How to make Borscht

You will need:

at least three medium to large beets
two large sweet onions
a clean stalk of celery
several fat carrots
a medium head of cabbage
a couple of beef steaks (sirloin or New York strip)

balsamic vinegar
sugar
Better than Bullion, Beef Base
salt]
fresh ground pepper


Trim fat and sinew from the steaks and then slice them into thin strips about 1-2 inches long.
Marinate in Worcestershire Sauce.

Chop the onion (large pieces) and sauté in butter.
Peel the carrots and slice into rounds.  Sauté with the onions.
Clean the celery.  Cut off the top and discard.  Chop the celery, leaves and all, into 8th inch slices and add to the sautéing vegetables.
Clean the cabbage.  Toss out the outside leaves and the core.  Chop the rest and add that to the sauté.
Peel the beets and shred them.  Corse shred.  Do not add to the other veggies yet.

Saute the beef in olive oil until brown.  Use a large soup pot.
Add the sauted veggies add about two quarts of water, and then the shredded beets.
Cook until the beets are tender.
Add more water according to your desire--depending on how thin you want to soup to be.

Add vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper, and beef soup base to taste.
     about 1/2 cup vinegar
     about 1/3 cup sugar
     about 1/2 teaspoon salt ??? See note below.*
     about 1/4 teaspoon pepper
     about 2 Tablespoons beef base (Add more soup base depending on the amount of water you added above.)

You can add mushrooms if you like.
Serve with rye or Russian black bread, buttered
Serve with sour cream is desired

Don't add the beets too soon, or cooking will bleach the color out of them.
Adjust the amount of vinegar and sugar to your own taste, but this soup was intended to be sweet and sour.
*The beef soup base may add all of the salt that you want.  Taste.  The right amount of salt will make the flavor stand up and sing to you.  Too much salt is nasty.

You can use apple juice instead of water to thin the soup.  If you do, you won't need as much beef soup base.

P.S.  This stuff is really healthy--especially after a hard day's work.