Vegetarian Beet Borscht

Borsct is an Eastern European vegetarian soup,made with beetroots which gives its strong red color.It is a part of culinary heritage of European nations like Russia,Poland etc.There are several versions even within a nation and even non-beet versions with tomato exists and there are hot and cold borscht versions which are prepared differently.Russian Borscht has beets, potatoes,cabbage and meat and is served hot.Here I have tried to recreate Russian Vegetarian Beet Borscht which is from Indira of Mahanandi and she has replaced meat with vegetables and has included pasta which make the dish a wholemeal rather than a light soup.Here's my version.

Ingredients

Beets: chopped 2 cups
Potatoes, carrots,cabbage:minimum 1 cup together
Garlic: 2 cloves
Red onion: 1 medium
Elbow Macaroni Pasta: 1/2 cup
Butter,Oil: 1 to 2 tbsp each

Seasonings:
Cashews: Dry Roasted and Powdered to obtain nearly 1/4 cup
Dill leaves: chopped 1/4 cup
Cumin+clove + coriander+cinnamon:roasted&powdered:nearly 1/2 tbspn
Chilli powder:1/2 tspn
Turmeric powder: 1/4 tspn
Lime juice: 1/4 lemon

Salt,Pepper:as per taste

Preparation:

Peel and chop the vegetables into small bite size cubes.Chop the cabbage coarsely.Chop the red onions finely and crush/mince the garlic cloves.Prepare the seasoning powders-roast and powder the cashews,and other whole spices together.I roasted and powdered cashews and used store bought spice powders.Chop the dill leaves.

Heat a deep pan with butter+oil .Add the red onions and garlic and saute till the onoins turn transparent.Add the vegetables starting with the potatoes,beets,carrots and lastly cabbage, sauteeing after each addition.Add salt,pepper and saute till they get coated and start to cook.Add the seasonings-spice +cashew powders+dill chopped+lemon juice+chilli powder+turmeric powder -and stir well to coat.Add more salt and pepper if needed and water to cook the vegetables.Cover and cook the veggies on simmer for 10-15 minutes till they are tender.Then add pasta and more water(and salt) if needed to cook the pasta and cook the pasta al dente.Turn off heat and let stand covered for few minutes.Ladle into bowls and serve as a nourishing soup or a wholesome meal.It was the latter for me.

Honestly I thought that I would end up with a garam masala beet curry or an Indian curry when I started working on it,as it takes almost all the garam masala spices,but in reality it was not like that-It was spicy to my taste but I did not feel it as a curry I was digging into.It was a warm bowl of macaroni with the healthy addition of veggies and spiced upto perfection.I have not tasted original Russian Beet Borscht,but Indira's style of Borscht was enjoyed and will be enjoyed once a week atleast,thats for sure.

This Borsht is on its way to warm up Zlamushka's spicy Kitchen where she is celebrating the fall with Tried & Tasted:Mahanandi after a spicy Monsoon.

This also goes to Nourishing Fall Carnival hosted by Nourishing Gourmet to celebrate the fall

This also goes to Lisa's Kitchen where she is celebrating the event No Croutons Required with hearty vegetarian soup as October's theme.

Different ,but HAPPY Note:

Lubna of KitchenFlavours has honoured my blog with a cool "Butterfly Award".THANKS A TON Lubna for the precious and cool honour.

The rules of the blog:

Put the logo on your blog.
Add a link to the person who awarded you.
Nominate 10 other blogs
Add links to those blogs on yours, and leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

I would love to nominate:

Deesha of VegetablePlatter

Divya of ..a little bit more..

Suma of Sumascuisine

Cham of SpiceClub

SunshineMom of TongueTicklers

Aparna of MyDiverseKitchen

Usha of VegInspirations

EasyCrafts of SimpleIndianFood

Zlamushka of Zlamushka's Spicy Kitchen

Rekha of PlantainLeaf

Divya has also tagged me for a meme.THANKS Divs,I had already done that and you can find it here -Lemon Sides.