Nothing takes the chill off a cold winter day than a big bowl of soup. That’s probably been true since early man started throwing meat and vegetables in a pot over an open fire pit.

One soup that’s been around a long time is borscht, which is derived from an ancient soup originally cooked from pickled stems, leaves and umbrels of common hogweed, a herbaceous plant growing in damp meadows.

The soup has come a long ways since then. Nowadays, most borscht is prepared in the traditional Slavic style, with beets, carrots, cabbage, potato, onion, carrot tomatoes and a meat or bone stock. It originated with Russians and Ukrainians and later was adopted by Germans who settled in the Black Sea and Volga areas of what was once Imperial Russia.

Many people who grew up in the Dakotas and Minnesota are familiar with the tangy soup, especially those descendants of Germans from Russia who began arriving in this country in the late 1800s and early 1900s, bringing borscht recipes with them.

I put the following together after reading a couple of old family recipes that were passed on to me by friends over the years. It definitely warmed me up last when Blizzard Alivia struck last week

Winter Borscht
8 cups water
1 cup tomato juice
3 beef bouillon cubes
6 carrots, 1-inch slices
6 small beets, cooked and diced
1 cup cabbage, chopped
1 cup green beans
1 onion diced
1 stalk celery, diced
2 cups tomatoes, chopped
2 potatoes, cubed
2 turnips, cubed
½ cup pearled barley
4 tablespoons fresh dill
Salt and pepper to taste
1 bay leaf
Place all the ingredients in pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 to 2 hours.