🇵🇱 How to Make Barszcz

Craving Barszcz? On FoodNeverComes the food never actually comes — so here's how to make real Barszcz at home, in about 1 hr, with stuff you probably already have.

🛒 Ingredients

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• 1kg raw beetroot, peeled and grated
• 1.5L vegetable or mushroom stock
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp lemon juice or vinegar
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 bay leaves, 5 allspice berries
• salt, pepper

👩‍🍳 Method

1. Simmer the grated beetroot in the stock with the bay and allspice for 40 min.
2. Strain it and throw the pulp away — barszcz is a clear soup, not a purée.
3. Add the garlic, sugar, salt and the lemon juice. The acid is what keeps it that violent red; without it the colour dulls to brown.
4. Reheat gently but do not boil once the acid is in.
5. Taste for the sweet-sour balance. It should make you sit up.
6. Served clear in a mug at Christmas, or with tiny mushroom dumplings floating in it.