From Russia with Love
by Leonie Cooper

Regina Spektor, the piano-tinkling queen of New York, is back with the new album 'Remember Us To Life' and the greatest recipe for borscht - Russian beetroot soup - you've ever seen.
"I love soup," says Regina Spektor, who was born and raised (until she was nine) in Soviet Russia. "You never really meet people who eat as much soup as Russians. If you don't eat one soup every day, you feel kind of weird. One of my favourite things in the universe is borscht."

STEP ONE: DITCH THE CABBAGE
Everybody cooks borscht in different ways. I would probably be considered a heretic because I don't put cabbage into mine at all. This is very controversial."
You will need: zero cabbage

STEP TWO: SAUTE AND BOIL
"The way I do it is by sauteing some onions and carrots. You can put some celery in there too, and some parsnips. Then you put that into a pot with some boiling water for an hour." 
You will need: 2 tbsp olive oil, 2 x onions, 2 x carrots, 2 x parsnips, 1 x stick celery, 2 litres water

STEP THREE: BEETROOT
"Either shred or cut the beets and put them in there with a bunch of pressed garlic, parsley, dill and all that good stuff. And a little salt and pepper."
You will need: 500g shredded raw beetroot, 4 x cloves garlic, a few sprigs of dill, a few sprigs of parsley, salt and pepper to taste

STEP FOUR: SOUR CREAM
"The key is that you eat it with sour cream."
You will need: 2 x dollops