Borscht Noodles
Borscht Noodles (serves 3-5 people)
  • 2 cups
    Vegetable Stock
  • 1/8 cup
    Frying Oil
  • 1
    medium red onion
  • 4
    cloves of garlic
  • 1 cup
    red cabbage
  • 1/2
    ripe tomato (or 1 tbsp tomato paste)
  • 1
    large beet (or 2 medium beets)
  • 2
    medium carrots
  • Handful
    Fresh herbs of your choice
  • 1 tbsp
    Allspice powder
  • 1/2 tbsp
    Cayenne Pepper
  • To taste
    Salt, Pepper, Apple Cider Vinegar
  • 1/8 cup
    Pickled Red Onions (Optional)
Finely chop your onion and garlic, and saute them on medium heat with your frying oil of choice for around a minute.
Julienne your beet and slice your carrots, and toss them in the pot to caramelize. Cook this mixture while stirring occasionally for around 5-10 minutes.
Add in your allspice powder and cayenne pepper into the pot and incorporate.
While your beets and carrots are cooking, place a small pot on a separate burner with around 2 cups of stock, finely chopped herbs, and your dried noodles.
Cook this mixture on medium heat until the noodles are around 2 minutes away from being fully cooked (slightly more raw than al dente). Turn off the heat at this point.
Once your beet/carrot mixture has caramelized, pour in the stock/noodles mixture from the other pot into this pot and continue cooking.
Julienne your cabbage and roughly dice your tomato, and add to the pot. Cook until soup starts to thicken.
Add salt, pepper, and apple cider vinegar to taste. Serve immediately, and top with pickled onions and/or herbs

Eastern Europeans, you may want to close your eyes. This recipe is as inauthentic as they come, but I find myself craving for it anytime I'm looking for a warm ramen-like noodle bowl and have a bunch of fresh veg in my fridge.

I first tried this dish at a pho shop near my university, and had to make it at home. It essentially is a Borscht soup in pho form. Enjoy!

Side note: I am very poor at food photography, but I assure you that the result really looks a lot better than the photos do. There's no food coloring either!

Recipe

1. Finely chop your onion and garlic, and saute on medium heat. Any oil that doesn't burn at high heat should do (canola oil, refined olive oil, sesame oil are all fine).

2. Julienne your beet and slice your carrots. Keep the pieces small since carrots and beets take a while to cook.

3. Toss the beets, carrots, cayenne pepper, and allspice powder in the pot and cook till caramelized (~5-10 minutes). If you don't have allspice powder, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves, or cinammon can serve as substitutes.

4. While your beets and carrots are cooking, place a small pot on a separate burner with around 2 cups of stock, finely chopped herbs, and your dried noodles.

5. Cook this mixture on medium heat until the noodles are around 2 minutes away from being fully cooked (slightly more raw than al dente). Turn off the heat at this point.

6. Once your beet/carrot mixture has caramelized, julienne your cabbage and roughly dice your tomato, and add to the pot.

7. Add in the noodles and stock mixture into the pot, and add salt, pepper, and apple cider vinegar to taste

8. Turn off the heat once the soup starts to thicken. Serve immediately, and add pickled onions and/or herbs to top.

For the pickled onions, I'm using YouTuber Ethan Chlebowski's recipe. Julienne red onions, and place them in a mason jar till filled. On a saucepan, bring a mixture of one part apple cider vinegar, one part white vinegar, and two parts water to a boil, and add 2 tablespoons of sugar and a teaspoon of salt to incorporate. If you don't like your onions sour, you might want to add more sugar. Once boiling, turn off the heat and immediately pour over the onions and close the jar. Once at room temperature, place the jar in the fridge and wait for around 24 hours. The result is super tasty, neon pink onions you'll want to put on everything.

Category: Food