Calories: Not specified
Cooking time: Not indicated

The Lenten menu, as many people mistake, is not so complicated and something impossible. Lenten dishes are often not so bland and somehow less tasty than traditional dishes. For a Lenten menu, you can use a variety of products, and, for example, the usual first course - lean borscht with beans and mushrooms, the step-by-step recipe with photos of which you are looking at, turns out no worse than the usual one cooked with beef or pork meat parts. When it’s time for Lent, I immediately open my notes in my notebook, where I have a special note next to Lenten dishes. My mother-in-law taught me how to cook Lenten borscht, who advised me to add sauerkraut to it, rather than the usual fresh, white cabbage, and also advised me to add additional beans and mushrooms. It actually turns out really delicious with a rich, satisfying broth and a unique taste.


Required Products:
- 2 liters of water for broth;
- 200 gr. potatoes;
- 120 gr. sweet beets;
- 120 gr. juicy, sweet carrots;
- 100 gr. dry beans;
- 100 gr. onions;
- 250 gr. fresh mushrooms;
- 200 gr. sauerkraut;
- 150 gr. tomato juice;
- a little aromatic vegetable oil to fry vegetables;
- salt to taste.

Recipe with photos step by step:





First, boil the dry beans in advance, simply fill them with water and cook them over medium, low heat until soft. When the beans are completely cooked and cooked, drain the dark water that has formed, which is not needed for the borscht. We take out the beans and put them aside until the desired hour.




While the beans are cooking, cut the mushrooms (champignons) into slices. Place them in a frying pan, where we pour a couple of tablespoons of aromatic vegetable oil.




Saute the mushrooms until golden brown, remove from heat.




Let's start cooking the broth for the borscht. Place cubes of peeled and washed potatoes into clean water. Add salt to taste.






Grind the onion, as well as carrots and beets. Dice the onion, and rub the remaining root vegetables through a grater.




Saute the vegetables in a hot frying pan, pour in a little oil (vegetable). Add tomato juice, wait for it to boil and remove from heat.




When the potatoes are properly boiled, add the sauerkraut.




Transfer the cooked tomato vegetables into the borscht. Immediately after this, add the cooked vegetable broth and cooked beans.






Add fried mushrooms to the borscht. Wait for it to boil and cook the borscht for 5-7 minutes. We remove from the stove and call everyone to the table.




Place lean borscht with beans into plates and add fresh herbs.




Bon appetit everyone!

Rich borscht, prepared according to the principle “so that the spoon stands”, is quite capable of satisfying and replacing both the first and second courses. Especially coupled with a good piece of meat. However, many will be surprised to learn that the classic version of this dish does not include it in borscht. To prepare it, purely vegetable broth is used. Of course, not everyone will like the absence of meat in a dish so beloved by many.

However, no one forbids using it. However, it is not always possible to cook borscht with meat for one reason or another. At least, for example, due to the banal absence of this ingredient. Or because health or certain principles do not allow eating meat products. Nevertheless, there is always a way out. Lenten borscht with mushrooms and beans will be no less filling and tasty than one cooked in meat broth. How to prepare it will be discussed in our article.

General cooking principles

Anyone who thinks that lean borscht with mushrooms and beans (or without the latter at all) cannot please a gourmet with its taste is deeply mistaken. The main thing is to cook it according to the requirements of the recipe. And then he will not only help out during Lent, but will also become a welcome guest on the everyday table.

Any borscht (with mushrooms or other additional ingredients) certainly has basic and permanent ingredients. These are, of course, beets, tomatoes, which are sometimes replaced with tomato paste, carrots and onions, fresh or, if someone likes it sour, sauerkraut, plus potatoes. As a rule, all vegetables are fried before going into the pan. Since we have lean borscht with mushrooms, we will need to sauté it in vegetable oil. Well, in principle, you can fry it in rendered lard. Next, let's move directly to the cooking process.

Lenten borscht with mushrooms: a recipe from the early 19th century

Take one hundred grams of dry mushrooms - wild, aromatic - and soak them in warm water. By the way, you can do this in advance, several hours before cooking. If there is a catastrophic lack of time, then ten minutes will be enough.

Rinse and then finely chop. Pour two liters of water into the pan, add mushrooms and cook for about 20 minutes. During this time, fry one chopped onion, two grated (definitely raw) beets and one carrot, as well as one hundred grams of cabbage in vegetable oil. Which one - pickled or fresh - is up to you. Sauté the vegetables with the addition of a few tablespoons of tomato paste and one teaspoon of vinegar. Well, don’t forget to add salt and pepper, of course. Afterwards, add all this vegetable dressing to the mushrooms. Cook for another 20 minutes. Then turn off the heat, and add a mixture of flour and vegetable oil (one tablespoon of each ingredient) heated in a frying pan to the borscht. All. Let it brew for half an hour and inform your family that the borscht with mushrooms is ready.

Now let's change the composition a little.

Borscht with mushrooms and beans

It is worth noting that both products are very rich in proteins. So they are quite capable of replacing meat and satiating your stomach. In addition, there is no need to talk about the amazing taste of these components.

So, to prepare borscht with mushrooms and beans, you need to stock up on:

  • Beans (a 200-gram glass will be enough).
  • Dry forest mushrooms (take 200 grams).
  • Cabbage (half a kilogram head).
  • Tomato paste (two tablespoons is enough).
  • Several potatoes.
  • Greenery.
  • Beetroot (take two large pieces).
  • One carrot.
  • Bell pepper (one is enough).
  • Onion.

As for salt and other spices, each housewife has her own rules, so you decide on this issue yourself.

How to cook

If you decide that tomorrow you will make borscht with mushrooms and beans, soak both of these ingredients in cold water overnight. During the day, wash them and cook them separately. Moreover, the mushrooms are already in the saucepan in which the borscht will be cooked. To do this, pour two liters of water into it. Cook the beans until half cooked, making sure they don’t get overcooked.

Fry all vegetables, except potatoes, in exactly the same way and in the same form as in the previous recipe. But there is one difference: you don’t immediately put them in the pan, but simmer them for about twenty minutes in a frying pan, adding mushroom broth to it. As for the potatoes, you can add them to the mushrooms immediately after they boil. And after ten minutes, add beans to them. And let everything cook while the vegetables are stewing. And when they are ready (this will take 20 minutes), put them in the pan too. And almost immediately add the pepper, cut into arbitrary pieces. During the cooking process, do not forget to add your favorite spices and salt. And cook everything for about an hour. Then add the chopped greens to the pan, turn off the heat, cover with a lid and wait until the borscht with mushrooms and beans steeps a little.

What to serve with

Usually borscht with mushrooms, of which more than one was described in the article, is seasoned with sour cream. True, there are also fans who use mayonnaise for this. But this is a matter of taste. And of course, the classics of the genre: borscht with mushrooms and garlic dumplings. True, not everyone knows how to cook properly, and this process is quite labor-intensive. So if you don’t have the time or desire to make donuts, you can fry the crackers by adding finely chopped garlic to them. Or simply serve fresh black bread or white bread with the borscht - whatever suits your taste.

Of course, not as nutritious as meat ones. Therefore, remember: such dishes must be thick. It is desirable that they contain as many ingredients as possible.

If you want your borscht to be even thicker, cook the potatoes not cut into pieces, but whole. Then you can gently crush it with a spoon. The resulting mashed potatoes will certainly add thickness to the borscht.

No matter how much you are in a hurry, still give the finished dish at least half an hour, and preferably more, to brew. During this time, the borscht will be saturated with the aroma of all the ingredients and will become richer and tasty.

Bon appetit!

Contrary to some misconceptions, you do not have to fast during Lent. For example, you can prepare borscht with mushrooms and beans, which is as satisfying as a meat dish. If you follow the recipe, the borscht turns out unusually aromatic and tasty, and, at the same time, rich. Lenten borscht with mushrooms and beans is a dish that makes many soups pale in comparison.

Lenten borscht with mushrooms and beans

  1. Type of dish - first
  2. Weight – 2500 g.
  3. The country of the dish is Ukraine.
  4. Number of servings – 8
  5. Calorie content (per 100 g) –
  6. Cooking time -

Ingredients

  • dried mushrooms – 50 g;
  • beets – 2 pcs. (small size);
  • potatoes – 3 pcs.;
  • carrots – 2 pcs.;
  • beans – 1 cup;
  • onions – 1 pc.;
  • tomato paste – 2 tbsp. l.;
  • sugar – 1 tbsp. l.;
  • sauerkraut – 200 g;
  • prunes – 150 g;
  • bay leaf – 4 pcs.;
  • garlic – 3 cloves;
  • vegetable oil, herbs, pepper;
  • salt - to taste.

Step-by-step instruction

Tasty and aromatic lean borscht with mushrooms and beans is easy to prepare - just follow the recipe. The low-calorie dish is suitable for those who are fasting and on a diet. It is no worse than real Ukrainian meat borscht.

  1. One of the main ingredients of borscht, according to the recipe, is dried mushrooms. You can take fresh ones, but the taste will not be as rich. Pour cool water over the mushrooms and leave for 40 minutes to swell. At this time, you can work on other ingredients.

  1. The second important component, without which it is impossible to prepare this dish, is beans. Soak it overnight. To do this, pour 1 cup of beans with cold water. In the morning you can cook borscht from it. The water is drained, and the swollen beans are transferred to the pan. Fill it with new water, add 1 teaspoon of sugar for faster swelling. It usually takes 50 minutes for the beans to cook. It all depends on its variety.

  1. For lean borscht with mushrooms and beans, it is advisable to choose dark burgundy beets. It's better if it's sweet. Rinse the beets under cold running water, peel and cut into strips. Fry it in vegetable oil. This will help the beets cook faster, and the borscht will be more filling.

  1. Wait until the beans are cooked and add the mushrooms to them. It is advisable to add the water in which they were soaked. Add the roasted beets to the remaining ingredients. Leave everything to simmer over low heat.

  1. At this time, prepare the borscht dressing. Peel the onion and chop it into cubes. Peel the carrots and cut into strips. Pour some vegetable oil into a frying pan and fry the onion in it. After 3 minutes, add carrots. Simmer the vegetables for about 10 minutes over low heat.

  1. Fill the glass halfway with water. Add tomato paste and mix thoroughly. Then pour it into the pan in which the carrots and onions are stewed. Add sugar, pepper, salt. Simmer for a few more minutes. After this, you can remove the pan from the stove.

  1. Rinse the prunes thoroughly under cold running water and cut into small pieces. Place it in a saucepan.

  1. Peel the potatoes and cut them into any shape (as usual for soup or borscht). Place it in a saucepan with the beans, mushrooms and beets. Transfer the dressing from the pan there.

  1. Place the pepper and bay leaf in the pan. Don't forget to taste the borscht so that you can add more salt or spice if necessary.
  2. When the potatoes are ready, add the sauerkraut. If it doesn't seem like enough, you can add a little fresh. Also don't forget the garlic. It must first be cleaned and passed through a press.
  3. Boil all ingredients over low heat for about 15 minutes. Then remove the pan from the stove. Typically, lean borscht with mushrooms and beans turns out to be a rich dark red color. Let it brew. An hour is enough for this. Then pour the borscht into plates and serve. Don’t forget that borscht is lean, so sour cream or mayonnaise in it will be superfluous.

Useful tips for preparing lean borscht with mushrooms and beans

    There are also a couple of tricks for lean borscht with mushrooms and beans:
  • to preserve the rich color of the beets, sprinkle them with wine vinegar or citric acid before frying;
  • chop all vegetables, except potatoes, into approximately equal pieces;
  • When preparing lean borscht, the order of adding vegetables is very important, so you should adhere to it;
  • a few minutes before the dish is ready, you can put chopped herbs in it (you can choose dill, parsley or something else, according to the hostess’s taste);
  • It is not necessary to use sauerkraut; lean borscht will not lose its taste if you add fresh vegetables.

Borscht with mushrooms and beans will be a real find for those who are fasting. Borscht with mushrooms and beans is also suitable for vegetarians, since the recipe does not include the use of meat. Borscht according to this recipe is not only tasty, but also very healthy, because it contains a huge amount of vitamins and other useful substances necessary for the body. Beans make the dish more nutritious. In general, borscht with mushrooms and beans contains a full range of fats, proteins and minerals. Therefore, you can please your loved ones with a tasty and healthy dish during Lent.

Step 1: Chop the vegetables.

So, let's get started - first of all, rinse the cabbage under running water, place it on a cutting board, remove the top damaged leaves and cut the head of cabbage in half. Then we put one half in the refrigerator (we won’t need it), but beautifully chop the second half into strips or as you are used to. Transfer the chopped vegetable to a clean plate.


Now wash the carrots, peel them and chop them. The easiest way is to grate it on a grater with large holes, although you can try to cut it beautifully with a knife. In any case, place the chopped carrots on a clean plate.


Next in line are onions and garlic. We remove the husks from them, rinse them in cold water and place them on a cutting board. First, finely chop the garlic cloves into pieces of arbitrary shape, then use a sharp knife to cut the onion into small cubes. Place the cuts on separate plates.


The next vegetable is tomatoes. You need to remove the peel (film) from them; to do this, make a cross-shaped cut on the surface and lower it into boiling water for one minute. Then we take it out with a tablespoon and, picking up the peel by the cut, remove it from the vegetable. We leave the tomatoes in this state to cool, we will come back to them later, but for now we will deal with the potatoes.


We rinse it under running water, peel it and cut it on a cutting board into a medium cube of about 2 centimeters or into cubes, whichever you prefer. Fill the chopped potatoes with water to prevent them from darkening.

Step 2: Prepare the beets.


We thoroughly wash the beets under running water and peel them with a knife or vegetable peeler. Then we treat it the same way as with carrots: either grate it or cut it beautifully.
Turn on medium heat on the stove, place the frying pan and pour in vegetable oil. At the same time, pour 2 liters of clean water into a large saucepan and place it on the adjacent burner, turned on to the highest heat.


We return to the beets, put them in the frying pan, add vinegar and fry for 2 - 3 minutes, stirring constantly with a kitchen spatula.


Then we wait for the water in the pan to boil, after which we throw the beets and mushrooms into it and mix.

Step 3: Prepare the frying.



While the beets and mushrooms are cooking, prepare the roast. You can use the same frying pan. So, add a little vegetable oil to it, add chopped onion, fry until softened for about 2 minutes. Then add carrots, sugar to taste, mix and cook for 2 - 3 minutes. Next, add garlic, mix again and remember about the left tomatoes. They need to be chopped very finely and added to the pan with the vegetables along with the juice. Simmer everything for 3 - 4 minutes. Then turn off the heat and set the frying aside.

Step 4: Cook the soup.



After preparing the frying, carefully drain the water from the potatoes and add them to the soup. Stir and after 15 - 20 minutes add cabbage and beans. And after 5 minutes you can add the frying. Mix everything again, add ground black pepper and salt to taste, cover with a lid, reduce heat and cook for another 3 - 4 minutes. Then taste the soup and add a little more salt if necessary.

Step 5: Serve borscht with beans and mushrooms.



Pour the finished borscht into plates and serve hot. This soup is traditionally seasoned with sour cream and sprinkled with parsley or dill. Garlic croutons, as well as white or rye bread, go perfectly with it. Enjoy delicious and simple food!
Bon appetit!

Canned beans can be replaced with regular beans. True, you will first have to soak it in water for 4 - 8 hours, and then boil it in salted water until tender, and then add it to the soup. But if you don't have that much time and you don't like canned beans, then make green bean soup.

If you don't like soft, overcooked potatoes in your soup, then fry them in a frying pan until crisp before adding them.

Mushrooms for this dish can be used not only frozen, but also fresh. Moreover, any will do, for example, honey mushrooms or champignons.

If you want to get bright, rich red borscht, then you can resort to a little trick. Divide the beets in half, chop one part, fry and add to the water along with the mushrooms, but the second: boil until fully cooked, chop, add a little vinegar or lemon juice and add to the soup after frying.