Beyond Borscht: Old-World Recipes from Eastern Europe: Ukraine, Russia, Poland & More Paperback – March 31, 2020

I grew up in the U.S. since age 4 after my family moved here from Russia, so I've had my share of Russian cooking as an expat. I've had this book for a few months and have cooked or tried numerous recipes from it at this point, and I have nothing but good things to say about it. The recipes are delicious, beautifully photographed, and have clear instructions. The book also has nice descriptions of how the author came to know these recipes and what they mean to her.As a casual home cook (or rather, a co-cook with my fiancee), I like recipes with accessible ingredients which are not too convoluted to make, and this book definitely delivers on that front. Its recipes are generally (although not exclusively) straightforward both in their composition and in their preparation. The book is not incredibly long, so you won't find every famous Slavic recipe in it, but you'll find a good deal of them.Special shout-outs to the braised cabbage and mushroom piroshki, the sprat and tomato tea sandwiches, the golubtsi (beef and mushroom cabbage rolls, which impressed the hell out of my parents when we served them), and the mind-blowing dill and garlic potatoes.

It’s so nice to have a book of a mix of Slavic recipes! I’ve gotten a lot of recipes online but it’s nice to have them in a book to look at instead of a phone. I made the cabbage rolls today and it was a success and it was so nice to be able to look at the book (I have a stand) instead of trying to keep scrolling on my phone and getting it dirty. I can’t wait to try some more recipes because it has some of my other favorites like sorrel soup and a few salads that I like, among other things.

Everything what families from Soviet times would have had on their table daily. Classic recepies of many nations, Russian soups, Ukrainian perogies Polish cabbage rolls, even Uzbek pilav. The recepies are down to earth, simple ingredients, easy to follow instructions and mouth watering images.Book is a good quality glossy thick pages, a little hard to bend and keep the pages apart, but im sure with time it won't be an issue.I like the size, it is not oversized as many great books, but just right to keep it handy. I wish it had a hard cover, to make it last longer, but quality of the content of the book makes this issue unnoticeable.Love it. Totally recommend.

Oh my god this book is perfect! I bought this as a gift for my gf so she could teach me how to cook some food from her childhood but this has so many recipes that we haven’t even begun to break it in yet. All these recipes are super easy to follow and there’s no ingredients that are impossible to get.

I had no idea this was my favorite lady from Pintrest! When I received the book and saw who it was I was pumped! I actually made an entire Easter dinner using this cookbook. My daughter and I picked out several recipes. I served up these dishes to my Ukrainian friend who said I did amazing that all dishes tasted like true Ukrainian Cuisine! 🙂

This book has a wide variety of recipes from super simple to a little involved.The most complicated recipe that I have tried is the Salmon Coulbiac. I am not sure it is worth the effort since I made it for myself, but of course the author mentions that so I should have heeded that warning. It was fun to make. One complaint about the recipe is that it says to use frozen puff pastry. Do not do that! I can not emphasize that enough. Puff pastry is flour, butter, salt, and water. Frozen puff pastry in stores are typically made out of a chemical sludge. It is worth the effort to make from scratch.The borscht recipe is really good. I do wish that she had said why that 't' is at the end of it. There is no 't' in the Russian spelling. I guess it is like English speakers saying Moscow when it is Moskva. A real complaint about this recipe is that it says to eat it with "Rustic bread", with the 'R' capitalized so I assumed that it was a specific thing and a recipe would exist in the book. Nope.In fact, there are few bread recipes in this, which is good and bad I suppose.Overall, it is a solid recipe book. Most things are simple and unlike other cuisines around the world, the ingredients are easily available in bog-standard grocery stores. Except for buckwheat for some odd reason.Speaking of, the chicken buckwheat soup is amazing. I hateses mushrooms, but the first time I make something new, I follow the recipe exactly. The recipe is so balanced that the nasty taste of mushrooms blends with everything making it taste really good.Another positive are the metric measurements(it also has "standard" cups and teaspoons and whatnot) for the recipes. Cups, tea and tablespoon measurements vary fairly wildly. A gram is a gram. Recipes with metric measurements are always better. Invest in a good scale and ditch the inconsistent measuring tools in American kitchens.

This cookbook is great. The recipes are easy to follow, with good photos, and the food is so good.

Made the stuffed cabbage rolls. Excellent. I’ll try several other recipes. So, for me the book is worth buying. All seems authentic based on my knowledge of my grandmother’s cooking. Eastern European cooking is hardy and, to generalize, uses plentiful vegetables like cabbage, potatoes, and onions.

Apenas hice las albóndigas y están deliciosas¡¡¡¡ Esperaba más imágenes pero aun así me gusto.

I'm REALLY glad that I bought this book. As a chef in training, I love learning and expanding my knowledge of cooking different recipes. Learning about Eastern European cooking is a lot of fun and helps with cooking something different each week. My family and myself aren't from Europe, but I love these dishes in this book! As a kid, I was always fascinated by Russia, and it's culture. I'm extremely happy that the recipes are authentic and not 'Westernized' as a lot cookbooks tend to do. I made the Chicken Buckwheat Soup last week, and I wish I had made more! :P My family loved it!

Soft paperback book, wish it was hard. Beautiful quality photos. Bought as a present. Sorry I didn't have time to study the recipes for errors.

Absolutely love this cookbook. I decided to buy it after seeing the author's YouTube videos and deciding to make borsch following her recipe. My Ukrainian friend said it was excellent and reminded her of home. I immediately ordered this cookbook which is filled with classical and crowd pleasing eastern European dishes. I was impressed by the large amount of recipes, beautiful photos and clear instructions. Both imperial and metric units are given in the book, which saved me a lot of conversion troubles. This book will get a prominent spot in my kitchen!

Easy reading and some informative info.