Without any further ado, here's the recipe:
Ingredients:
Beef stock (home-made, of course: cook a piece of beef with bay leaves and pepper corns until the meat is soft when you stick a fork through it) *
2-3 beetroots
1/4-1/2 of a head of cabbage
1-2 onions
2-3 cloves of garlic
2-3 carrots
1 tablespoon of butter
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
3 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons of lemon juice or white wine vinegar
Any other vegetables (e.g., mushrooms, peas, broccoli, potatoes)
Pepper, salt
For garnish:
Sour cream
Fresh herbs (e.g, parsley, chives, and dill)
Rye bread
Procedure
Finely chop the cabbage into a large bowl, add salt and mix. Set aside.
In a large frying pan, melt butter, and fry the chopped onion and garlic, carrots, and the other vegetables (not the beetroot!) until golden-brown. Transfer them to a large saucepan with the stock (or water for the vegetarian version).
Then, fry the beetroot, chopped into bite-size pieces, in the vegetable oil. After 5 minutes, add the tomato paste and stir. The juices of the beetroot should turn the tomato paste purplish. Add the lemon juice or vinegar, transfer to the saucepan which already has the rest of the vegetables. Also add the cabbage (which should have emitted some juices by now). Adjust salt and vinegar/lemon juice to taste (the sour taste should be clearly noticeable). Bring to a boil. Let rest overnight! The next day, all the vegetables should have turned purple, which means the soup is ready to eat.
Serve with a teaspoon of sour cream, fresh herbs, and a slice of rye bread.
Enjoy! :)
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* A vegetarian version is also possible. If you go vegetarian, you may want to put more different vegetables, and particularly mushrooms, to achieve a rich taste.
