Ukrainian food: Borscht

Traditional Ukrainian food: Borscht

Traditional Ukrainian borscht is typically made from meat or bone stock, sautéed vegetables, and beet sour. Depending on the recipe, some of these components may be omitted or substituted.


Reviewed by expert

Ievgen Klopotenko: famous Ukrainian chef and the most recognizable culinary expert, who won Unesco recognition for borscht. Today, he is the founder of the CultFood – social project aimed at improving food culture in Ukraine.

Additional information

In 2022, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) announced that it had placed borscht on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding due to the risk that Russia’s invasion posed to the soup’s status as an element of Ukraine’s cultural heritage.

Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support and energy to an organism. It can be raw, processed or formulated and is consumed orally by animals for growth, health or pleasure.

Minerals (e.g. salts) and organic substances (e.g. vitamins) can also be found in food. Plants, algae and some microorganisms use photosynthesis to make their own food molecules.

Ingredients section

  • Fats: Types of fat include vegetable oils, animal products such as butter and lard, as well as fats from grains, including maize and flax oils. They are used in a number of ways in cooking and baking.
  • Proteins: Edible animal material, including muscle, offal, milk, eggs and egg whites, contains substantial amounts of protein.
  • Water: Cooking often involves water and water-based liquids. These can be added in order to immerse the substances being cooked (this is typically done with water, stock or wine).
  • Vitamins and minerals: Blanching or steaming vegetables is a way of minimizing vitamin and mineral loss in cooking.

Some organisms, including most mammals and birds, diets consist of both animals and plants and they are considered omnivores.

The chain ends with the apex predators, the animals that have no known predators in its ecosystem. The oxygen is then released and the glucose stored as an energy reserve.

Some inorganic (non-food) elements are also essential for plant and animal functioning.

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