The name of this thick vegetable soup, the main ingredient of which is beets, is supposedly derived from the Old Slavonic “borsch”, meaning hogweed - edible grass, the leaves of which were used in cooking. Later it was transformed into the word "borsch". The calorie content of this dish depends on several factors: first of all, on whether the borsch is cooked on meat or vegetable broth.
Traditionally, borsch is considered a Ukrainian national dish. However, this is not entirely correct: in one form or another it is present in Russian, Belarusian, Polish, and even Moldavian and Lithuanian cuisines. It has many cooking options - almost every region has its secrets.
Ukrainian cooks traditionally seasoned borsch with a mixture of crushed lard with garlic. Moscow borsch, according to the recipe, should be cooked in beef broth, in addition, finely chopped ham is added to it shortly before cooking. Starolitovsky borscht is cooked on beef broth with bone, seasoned with fried smoked lard, and served with porcini mushrooms. Moldavian borsch is prepared on chicken broth, seasoning it with vegetables fried in chicken fat. The calorie content of these first courses, as is clear from their description, will differ significantly from the calorie content of vegetarian, or “lean” borsch, which is often cooked by modern housewives.
100 g of borscht cooked in a vegetable broth contains no more than 50 kcal. If you add beans to it, the calorie content will increase to 68 kcal / 100 g. As for borscht on meat or bone broths, then this figure is much higher in them. So, the calorie content of borsch in fat is 98 kcal, borsch with porcini mushrooms and prunes - 109 kcal. 100 g of borsch in Moscow contains 115.5 kcal, and cooked on bone broth - 119 kcal.
Any kind of this dish, seasoned with sour cream, becomes caloric by about 15-20 kcal. Therefore, the answers to the question of how many calories in borsch will be different, depending on the features of the preparation of one or another of its options and the products used in it. If necessary, determine the calorie content of borscht, like any dish, by calculating the calorie content in its ingredients, based on their weight. Since it is correct to manually count calories, this is a rather troublesome task, you can use special online programs for this, which are available on some culinary sites.
However, calorie indicators of dishes - this is not all that must be taken into account by lovers of a healthy lifestyle. Any, even cooked from low-fat dietary meat (and most of all bone), broths are fraught with potential danger for those who have impaired uric acid metabolism. It is important for such patients to avoid products containing purines, in particular, red meat, offal, fish, certain types of vegetables (tomatoes, legumes, sorrel and spinach, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower), mushrooms. During the cooking of meat and fish, up to 50% of the purines contained in them are removed to the broth. Once in the body in large quantities, they can provoke the development of a serious and unpleasant disease - gout, in which crystals of uric acid are deposited in the joints. It is formed in the body precisely from purines, therefore, those who monitor their health, it makes sense to cook a vegetarian borsch. Its calorific value is small, but its benefits are quite noticeable.
Cooked according to the rules, lean borsch contains several types of vegetables that enrich the body with mineral salts and vitamins. In addition, the fiber they contain effectively cleanses the intestines from harmful substances - toxins, nitrates, radionuclides. Ingredients of borsch, in particular beets, have a choleretic effect, so this dish is indicated for cholecystitis and biliary dyskinesia. At the same time, the sokogonny effect of vegetable decoctions can harm patients with chronic pancreatitis, causing an exacerbation of the disease. With gastritis with high acidity, borsch should also be excluded from the menu - its calorie content does not matter. In general, those who have diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, should use this dish, prepared both in meat or bone broth, and in the vegetarian version, with caution.