Amid scenes of Sochi, celebrating six recipes for borscht

Whether it’s in celebration of the Winter Olympics in Sochi or simply because it seems like a good idea on a cool evening, doesn’t a nice bowl of borscht sound good right now?

It’s a good thing there are so many of them.

Though the uninitiated might tend to blow off borscht as simply that bright red Russian soup, actually there are almost unlimited variations on the theme of borscht found all over Central and Eastern Europe, varying according to the region, season and the individual cook. There is even a white borscht. So there.

PHOTOS: Six recipes for borscht

In 2011, Sarah Karnasiewicz, a devoted borscht lover, wrote for us:

“Traditionally, the borscht heartland has run in a wide river across Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and the Balkans, dribbling from Vilnius to Tbilisi, the Baltic to the Black Sea. But ultimately, cravings for borscht persist anywhere during dark, wet winter weather, when a bit of lightness and color is truly a gift….

“Despite what zealous Muscovites or Poles may argue, there are no “right” recipes -- nationalistic preferences and peccadilloes, regional flights-of-fancy and seasonal riffs, certainly -- but still borscht remains a dish largely defined by the way it has been adopted, and like minestrone, is an evolving and improvised affair.”

In celebrating that diversity of borscht, here are six of our favorite recipes. Karnasiewicz contributed a hearty Ukranian borscht with caraway dumplings, a spiced mushroom borscht, the aforementioned white borscht and even an American borscht made with roasted cranberries.

But when you’re talking about borscht, of course you also want to include the one from Southern California’s favorite Polish restaurant, Santa Monica’s Warszawa. And what about the version from Paper or Plastik Café, which starts with making your own quick-pickled beets?

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PHOTOS: Six recipes for borscht

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