Borscht with Fennel Dumplings

The beetroot is a real chef’s ingredient. It lends itself to creativity more than any other vegetable thanks, in part, to its immense versatility.

You can prepare it in any one of countless ways:  soups, salads, pickles, gels, spheres, jellies, crisps, soufflés, sorbets and ice creams to name but a few. What’s more the cosy, earthy sweet flavour of beetroot lends itself to a multitude of flavour combinations – some classic, some unusual.

Mix these two elements together – numerous preparations and a great many flavour combinations – and it gives the chef a blank canvas to create something delicious, complex and fun. Three chefs each with a brief of ‘smoked salmon and beetroot’ will all create three completely different dishes. Beetroot is the rashomon of the kitchen.

Now is a great time to explore the yin of beetroot: its soft sweet edges pair well with fresh summer salads, zingy, acidic ingredients  and other fresh garden produce that is all so good as we head into the decline of summer. Inspired by this recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi, we bought a bunch from the market on Sunday.

Amongst the tidy bunches of miniature specimens of baby beetroot, plucked from the ground whilst tender and sweet, was an overgrown collection of fist-sized roots. Each was sprouting rhubarb like stems topped with a leathery leaf, perfect for sautéing in some foaming butter. There was no contest. I parted with the paltry sum of a pound and heaved the bunch into a bag.

The Ottolenghi salad was an unsurprising success: quickly boiled beetroot and raw red onion doused in a sharp, vinegar heavy dressing, topped with seasonal leaves and herbs and finished with the twin creaminess of avocado and goat’s cheese with a few toasted hazelnuts for crunch. Wonderfully fresh, perfectly summery and well worth trying.

But for all its chameleonic properties and aspirations of grandeur and daintiness, the beetroot is, at its heart, a humble, wholesome food. Its long season and hardy character made it a staple for countries where harsh winters would destroy most other produce and these are the places to look for the best recipes.

And as is so often the case, the best recipes are the simplest. Borscht is a two-ingredient meal that instantly reminds me of childhood. It makes me think of school holidays, stained fingers and the comedic promise of purple wee. It is a welcome bowl of satisfying warmth that is as perfect as a light supper on a late summer’s evening as it is a soothing bowl of warmth on a winter’s afternoon when it evokes the spirits of Tolstoy and revolution and romantic poverty.

The seasoning of the soup should be balanced along Thai lines of sweet, sour, salty and spicy with the almost ethereal piquancy added by plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Brown sugar, white wine vinegar and plain salt add the other flavours which serve to enhance the entire flavour profile of the beetroot itself.

Traditionally borscht is topped with soured cream but feeling the need for a slightly more filling component we quickly made some little suet dumplings flavoured with freshly cut fennel tops. They swelled in the soup creating a light but still satisfyingly doughy addition to the dish. It was, perhaps inevitably, washed down with a generous glass of iced vodka.

With beetroot now in season for the next six months, it looks as if this may become a regular addition to the repertoire.

Click here for the recipe