Borscht Soup 羅宋湯
By Michael · from our van kitchen
Russian borscht, Cantonese style (羅宋湯). It’s a tomato soup with celery, vegetables and beef, and it’s one of our favorite soups. Spencer likes it too. When we had breakfast at Little Ring Café, a Hong Kong café in Toronto, Rina’s set came with a bowl of it.
I made it in the van one night in Colorado, after an afternoon in Vail. We found a scenic rest area about 30 minutes away, with a frozen lake behind us and mountains all around. Rina picked the spot. It was noisy, right by the highway, but the view was really nice.
What I actually used
The recipe I was following calls for cabbage, potatoes and bay leaf. The supermarket didn’t have any cabbage, and I forgot to pick up potatoes. So I threw in whatever we had: beef soup bones, onion, garlic, tomato paste, tomato, carrot, celery and a Korean beef bone broth. I seared the bones first, then everything went into our 3-quart pressure cooker for 30 minutes on high.
I had more bones than would fit, so I took out the ones with the least meat. Honestly, the 3-quart size was perfect for this. That’s all the soup there was and the right amount of meat. When we use the 6-quart for a big pot, we end up with so much left over, and it’s really hard to put everything away in the van.
You can watch me make it.
How it tasted
My first taste: not bad. It didn’t taste that authentic, but it was a really good soup. I think the missing cabbage is what makes it taste more “authentic.” It also needed a little more sweetness, so I added a little ketchup and a bit more salt and pepper. After that it was getting closer to the authentic taste, and really flavorful.
Spencer tried it, and he liked it.
Two tips
Blanch the bones. There was a whole layer of oil on top, from the beef. I scooped off a full bowl of it. Next time I’d blanch the bones before they go in, and I think it would be a lot less oily.
Buy once, cook twice. We’ve made this soup a few times on camera. When we made it in Florida, the vegetables for the soup were exactly the same ones we used for Hong Kong style baked spaghetti the next day: celery, tomato, tomato paste, onion and carrot. One time ingredients for two meals.
Another time, we made it at a hotel in Park City with beef shank instead of soup bones, seared first, with beef bone broth and about 40 minutes in the pressure cooker. It came out so rich and savory, with that tomato flavor.
More soups from our van: pork neck bone soup.
Ingredients
Soup
- Beef soup bones
- Onion
- Garlic
- 2 scoops of tomato paste
- Tomato
- Carrot
- Celery
- Beef bone broth (I used a Korean beef bone broth)
Seasoning at the end
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- Pepper, to taste
- A little salt
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- A little ketchup
Steps
- Chop up all the vegetables first.
- Sear the beef soup bones in a pan until they get a nice sear.
- Toss the onion and garlic into the pan with the bones.
- Add 2 scoops of tomato paste and let it cook in.
- Put everything from the pan into the pressure cooker. If it won't all fit, take out a few bones. I took out the ones with less meat.
- Add the tomato, then the carrot and celery.
- Pour in the beef bone broth.
- Put the lid on and pressure cook on high for 30 minutes.
- Let it release the pressure naturally. Ours still had a little pressure after about 28 minutes, so I let the rest out.
- Season it: 1 1/2 teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce, pepper to taste, a little salt and half a teaspoon of sugar. Stir and taste.
- Skim off the layer of oil on top.
- If it needs more sweetness, add a little ketchup, then a little more salt and pepper. Keep adjusting with pepper, salt, ketchup or Worcestershire until it tastes how you like it.
Amounts are what I said in the video. Where I didn't measure, it says "to taste". Cook it your way.
