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A family gathering in Suffolk this weekend meant I was able to plunder my sister’s vegetable patch and return home with a binbags worth of wonderful homegrown produce. Along with a variety of beans, carrots and onions, my swag consisted of several kilos of beetroot as big as your face. The obvious thing to do was to make a bucket of borsch and stock up the freezer. This particular recipe comes courtesy of Gregg ‘COOKING DOZEN GET TUFFER THAN THIS!!!!’ Wallace.

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Skill level: easy

Ingredients

• fresh beetroot - peeled and diced - 475g
• 1 carrot - diced
• 1 onion - finely chopped
• 1 potato - diced
• 2 cloves of garlic - crushed
• vegetable stock (should really be chicken) - 850 ml
• sugar - 1tbsp
• s & p

To finish off:

• soured cream
• fresh dill

Heat the oil in a large pan, add the onion, carrot, potato and garlic and cook on a low heat until softened - about 15 minutes.

A good stash of beets

Add the beetroot and sugar and cook for a further 5 minutes.

Add the stock, bring to the boil and simmer for an hour.

Blitz with a hand blender.

Serve with a large blob of soured cream and a generous scattering of dill.

Verdict: Well it’s borsch, innit. Can’t go wrong. The soured cream and (generous amounts of) dill are essential though.

Drink: Nipped around the corner for a pint or two of Star.

Entertainment: Season 4 of The Wire is being rationed to one episode each Sunday evening. We are now on episode 48 ‘A New Day’ - “You play in dirt, you get dirty” - McNulty.