Borsch - Beetroot Soup

I've eaten plenty of Borsch during the last years when visiting Russia. Borsch is also found in a few restaurants in Finland but I never made it myself before.
After dyeing my easter eggs, I was left with a couple of beetroots and some red cabbage. I hate throwing away food, so I always try to think of ways to put everything to use. I immediately thought of making a soup...and suddenly realized that I had all the ingredients for a vegetarian Borsch. The soup was easy to make and really good....Honestly there's probably more ingredients that go into a proper Borsch but this is my version since I was basically just trying to get rid of leftovers. I know a Borsch can be time consuming but this is a quick one for those days when you don't want to spend too much time in the kitchen. If it worked for me, I'm sure you will enjoy it too :)

I used:
2 Beetroots
1/4 Red Cabbage
1 Carrot
1/2 Onion
Water (stock if you have) enough to cover the ingredients
Liquid from Russian salted cucumbers
Smetana (russian sour cream)
Dill

Slice the beets, carrot, onion and cabbage into thin strips.
Sautee the onion a bit in a pot and add the rest of the veggies. Cover with water and bring to the boil. Let simmer until the ingredients are soft. Add the liquid from salted cucumbers to get the salt and vinegar like flavour. Note! many people add vinegar to the soup but it can get a bit too acidic. The liquid from the salted cucumbers is perfect...it doesn't contain vinegar but brings just the right punch to it. I have heard that this is the real way they do it in Russia.
I didn't even ave to add any salt.
Once you're done, add a dollop of smetana or sour cream and a twig of dill.
I hope you enjoy!

Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs

Easter is just around the corner and I feel like I have so many ideas I want to make but I've just been so busy. We just moved and I've been unpacking boxes, removing wallpaper and painting so I haven't had much time for posting anything on my blog lately and feel really bad about it.

Well in between painting the walls I had time to try dyeing some eggs for easter. When I was little I loved painting and dyeing eggs...but back then we only used onion skins and I was never a big fan of their brown colour. This time I wanted to try something I never tried before. I'm so pleased with the result. I can't believe how pretty they turned out and really beats painting them. I only used natural colours. I used beetroot, spinach, red cabbage, saffron and turmeric. Mostly I was surprised by how pretty the red cabbage dyes the eggs...a really pretty pale blue.

How to:
Pink: I used Beetroot: Chop one beetroot into chunks. Boil 5dl of water and pour over the beetroot. When nice and dark pink, remove the beetroot and add 1 tbsp of vinegar. The result is superb. If you want a really light pastel pink you don't have to leave them in for long....and of course the longer you keep them in the more vibrant the colour will be.

Light Blue: I used Red cabbage. I had never thought from looking at the colour of the  liquid that they would actually turn blue...I thought they'd end up purple or pink. Chop 5dl of cabbage and pour 5dl of boiling water on top. When the liquid has cooled down, remove the cabbage and add 1 tbsp of vinegar. The longer you keep your eggs in the bluer they will become. They will also become darker when they dry.

Yellow: I used Turmeric and saffron. Honestly the end result was almost identical. Just use whatever you have at home and mix with boiling water until you have a vibrant yellow liquid. Add 1 tbsp of vinegar to 5dl of water.

Pale green: I used Spinach. Combine 7dl of fresh spinach with 5dl water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer and strain until water turns a bit green. Strain the spinach and press to get out some extra greenness. Stir in 1 tbsp of vinegar. The result was a bit disappointing so next time I will try something else which is green....hmmm I wonder if Matcha would work?

After the eggs had dried, I splattered them with some edible gold powder.
I think they turned out beautiful...what do you think?

By the way...most of the time people use boiled eggs....I used raw ones just because I like to use them in the mornings or whenever I need them. Also a few of them are actually Nougat eggs inside a real eggshell from Fazer...yummy!!!

None of the food ingredients used for colouring were wasted. The cabbage and beets I used for a borsch soup. The Spinach I used for breakfast and the saffron I used when cooking seafood.


Happy Easter Everyone! :)