Borscht: It can't be beet

Hello — husband of Frenchie here with a special guest recipe for some real hearty soup. I made this recipe up myself, and by that I mean I copied it out of the Joy of Cooking and changed one ingredient. But original or not, it sure is good! Especially if you like beets.

Preheat oven to 400˚F.
Scrub 12 ounces of beets (if you don't have a beet scale, I'd wager that's about three beets). Wrap the beets in tinfoil and toss them in the oven on a baking sheet for about an hour, until they can be easily pierced with a fork, right through their dirty beet skin into their soft, beating beet hearts.

While the beats are doing their thing in the oven, prepare 1 pound boneless beef chuck, cubed (you can also use pork spareribs but that would be a travesty of epic proportions). Lightly dredge the beef with flour (or gluten-free flour if you're glutarded like some people I know), then heat a little vegetable oil in a soup pot and toss in that beef and brown it on all sides.

Once the beef is browned, stir in about 4 1/2 cups of brown beef stock and a 28-ounce can of whole plum tomatoes, drained and chopped. I just used a can of diced tomatoes and that worked out just fine, but who am I to question those who truly know the Joy of Cooking? Bring this to a boil, reduce the heat and then let it simmer for about 30 minutes. Then, stir in:

2 cups of shredded red or green cabbage
1 medium onion, chopped until you cry like a baby
2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
2 medium celery stalks, sliced
1 1/2 teaspoons tomato paste

Simmer partially covered for about another 30 minutes. Now you think you have some time to sit on the couch, don't you? Well, you're wrong. Dead wrong. Because you're on beet detail. Take those beets out of the oven, let them cool, then peel their skin off and slice them into thin little strips. Be careful — them beets can stain. Now, once that before mentioned 30 minutes is over, stir in the beets, along with:

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
Salt and pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar (optional [I didn't do it because it just didn't feel right]).

Simmer that huge pot full of awesomeness for 15 minutes, partially covered. Then serve it up, and garnish each bowl with some sour cream and fresh dill. This garnishing is key — it really adds some nice flavoring to the borscht, kinda like putting whip cream on ice cream. But don't put whip cream on borscht. That would be weird. And don't put borscht on ice cream either. Doesn't work — believe me.

Enjoy your thick beety beef soup! Pretend you're a Russian peasant — it's fun for the whole family! This is Señor Guest Blogger, signing out.