Recipes

Legend has it that once upon a time, the Mennonites living in the Ukraine "borrowed" the recipe for the beet borsht of the area, and substituted cabbage for beets. This doesn't surprise me at all, as Mennonites are known for being...somewhat frugal...and I can imagine the use of their time, ingredients, and cashflow it would take to develop their own soup recipe would have simply been out of the question.

Anyways, here is the recipe for borsht, adapted from the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog, with a few things changed, so it could be a little more like the one I'm used to! And FYI - we had this for supper the next day, and it was fantastic! It makes about 11 bowls of soup.

Borscht

• 2 lbs. soup bones, with lots of meat (I used short ribs from grass fed beef, and I would highly suggest it - it made amazing broth!)
• 8-10 cups water
• 4 carrots, sliced
• 4 medium potatoes, cubed
• 1 large (or 2 medium) onions, chopped
• 1 medium head cabbage, chopped fine
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 tablespoon peppercorns
• 2 whole dried red chili peppers (optional)
• Fresh dill (a large bunch)
• 2 tins tomato soup (I used 1 medium jar of homemade tomato soup, but I'm sure Campbell's would work well too)
• 2 cups diced tomatoes

~Cover soup bones with water and simmer until meat is tender (several hours).

~Remove the bone and shred the beef. Add more water to make 8-10 cups of stock before adding the vegetables.

~Add vegetables and seasonings (put chili peppers and 1/2 of dill into a spice cup or cheesecloth), and cook until vegetables are tender.

~Add tomato soup, rest of dill, diced tomatoes, and shredded beef, bring to a boil, then let simmer for half an hour. 

Applesauce

• 3 lbs of peeled, cored, and quartered apples
• 4 strips of lemon peel - use a vegetable peeler to strip 4 lengths
• Juice of one lemon, about 3-4 Tbsp
• 1- 2 tsp cinnamon (I am quite cinnamon savvy, so I use 2 tsp)
• 1/4 cup of brown sugar (I used 1 1/2 tbsp brown sugar and a sprinkle of powdered stevia, but feel free to adjust the sweetness to your taste)
• 1/4 cup of water
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

~Put all ingredients except cinnamon in slow cooker and cook on high for 4 hours.

~Once it is cooked, remove lemon peel and stir in cinnamon.