Step 3. On to the carrots. Peel them and grate them (I usually do that while the cabbage is being pre-fried – a little time-saving trick), add some more vegetable oil into the frying pan, put the grated carrots on it. Once again, pre-fry until the carrots look soft, stirring occasionally. Add some salt in the process. When done, the carrots go into the large pan as well.
Step 4. Tomatoes and onion are pre-fried together. Chop them up, mix them in the frying pan (don’t forget to add some vegetable oil again, this needs to be done for each ingredient). Add some salt and pre-fry until the tomatoes turn into soft mass. Dump into the large pan.
Step 5. On to the major ingredient, the one that will give your soup its unique taste and color. The beets! Peel the beet, grate them, and put them into the frying pan, just like you did before with the carrots. Now the chef’s secret: in order for the beets not to lose their color, you will need to add a table spoon of vinegar as soon as you can, and mix it in. If you forget that, your soup will turn yellow, and of course there is no such thing as yellow borshch. J When you are done with vinegar, go the usual route: add some salt, pre-fry until the beets look soft. Dump into the large pan.
You are almost done! If the soup in the large pan is already at the boiling point, that’s good. If not, turn the heat up just a little. Add some more salt; this soup really “eats up” salt, that’s why you have to add it for each ingredient when you pre-fry and then again to the whole thing. It will of course depend on your taste how salty you like it, so I suggest taking a spoonful and tasting it (be careful and don’t burn yourself! I often do.)
And the finishing stroke: some garlic powder. If you want to use real garlic instead, chop it as fine as you can and put it into the pan.
Cover the pan with the lid and let it simmer for 20-30 minutes. Then turn the heat off and let it just sit for a while, cooling off.