion" cabbage will be perfectly cooked in hot borscht.

Some believe that lean borscht is a dish purely for fasting, that it is inferior to ordinary meat borscht in taste and satiety. This is a clear delusion, and so do those who have not had a chance to try a real lean borscht with mushrooms and beans. Despite the fact that this borsch is lean, that is, cooked without meat, it turns out to be so fragrant, satisfying and rich that all other soups fade against it. I'm not exaggerating, it's true. Get ready and see for yourself. So, I am sharing a family recipe for lean borscht with mushrooms and beans.

Ingredients:

(3 liter pot)

• 60 gr. dried mushrooms
• 2 small beets (500 gr.)
• 2-3 potatoes
• 1 bulb
• 2 medium carrots
• 2 tbsp tomato paste or a glass of tomato sauce
• 1 cup beans
• 1 tbsp Sahara
• salt to taste
• 10-12 pcs. black peppercorns
• 3-4 pcs. bay leaf
• 200 gr. cabbage
• 3 garlic cloves
• vegetable oil
• greenery

• The main ingredient of mushroom lean borscht is, of course, mushrooms, and dried mushrooms. You can cook borscht with fresh mushrooms, then you need at least 500-600 gr. mushrooms, and still the taste of borscht will not be as rich as with dried mushrooms. Therefore, it is advisable to use dried mushrooms. Fortunately, now they can be bought in industrial packaging, they are completely safe, already washed and even cut.
• The second equally important ingredient is ordinary beans. Be sure to soak the beans overnight. It will not take much time, but the next day will significantly save time and nerves. So, measure a glass of beans, pour cold water.

• We drain the water the next day. We put the swollen beans in a saucepan, pour in fresh water, and set to boil. To make the beans cook faster and be crumbly, put a teaspoon of sugar. Usually beans are cooked for 40-50 minutes, depending on the variety.
• While the beans are cooking, pour dried mushrooms with cold water. For swelling, 30-40 minutes are usually enough. If the mushrooms are home dried or bought at the market, wash thoroughly beforehand.

• We take beets for borscht sweet, rich burgundy color. We clean the beets, cut into strips. We pass the beets in a small amount of vegetable oil. Thanks to this pre-roasting, the beets are cooked faster, and the lean borsch is much more satisfying.

• When the beans become soft, put the mushrooms in the pan, pour the liquid in which the mushrooms soaked into the same place.

• Add the beets and cook everything together until the beets are cooked.

• While everything is cooking, let's prepare the dressing for our lean borscht. So, we clean the onion and cut it finely. We cut the carrots into strips.

• In a small amount of vegetable oil, first stew the onion. When the onion becomes soft, add carrots, simmer for 5-7 minutes over medium heat.

• Dilute tomato paste in half a glass of water, add to the pan, where carrots and onions are stewed. Put salt, sugar and pepper to taste. Simmer for a couple more minutes and turn off the flame.

• We clean and cut potatoes. How to cut potatoes is entirely up to you. My grandmother is a wonderful cook, for mushroom borscht I always took a medium-sized potato and cut it in half. My mother cuts the potatoes quite finely, but I prefer the medium version. Put chopped potatoes in a bowl.

• Add the previously prepared dressing, do not forget to put the bay leaf and peppercorns. We test for salt and sugar.

• When potatoes are cooked in lean borscht, put thinly chopped cabbage and finely chopped garlic.

• Cook everything together for 10-15 minutes, turn off the heat. Borsch with mushrooms always turns out to be a very beautiful rich brown-red color.

• For lean borscht, like any other, it is very important to let it brew for at least half an hour. Therefore, we first maintain the allotted time, and only then pour the borscht into plates, sprinkle with herbs and serve. During strict fasting, we don’t put sour cream or mayonnaise in borscht; at other times, we always serve lean borscht with beans and mushrooms with sour cream.

I invite you to cook with me delicious borscht with mushrooms! Such borscht will be very useful in Lent and will also appeal to those who love diet meals and adheres proper nutrition. In addition to the fact that borscht is lean, thanks to mushrooms it is also very nutritious.

Of course, borscht cooked with wild mushrooms, even if dried, will differ greatly in taste from borscht cooked with champignons. But if there are no other mushrooms, then champignons are mushrooms suitable for this dish! In any case, if you use dried Forest mushrooms, they should first be filled with water so that they are slightly soaked, then squeeze them out and cut them.

So, let's prepare all the products for lean borscht with mushrooms.

First of all, let's prepare the vegetables. We cut the potatoes into cubes, chop the cabbage, and cut the mushrooms into thin plates, after removing the skin from the caps.

Place mushrooms and potatoes in a bowl. Add vegetable broth or water. I make vegetable broth from a vegetable stock cube by pouring 1 liter of boiling water over it. If you only added water, don't forget to add salt. We put the pan on the fire and cook the vegetables in the broth until tender. This will take 20-25 minutes.

In the meantime, we will prepare the frying for borscht. To do this, cut the onion small cube, grate the carrots on a fine grater, cut the beets into thin strips.

Pour vegetable oil into the pan and put the pan on the fire. Put the onions, carrots and beets into the pan. Fry the vegetables for just a couple of minutes.

Add tomato paste to the vegetables and fry the vegetables for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then add 1 ladle of broth from the pot. We continue to simmer the vegetables for another 7 minutes.

Finely chop the garlic, parsley and dill, bell pepper cut into small cubes.

Add garlic and bell pepper to the frying, simmer the vegetables for another 2-3 minutes and remove the frying from the heat.

Add shredded cabbage to ready-made mushrooms and potatoes.

IMPORTANT: if you like boiled cabbage in borscht, then after that you should boil the broth with cabbage for another 5-7 minutes and only then add the frying.

In my family, they like the cabbage in borscht to remain firm, if you put the roast with sour tomato paste right after the cabbage in the borscht, then the cabbage will retain its crunchiness. Let's let the borscht boil.

At the very end, add parsley and dill. We remove the borscht from the fire. We cover the pan with a lid and let the borscht brew for 10-15 minutes.

Ready lean borscht with mushrooms is served in portions with fresh bread and sour cream.

Bon Appetit!

Hello friends! We have another kitchen photo essay and this time lean borscht with mushrooms is subject to the process of our culinary research. Adhering to our rules, I will cook it from minimum quantity products, and as usual I will try to do it with maximum efficiency.
It is not at all necessary to be a vegetarian or fast in order to cook such borscht. After all, lean borscht with mushrooms is a completely independent tasty and fragrant first course. In addition, this seemingly intricate dish is actually prepared very easily and quickly.
Everything about everything will take about an hour, the financial cost is generally scanty. The cost of products for the preparation of a large 5-liter saucepan is approximately 150 - 200 rubles. So. I suggest that you try to cook such an economical version of the first course, especially since it is really very tasty.
Well, and for those who have not yet subscribed to, I recommend doing it right now, because we still have a lot of interesting things ahead of us.
Now let's start cooking. So:

Lenten borscht with mushrooms.

Here are the products for borscht I bought at the nearest store:
Cabbage - 1 medium head;
Potatoes - you will need 5-6 pieces. (I bought 1kg with a margin);
Onions - 2 pcs;
Carrots - 1 pc;
Beets - 1 pc;
Mushrooms - we didn’t have fresh ones, I took a jar canned champignons, well and fresh mushrooms need 200 g;
Tomato paste - you need 2 tbsp. spoons;
Vegetable oil- 3-4 tbsp. spoons;
Salt, pepper, bay leaf, herbs - to taste.

Let's start cooking:

As always, we start peeling potatoes. We clean, wash and cut, I also cleaned the onion for the company, we will cook it together with the potatoes, it’s tastier (at the end of cooking, of course, we will throw the onion away). We fill it all with water and put it on fire.

By the way! An important clarification - I will use that canned mushrooms, so I’ll start laying them after the potatoes are cooked, but for those who want to cook borscht with fresh mushrooms, you need to start cooking them first. For example, fresh champignons should be boiled for 40 minutes, and then potatoes should be added to them.

While the potatoes are cooking, I prepare the mushrooms, drain the liquid from them.

The potatoes are still being boiled, and in the meantime we are doing the frying. Peel and chop carrots and onions like this.

And so we pass them on vegetable oil.

While the carrots and onions are sautéing, add the mushrooms to the potatoes and prepare the beets, wash them, peel them and either grate them, or, as I did, cut them into cubes.

Let's add the beets to the passerovka.

We also add tomato paste, bay leaf, black peppercorns and other spices (whoever loves what), add a little water, and put it all to stew for about 20 minutes.

In the meantime, we will cut the cabbage, I did it like this into straws, but you can also checkered (it all depends on your preference).

By this time the potatoes, onions and mushrooms were cooked. We remove the boiled onion, and in its place we load the cabbage. In general, according to the rules, cabbage should be cooked for 20 minutes, but I like it when it is still crispy, so I cook it for no more than 5 minutes.

At this point, our borscht frying is ready.

Feel free to add it to the pan with the rest of the vegetables. We keep another 5-7 minutes on fire, and hooray! our fragrant lean borscht with mushrooms is ready!

Bon appetit, friends! Cook fragrant lean borscht with mushrooms, treat your friends and relatives to it, and of course subscribe to our email updates.
I apologize for this. Cook delicious and with love!