How about a plate of Ukrainian borsch? Nothing can warm your heart and stomach better than this traditional soup.

Borsch is beet soup and can be described as the national soup of Ukraine. Filled with beets and other vegetables from a typical Ukrainian garden, it is a hearty soup which could be found on almost every dinner table. Here is one of more than 500 versions of borsch recipes.

Ingredients:
1/4 pound salt pork, diced
1 large leek, thinly sliced
1 medium onion, sliced
1 celery or parsley root (about 6 ounces), peeled and cut in thin strips
3 beets (about 1/2 pound), peeled and shredded
1/2 heads of cabbage (about 1/2 pound), thinly sliced
2 quarts water
1 1/2 pounds cooked meat such as Kielbasa (Polish sausage), ham, beef, or pork, diced
1 can (8 ounces) whole tomatoes
1 cup rye flour "kvas"
2 tablespoon white flour
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 ts pepper
1 1/2 ts lemon juice or vinegar
1 c whipping cream or dairy sour cream horseradish (optional)

Fry salt pork until golden in a 5-quart pot. Add leeks and onion. Fry until onion is transparent. Add celery root, beets, cabbage, water, and meat. Cook until celery root is crisp tender; about 25 minutes. Add tomatos and kvas, mix. Cook over medium heat for 30 minutes. Make a smooth paste of butter and flour and stir into the simmering soup. Cook and stir until soup thickens. Add salt, pepper, and lemon juice; mix in. To serve, spoon a small amount of cream and horseradish into each bowl. Ladle hot soup into bowl and stir to blend with the cream and horseradish.

Dough pockets with filling

Vareniki are Ukrainian dough pockets filled with potato, or potato and cheddar cheese, or sauerkraut, or cottage cheese, or blueberries, or cherries, or ... Ukrainian vareniki resemble to various degrees Polish Pierogi, Russian Pelmeni, Italian Ravioli, Jewish Kreplach, or Chinese Wonton. The word "varenik" means "boiled one'.

Have a taste of Ukrainian Vareniki!

Ingredients:
Dough:
2 egg
1 1/3 cup cold water
4 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt

Filling:
4 cups farmer cheese
8 oz cream cheese
2 eggs
salt to taste
a little sour cream if the mixture is too dry

Separate yolks from whites. Add yolks to the cottage cheese and mix it well. Mix dough - elastic and smooth. Roll it out as thin as it goes without tearing and cut out circles. Smear each with egg whites, put stuffing in the center, paste the edges together, put into boiling water. Boil for 5 minutes. Serve hot, with butter or sour cream.

Other filling choice:
Cherries: mix 1 lb pitted cherries with 1/2 cup sugar and let it rest for 15 minutes, then lightly squeeze it to get some of the juice out. Use the juice elsewhere or pour it on ready Vareniki. Potato: mash 8 large cooked potatoes. Add 2 large chopped onions which have been sautéed in butter or vegetable oil. Season with pepper and salt.

Cheese tarts

Vatrushky are savory open tarts with cottage cheese. It's a very common Ukrainian snack. Every Ukrainian family has its own recipe, handed down from generation to generation. They vary greatly but one thing is for sure, the Ukrainians put all their soul into them; no other dish reflects Ukrainian national cuisine better than vatrushky.

Ingredients:
Dough:
2 cups flour
1 cup milk
1 oz yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 tb salt
5 tb butter

Filling:
2 cups cottage cheese
3 tablespoons sugar
4 egg yolks
2 tablespoons sour cream
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoons flour
1 grated lemon peel

Mix yeast, sugar, 1 teaspoon of flour in warm milk. Let it rise for 15-20 minutes. Add all the milk and half the flour, mix, let it rise again. When it has risen, add the rest of the flour, salt, butter and mix until it is smooth and elastic. Let the dough rise once more. Form small buns, put them on a greased baking sheet leaving 2 inches space between them, let rise for 10-15 minutes. Make depressions in the buns with the bottom of a glass. Smear the brims with whisked egg; fill the depression with the filling. Filling: Rub the cottage cheese through a strainer; add melted butter, grated lemon peel, sour cream, flour, egg yolks whisked with sugar. Mix it well (also, you can stuff Vatrushki with a jam, with cranberries minced with sugar, black cherries, apples, etc.) Bake at 200-220 C until lightly brown.