Barszcz z Uszkami
Polish beet soup with tender mushroom dumplings. A jewel-toned vegetarian classic that's warming, earthy, and surprisingly achievable for a showstopping dinner.
- Total time
- 50 min
- Servings
- 2
- Calories
- 320
- Protein
- 11g
Ingredients
- 3 whole beets, medium
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar or lemon juice
- 1 pinch, plus to taste salt and pepper
- ½ pound mushrooms, cremini or button
- ½ whole onion, medium
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 whole egg
- 2 tablespoons butter
Instructions
- 1
Scrub each beet under cold running water with your hands, rubbing off any dirt. Pat dry with paper towels.
- 2
Place beets in a medium pot and cover with 4 cups vegetable broth. Set the pot on the stove, turn heat to high, and bring to a boil — you'll see large bubbles breaking the surface.
- 3
Once boiling, reduce heat to medium-low and cover with a lid. Simmer for 25 minutes until a fork pierces the beet skin with no resistance, like piercing soft butter.
- 4
Remove beets from the pot with a slotted spoon and place on a cutting board. Reserve the broth in the pot.
- 5
When cool enough to touch, hold each beet under cold running water and rub the skin off with your thumbs — it slides off easily. Discard the skin.
- 6
Cut each peeled beet into thin matchsticks by laying it flat on a cutting board, slicing lengthwise into thin slabs, then stacking the slabs and cutting them into thin sticks.
- 7
Return beet sticks to the broth in the pot. Stir in 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar and a pinch of salt. Taste and adjust salt and pepper to your preference.
- 8
Finely chop the onion into pieces smaller than a grain of rice — about pencil-tip dots. You should have roughly 0.25 cup.
- 9
Place mushrooms on a cutting board and chop them into very small pieces, no larger than peppercorns. You should have about 1 cup chopped.
- 10
Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a skillet over medium heat until it stops foaming and looks clear, about 60 seconds.
- 11
Add the chopped onion to the hot butter and stir once every 30 seconds for 3 minutes until it turns translucent and smells sweet.
- 12
Add the chopped mushrooms to the onion and stir once every 30 seconds for 5 minutes until the mushrooms release their liquid and shrink down.
- 13
Remove the skillet from heat and let the filling cool to room temperature, about 5 minutes.
- 14
Pour 0.75 cup flour into a small bowl. Crack 1 egg into the bowl and stir with a fork for 30 seconds until a shaggy dough forms — it should look like wet sand.
- 15
Turn the dough onto a clean, dry counter. Knead by pushing the dough away from you with the heel of your hand, folding it back over itself, rotating a quarter turn, and repeating for 2 minutes until smooth and slightly elastic.
- 16
Roll the dough into a thin sheet, about 1/16 inch thick, by flattening it with a rolling pin until it's almost transparent and you can see your hand through it.
- 17
Cut the dough into 2-inch squares using a knife or pastry wheel, making clean, straight cuts perpendicular to the counter.
- 18
Place 0.25 teaspoon cooled mushroom filling in the center of each square. Fold the square in half diagonally to form a triangle, pressing the edges firmly so they stick together.
- 19
Bring the two pointy corners of the triangle together underneath to form a small hat shape, pressing where they meet so they stick — this is the characteristic uszka shape.
- 20
Fill a large pot with water and bring to a rolling boil over high heat — you'll see vigorous, continuous bubbles breaking the surface.
- 21
Carefully drop the uszka into the boiling water. They will sink at first, then float to the surface after 2–3 minutes — this is when they are done.
- 22
Using a slotted spoon, transfer the cooked uszka to a bowl and set aside.
- 23
Reheat the borscht in its pot over medium heat until small bubbles appear around the edges, about 3–4 minutes.
- 24
Ladle the hot borscht into two bowls, dividing the beet sticks evenly. Top each bowl with half of the cooked uszka.
Tools you’ll need
- vegetable brush
- cutting board
- medium pot with lid
- slotted spoon
- fork
- chef's knife
- medium skillet
- small bowl
- rolling pin
- pastry wheel or knife
- large pot
- ladle
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