Russian Vegetable Recipes

Who could ever think that in ancient Russia the food was mainly vegetarian? It is fashionable now, actually, but back then it was a banal necessity

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Who could ever think that in ancient Russia the food was mainly vegetarian? It is fashionable now, actually, but back then it was a banal necessity. Guests have always been welcomed with bread and salt in Russia. However, bread is not the only food, as they say in Russia. In olden time, in the villages of middle Russia, in mainly agricultural regions, they did not keep cattle in each yard. The reason was not laziness, but lordly arbitrariness and cruel tax policy. However, being oppressed on the meat flank, the Russian peasant took control over the cereal and flour branch. The basis of the Russian cuisine in remote places was vegetarian food traditionally including gifts of wood, besides field cultures.
Even in that case, Russian dishes differed with improbable taste and were very appetizing – just remember boiled potato with Lenten butter and fresh herbs! Today we are presenting recipes for vegetable dishes of Russian cuisine.

Vegetable Salad

1 cup chopped fresh cabbage
3 pods sweet pepper
1 carrot
4 tomatoes
6 cloves garlic
1 tbsp finely sliced fresh parsley
2 tbsp chopped spring onions
5 tbsp sunflower oil
salt to taste

Cooking:
Slice peppers finely, grate carrots and tomatoes coarsely, pound garlic with salt. Stir, salt, put in a salad bowl and dress with vegetable oil.

Mushroom Salad

500g mushrooms
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp sliced fresh parsley
vinegar
salt, ground pepper to taste

Cooking:
Pour boiling water into a pan with cleaned rinsed mushrooms. Add salt, cook, slice finely and fill with a sauce of vegetable oil with whipped vinegar, salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with fresh parsley.

Cabbage Sprout Shchi

(for 4 portions)
300g beef
300g cabbage sprouts
1 onion
1/2 cup sour cream
salt, pepper
chopped fresh dill

Cooking:
Scald and drain green cabbage sprouts. Put the sprouts and finely sliced onions in meat broth, bring to boil, add sour cream, salt, fresh herbs and spices.

Peasant Borscht

Ingredients:
(for 6 portions)
1.5L rich vegetable broth
4 carrots
2-3 tomatoes
4 parsley roots
350g oil
4 celery roots
1 cabbage
200g pods beans
400g sour cream
kvass
salt, pepper, fresh herbs to taste

Cooking:
Put julienned carrots, parsley and celery roots, and bean pods cut into 3-4 parts into vegetable broth. Then chop cabbage. When the borscht begins to boil, add sliced tomatoes browned in oil with a little broth. Boil five more minutes. Add salt, pepper, fresh herbs, leave to rest 25-30 minutes and dress with sour cream. Before that, you can add two cups of kvass.

Battered Mushrooms

500g fresh mushrooms (ceps, birch mushrooms, aspen mushrooms)
4 tbsp flour
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 tbsp vegetative oil
salt to taste
vegetable oil for frying

Peel mushrooms, cut off stems, rinse tops and boil them in a little water. Prepare the battering: put flour in a bowl, add an egg, salt, a little sugar, milk and stir well until homogeneous. Dry boiled mushroom tops, dunk them in the batter and fry in a little melted bacon and culinary fat.

Rasstegai Pies with Mushrooms And Rice

For dough:
1kg flour
1.5 cups warm water
1 cup warm milk
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
2 eggs
100g butter
25-30g yeast
For filling:
200g dried mushrooms
1 onion
2-3 tbsp margarine
100g rice
ground black pepper and salt to taste

Prepare leavened dough, and add a piece of chilled butter at the end of kneading and stir thoroughly. For filling, rinse dried mushrooms, soak them in water, boil, rinse again, grind or chop finely. Chop onions finely and fry with mushrooms until golden. Chill fried mushrooms with onions, combine with boiled friable rice, add salt and pepper. Make dough balls (150g each), leave them in a warm place for 10 minutes to rest. Roll these balls out flat and put the filling on them, pinch the edges, leaving the middle open. Put the rasstegais on the baking tray brushed with margarine, and leave for 15 minutes. Bake the rasstegai at 210-220 C. Brush with butter after baking.

Friable Porridge

3 cups water
1.5 cups unground buckwheat
2 onions
2 eggs
3-4 dry cep mushrooms
6-7 tbsp sunflower oil

Sift the buckwheat, but do not rinse it. Then fill with water, add powdered mushrooms and put on high heat, covered. When the water begins to boil, turn the heat down half and continue cooking about 10 minutes until dense, then turn the heat down again and cook 5-7 minutes more at low heat until the liquid evaporates completely. Take off the heat, cover the saucepan with a towel for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, heat oil in another saucepan, fry finely sliced onions, sprinkle with salt. Chop hard-boiled eggs finely and add them together with the fried onions into the porridge and stir evenly.

Stuffed Turnip

8 turnip roots
1/3 cup grated cheese
30g butter
1/2 cup sour cream or sour cream sauce
For filling:
1/2 cup rice
1 onion
1 egg
1 bunch fresh parsley

Take middle-sized turnips. Peel the turnip and make a circular cut (at the top) half the fruit deep. Put the turnip in a saucepan, add cold water so that it is covered with it, and cook until soft. While the turnip is cooking, prepare the filling: rinse the rice, drain and dry. Chop peeled onions finely, fry in oil in a deep frying pan or a wide saucepan, add rice and, stirring slowly, fry for 10 minutes. Then add 1-1.5 cups of turnip broth, cover the frying pan wit a lid, boil the rice until ready. Add boiled chopped egg, chopped fresh parsley and stir well. Take out the turnip from the saucepan, cool down, remove the core with a spoon, leaving thin walls. Fill the turnip, sprinkle with grated cheese, drizzle with oil and bake. Serve with sour cream or sour cream sauce.

Pilaf With Mushrooms

150g dry mushrooms
100g onions
80g vegetable oil
160g rice
60g tomato paste
salt to taste
pepper to taste
50g butter
fresh dill, fennel or chervil for serving

Rinse mushrooms, put them in cold water at the rate of 1:7, and leave for 3-4 hrs. Drain the water. Rinse mushrooms again, combine with the drained water they were soaked in, and cook without salt until soft.
Rinse the rice in cold water and dry on a towel. Chop peeled and finely sliced onions, brown them in vegetable oil for 5-7 minutes, add dried rice and brown until it gets rose colour. Put the rice and onions in a dish with thick bottom, put boiled sliced mushrooms and pour in the mushroom broth so that it is 2cm above the level of food, add salt and stew 20 minutes covered with a lid. After that add tomato paste and pepper, and stew at low heat until ready. The rice should swell well, but not too soft. Before serving, stir the pilaf, add butter and put on separate plates shaped as hills. Sprinkle with chopped fresh herbs.

Cabbage Rolls With Vegetables

800g cabbage
3 carrots
1 turnip
1 onion
1 egg
1 tbsp rice
4 tbsp butter or margarine
1 cup sauce
1 tbsp flour
dill, lettuce leaves

Peel white cabbage, remove the stump, put it in boiling water and cook 15-20 minutes until half-ready. Take the cabbage out of water and disassemble it into separate leaves having drained, tenderize the stems a little with a mallet. Make the filling combining fried vegetables, boiled rice, finely chopped hard-boiled eggs, put the filling on the leaves and roll them. Coat the rolls in flour and fry on a baking tray or a frying pan with sour cream sauce with salad and onions and bake until the cabbage is ready. Serve with the same sauce, sprinkled with fresh parsley or dill.

Bon appetite!