We've got tonnes of beets planted in the garden as they are so lovely simply roasted with some olive oil or made into a beetroot pickle and jarred. Having a Ukrainian heritage, I couldn't wait to unearth 4 of my lovely beets and feed two of us for VERY VERY cheap. Ukrainians were not wealthy folk and traditionally ate from the land and used everything from the meat and vegetables they grew. Beet roots went into making Borsch or beet soup, while the leaves were used to make beet leaf 'holupchi' or rice rolls.
I just love the taste of the beet leaves wrapped around clusters of rice, onions and butter. Here are my family recipes:
Baba's Borsch
Beef stock (home made is best, but store bought works)
4 medium sized beets, grated
2 potatoes peeled and cubed
1 can of diced tomatoes
1/3 cabbage head, chopped (you can omit this if you don't like cabbage)
2 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 cup white or red kidney beans (whatever is your favourite!)
1/2 cup mushrooms
1 tbsp fresh dill weed (this really makes the soup)
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 sour cream
Bring stock to a boil, add beets, potatoes, tomatoes and season with black pepper - simmer 10 minutes. Add cabbage and cook 10 minutes more. Add rest of ingredients and let simmer for a good 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Let stand for 10 minutes and garnish each bowl with a nice healthy dollop of sour cream and some fresh dill. Seriously, that's it. I sometimes put cubed ham in, or green beans...whatever I have around the house. Personally, I prefer the meat free version, but it's up to you!
Beet leaf holupchi
Rice Filling
2 cups rice
2 cups or less boiling water
2 teaspoons salt
1 medium onion, chopped fine
4 to 5 tablespoons butter
Salt and pepper
Wash the rice well in a sieve until the water comes off clear. Add to the boiling water, stir in the salt, bring to a brisk boil, and let it cook for 1 minute. Cover, turn off the heat, and allow it to stand until the water is absorbed. The rice will be only partially cooked. Cook the onion in the fat until it is a light golden color. Mix with the rice and season to taste with salt and pepper. The filling for holubtsi should be well seasoned because some of the seasoning will be absorbed by the leaves, giving a flat taste to the finished product. Cool the filling.
Wash all of the leaves from your 4 beets and shake off any excess water. Harvest beets when large and mature to make sure you have enough leaves - if not, just harvest some leaves from beets that are still in the ground (I'm sure they won't mind!) Blanch the mature leaves with boiling water, just enough to wilt them for easier handling. When the leaves are small and very tender, 2 or 3 of them may be needed for each roll. Take one large leaf (or a few smaller ones) and place a tbsp or so of rice in the bottom centre at the widest part of the leaf. Fold the long edges over the rice ball and then fold the bottom up. Roll the leaf to make a small rice filled beet leaf package!! Keep doing this until all beet leaves are used up. Line a casserole dish with the unusable beet leaves and then place your rolls in - one next to the other - until the bottom is full.
Then, if you have more, just stack them on top of eachother. Sprinkle each layer with some salt and a splash of lemon juice/vinegar - this adds flavour to the dish.
Add a little bit of heated water not to cover the holubtsi…but enough to make steam and cook them - essentially enough to cover the bottom of the roaster so they don’t dry out. Sprinkle some lemon juice or vinegar. When you are finished, cover with another layer of beet leaves to prevent burning.
Cover (with the top of the roaster or some aluminium foil) and cook at 350 degrees F or 175 degrees C for 1 to 1 ½ hours, or until the filling is done. Check after one hour. Serve hot with sour cream.
There you have it - seems like a bit of work, but let me tell you, it's so worth it. These two recipes will be enough to feed a small family for pennies a dish.
Super YUM!
Enjoy,
Kat
