Russian Beet Borscht

If you think, and why shouldn’t you, that borscht is a plain Russian beet soup, lightly soured with lemon juice and topped with a dollop of sour cream, you would be astonished to see how many variations there are on this homely theme in Russian cookbooks. Beets are the only common thread, which makes sense if you know that “borscht” descends from a word in the Russian language’s predecessor, Old Church Slavonic. Now, in Russian, “borscht” refers only to the soup (or soups) with beets in the