Put the bone-in meat into a saucepan with cold water and boil it on slow fire. Do not cover the saucepan. Keep removing the froth. Boil for 2 to 2 1/2 hours (till half-ready). Put the chopped cabbage into the boiling broth. When it starts boiling again, add diced potato. Fry the carrot, parsley root and onion with tomato bulb, and then place the stuff into the shchi and boil for 15 min more. Add pepper, bay leaf and salt. You can also add some garlic to taste. Serve the shchi with sour cream.

Borshch (beetroot soup)

400 g brisket
5-6 large potatoes
1 big carrot
1 middle-sized beetroot
200g cabbage
1 onion
2-3 Tsp tomato pulp
bay leaf
5-6 garlic cloves
dried basil, young coriander seeds, greens

Boil the brisket, strain the broth, separate meat from bones and cut into slices. Dice the beetroot and stew it. Place potatoes into the boiling broth and when the water is at the boiling point, place stewed beetroot there. Add chopped cabbage to the broth. Fry the diced carrot and onion with mashed tomatoes. Put the pan with the fried vegetables aside and place crushed garlic there. Put the lid over it and boil for 5 min. Then add the fried stuff from the pan and meat and spice it. Mix and put the lid over it. Three min more and it is ready. Serve with sour cream and the greens.

Valaam Shchi with mushrooms

150 g beef bones
200 g sauerkraut
15 g dried black mushrooms
1 big carrot
1 parsley, 1 large onion bulb
25 g tomato pulp
5 g wheat flour
fat/ oil and sour cream

Add washed and dried mushrooms and sauerkraut to the bone broth and boil till ready. Remove the mushrooms and slice them. Fry roots and onion, add flour and tomato pulp, and heat for about 10 min. Put dressing and mushrooms into the broth and boil for 10 min. Serve with sour cream.

Okroshka (Russian traditional kvass soup)

2 - 2 1/2 L kvass
250 g beef, veal, or boiled veal tongue
2 - 3 cucumbers (or 200 g sauerkraut)
2-3 potatoes
150 g green onion
2 - 3 hard-boiled eggs,
3/4 glass sour cream
Salt, sugar, parsley and dill to the taste.

Separate the yolks and whites of the hard-boiled eggs. Rub the yolks with mustard, salt and grated horseradish (to taste). Add 1/2 glass of kvass.

Chop meat, cucumbers, boiled potatoes and some other vegetables (turnip, radish/small radish and boiled carrot can be used), egg whites and mix it all with the yolks. Rub diced onion with salt to juice and add it to the okroshka. Pour 2 glasses of kvass into okroshka and put it in the fridge for 2-3 hours. Add the rest of kvass before serving. Serve with sour cream and greens.

All meat ingredients should contain no fat. Game, poultry or sausage may be used instead of meat. Okroshka can be cooked without meat as well.