This version of borscht is meant for the spring or summer. It uses young beets and beet leaves along with fresh, summertime ingredients like dill, fresh peas and fresh broad beans. Don’t have those things? Frozen dill, frozen peas and canned broad beans make great substitutes.
Also, a new technique that makes Instant Pot borscht-making even faster!
This borscht starts with young beets. What makes a beet young? They’re smaller and the skin isn’t as thick. The thinner skin means you can just scrub them with a brush instead of peeling.
If the beet greens that you find in the store are wilting, you can refresh them in some cold water.
Start by scrubbing the beets (and peeling if you have older beets). With only scrubbing the beets they’re actually less messy to dice up. In case they’re not, use rubber gloves or grip the beets with a paper towel.
Dice the potato and onions and add to the Instant Pot along with a bay leaf and 2 cups of water. Add 2 teaspoons of salt.
Set the Instant Pot to cook on Manual and High Pressure for 6 minutes. Using just 2 cups of water is enough to cook the vegetables but the smaller amount of water also takes less time to come to pressure. The total time from setting to waiting 10 minutes for the release is 26 minutes.
Meanwhile, assemble the rest of your ingredients. If you’re lucky enough to have your own fresh broad beans, you would have added them into the beets, onions and potato cooking. I use canned broad beans – they’re a little different from lima beans. If you’re not a fan of these, you can substitute a can of white or red kidney beans.
Drain and rinse the canned beans thoroughly and set aside. This recipe doesn’t use the entire can of broad beans. But, the remainder is great sauteed in oil with garlic.
Chop up the dill and green onions.
Assemble the flour and water mixture that will get added after the pressure cooking is completed. It’s ½ water to 3 tablespoons of flour. Stir and set aside.
Then, chop up the beet greens.
When the pressure cooking time is complete, let the pressure drop for 10 minutes and release.
Add 3 additional cups of hot water and 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar (or lemon juice) to the soup. Set the Instant Pot to Saute and mix in the flour and water. Add the fresh or frozen 1 cup of peas. Cook for at least 5 minutes until thickened.
Add the greens last – the chopped dill, beet leaves and green onions (one recipe I have recommends chopped garlic leaves if you have them). Last, add the cream or milk.
When I started Instant Ukrainian, I wanted it to be more than borscht recipes. But, this one is definitely special. Also, check out my recipe for a vegan, gluten-free and dairy-free borscht or mushroom dumplings / vushka for borscht.
Instant Pot Creamy Summer Borscht
Ingredients
- 4 medium-sized "young" beets with beet greens attached
- 2 cups water
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 1 medium potato - roughly 1 cup diced
- 2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar white vinegar or lemon juice
- 3 cups water
- 1 cup canned or fresh broad beans
- 3 Tablespoons flour
- ½ cup water
- 1 cup frozen or fresh peas
- ½ cup frozen or fresh dill chopped
- 1 cup 10% cream or milk
Instructions
- Wash and scrub the beets.
- Dice the beets, potato and onions into a small ¼ inch dice. Add the beets, potato and onion to the Instant Pot along with 2 cups of water and 2 teaspoons salt. Cook on Manual using High Pressure for 6 minutes. Allow 10 minutes before releasing pressure.
- While the soup is cooking, prepare and chop the remaining ingredients. Combine ½ cup water with the 3 Tablespoons flour.
- Turn the Instant Pot to Saute and More. Add 3 cups of hot water, 2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar, beans and peas to the soup. Add the combined water and flour and cook for 5 minutes until thickened.
- Add the remaining greens - dill, green onions, and beet greens. Stir in 1 cup of cream.
- Serve immediately.
Girl you are blowing my mind!!