Perhaps the green borscht is my favorite soup. I like it hot and cold. A cold one has different cooking directions. I will cook it sometimes during the hot Summertime and post the recipe.

Back in my home country Belarus, I cooked the borscht with sorrel. I couldn’t find the sorrel here in California. So I use spinach and lemon juice instead. This combination gives a similar taste. Besides, it’s really healthy having all spinach nutrition benefits.

Ingredients:

• ½ lb beef (I prefer boneless)
• 1 Tbsp salt
• 1 small yellow onion
• 2-3 medium potato
• 1 lb baby spinach
• 1 bay leaf
• juice of 1 lemon
• boiled egg, sour cream and parsley to garnish

Cooking Directions:

1. Place the meat washed in cold water into a soup pot and fully fill it with 3 quarters of water. It will serve 6 big portions.
2. Bring it to a boil. Remove the foam crud. It will start to pop up to the top as soon as it just starts boiling. Make sure to remove all the crud until it’s fully boiling. Add 1 Tbsp of salt, lower the heat, cover with а lid and let it slowly boil for an hour.
3. In the meantime, peel potato, cut it into 1-inch cubes and add it to the boiling broth. Let it come to a boil, cover the pot and let it cook for 10-15 minutes.
4. Roughly chop baby spinach. Peel and finely mince a half of onion. Add everything to the pot, bring to a boil and add a bay leaf.  Cover with a lid and let it cook for another 10 minutes.
5. Turn off the heat. Squeeze juice from one lemon and add to the pot.
6. Cover and let it rest for 15-20 minutes.
7. Remove the meat from the pot, cut it into 1-inch pieces and put back into the soup.

The borscht is ready to serve! Garnish with a quarter of a boiled egg, dollop of sour cream and chopped parsley.