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This Russian cabbage soup recipe makes shchi (Щи), the most Russian of soups. If my baboushka wasn’t making borscht, she was cooking a big pot of shchi. A very old soup that was eaten by nobles and peasants alike, the wealthy would include meat in their shchi, while workers made a vegetarian soup, shchi vegetarianskiye, you can skip the sour cream (not something I could do!) and you have a vegan shchi recipe.
My easy Russian cabbage soup recipe will make you an aromatic pot of shchi (Щи), perhaps the most Russian of soups. So beloved by Russians, the Moscow Times called it a “national treasure”. Brimming with cabbage, carrots and potatoes, it’s also one of my best potato soup recipes.
While you might have thought that borscht was the quintessential Russian soup, the beetroot-based meat and vegetable broth is one of the most popular and best-known Russian soups, but its origin is claimed by Ukrainians. Shchi is resolutely Russian.
Shchi is an old Russian soup dating to the 9th century, when cabbage arrived in ‘the Land of the Rus’ from Byzantium. Historically eaten by Russian peasants and nobles alike, a bowl of shchi typically included meat when cooked for the rich, while the poor made a simple vegetarian broth (shchi vegetarianskiye). To make this a vegan dish, you only need to skip the sour cream.
If you’re arriving here for the first time or you’re a regular visitor dropping by (no, we haven’t pivoted to a Russian food blog), we took a break from testing Cambodian recipes for our cookbook over the holidays, which is when I usually cook Russian food and reminisce about long-ago family meals while rolling out dough.
This year, we thought we’d share my Russian family recipes for dishes such as savoury pirozhki (hand pies), stuffed cabbage rolls,kotleti (chicken meat patties), beetroot potato salad, potato vareniki, pelmeni, and pan-fried Russian dumplings.
I’ll tell you more about my Russian cabbage soup recipe in a moment, but first, can I ask a favour? If you’ve cooked any of our recipes from Russia or beyond and you’ve liked them, please consider supporting Grantourismo so we can continue publishing recipes and food stories. This post lists ways to support Grantourismo but here are a few suggestions…
You could shop our online store (we have everything from gifts for food lovers to reusable cloth face masks for foodies designed from Terence’s photography); make a donation or become a patron of our original Cambodian culinary history and cookbook on Patreon; or buy something on Amazon, such as one of these James Beard 2020 award-winning cookbooks, cookbooks by Australian chefs, cookbooks for foodie travellers, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, and gifts for Asian food lovers and picnic lovers. Now let me tell you about my Russian cabbage soup recipe for shchi.
Easy Russian Cabbage Soup Recipe for Shchi, The Most Russian of Soups – And Vegan!
Russians love their comforting soups and my family was no exception. If baboushka wasn’t making borscht, she was cooking a big pot of shchi.
While Russians make warming soups for the winter, and cold soups for summer, my baboushka made borsht and shchi year-around, even in the scorching Australian summers.
My Russian cabbage soup recipe for shchi is one that is very similar to the soup I remember my baboushka making but with just a few tweaks. Baba always included some sort of meat in her soups – beef, oxtail, pork, or chicken.
However, I’ve opted to share the vegetarian version called shchi vegetarianskiye – although it’s a vegan shchi recipe if you give the sour cream a miss – and not just because it’s Veganuary. I think this has so much flavour as it is.
I’m pretty sure that baba included carrots and, from memory, sometimes celery, which are in most (though not all) traditional Russian shchi recipes. I’ll need to consult my mum or check baboushka’s hand-written recipes when I’m back in Australia.
I’ve also include an additional two ingredients – a tablespoon of olive oil to make up for not using a meat-based stock, and turmeric, for its earthy flavours as much as its colour and nutritional value.
This is a super easy Russian cabbage soup recipe – easier than borscht as there’s no beetroot to fiddle around with and no meat stock to make.
If you cooked this on high heat so it reduced faster, you could be eating this in 30 minutes, but the longer you simmer it the better it tastes. I like to leave it on the stove for hours. And it’s even better the next day!
Russian Cabbage Soup Recipe for Shchi
Russian Cabbage Soup Recipe for Shchi, the Most Russian of Soups
Author
Lara Dunston
This Russian cabbage soup recipe makes shchi (Щи), the most Russian of soups. If my baboushka wasn’t cooking borscht, she was making a big pot of shchi. An old Russian dish dating to the 9th century, when cabbage came to the ‘Land of the Rus’ from Byzantium, shchi has long been eaten by nobles and peasants alike. While the rich included meat, the poor made a vegetarian broth (shchi vegetarianskiye). My easy Russian cabbage soup recipe makes a vegan shchi if you skip the sour cream. Like borscht, this comforting Russian soup tastes even better the next day.
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Prep Time 30 minutes mins
Cook Time 1 hour hr
Total Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins
Course Soup
Cuisine Russian
Servings made with recipeServings 4 Servings
Calories 124 kcal
Equipment
Ingredients
- neutral cooking oil
- 1 onion - finely chopped
- 4 garlic cloves - finely chopped
- 1 head cabbage - roughly shredded
- 1 large carrot - grated (optional)
- 550 g potatoes - cut into cubes
- 2 bay leaves
- 4 litres water
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 2 tsp sea salt - or to taste
- 2 tsp black pepper - or to taste
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp virgin olive oil
- Fresh dill - handful roughly chopped
- Fresh curly-leaf parsley - handful roughly chopped
Garnish
- Sour cream - optional
- Fresh dill - roughly chopped
Instructions
Peel and chop the onions and garlic cloves finely, shred or chop the cabbage roughly (avoid fine shredding as you want the texture of wider pieces), grate the carrot if using, and peel and cut potatoes into cubes.
In a large fry pan, skillet or Dutch oven, fry the finely chopped onion in a neutral cooking oil until soft, then add the finely chopped garlic cloves, and continue frying until the onion is translucent, taking care not to burn the garlic. Transfer to a large soup pot.
Fry the roughly shredded cabbage with bay leaves in neutral cooking oil until soft. If using carrot, add this now also. When soft, transfer to the soup pot.
Add the potatoes and 2 litres of water to the soup pot, along with the tomato paste, turmeric, salt, pepper, sugar, and extra virgin olive oil, and stir. Turn to high heat to bring to a boil, then turn down to medium to allow to simmer for an hour. Add another litre of water; feel free to add more if needed.
At around 30 minutes, add the rest of the water, taste the soup, season with additional salt and pepper if needed.
When the soup is done to your liking (feel free to simmer for more than an hour if you like; the longer the broth simmers the better it tastes), add the chopped fresh dill and curly-leaf parsley and combine well so that it doesn’t clump together.
Ladle out the cabbage soup into bowls and (if you’re not vegan) plop a dollop of sour cream into each bowl and sprinkle on more dill and parsley. Provide additional bowls of sour cream and dill on the table for guests to help themselves.
Nutrition
Calories: 124kcalCarbohydrates: 22gProtein: 4gFat: 4gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 3gSodium: 1279mgPotassium: 594mgFiber: 7gSugar: 11gVitamin A: 2902IUVitamin C: 89mgCalcium: 117mgIron: 2mg
Do let us know if you make our easy Russian cabbage soup recipe for shchi as we’d love to know how it turns out for you. Leave a comment below, email or connect with us on social media (links below).
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Lara Dunston
A travel and food writer who has experienced over 70 countries and written for The Guardian, Australian Gourmet Traveller, Feast, Delicious, National Geographic Traveller, Conde Nast Traveller, Travel+Leisure Southeast Asia, DestinAsian, TIME, CNN, The Independent, The Telegraph, Sunday Times Travel Magazine, AFAR, Wanderlust, International Traveller, Get Lost, Four Seasons Magazine, Fah Thai, Sawasdee, and more, as well as authored more than 40 guidebooks for Lonely Planet, DK, Footprint, Rough Guides, Fodors, Thomas Cook, and AA Guides.
