National dish

What is the national dish of Ukraine?

The national dish of Ukraine is borscht (borshch): a sour soup of meat broth, beetroot, cabbage, potatoes, carrots and onions, served hot with sour cream, dill and garlic buns. In 2022 UNESCO placed the "Culture of Ukrainian borscht cooking" on its List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. Varenyky, boiled dumplings, are the other national favourite.

Updated 2026-10-124 min read

What is in Ukrainian borscht?

Red borscht, chervonyi borshch, is a soup of meat or bone broth with sautéed vegetables: beetroot, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, onions, tomatoes, garlic and dill. The beetroot gives the colour; the sourness traditionally came from beet kvas, a fermented beet juice, and today usually comes from tomato. It may contain meat or fish, or none.

Ukraine counts about 30 varieties of borscht. Some of the main families:

Red borscht: the beetroot soup most people mean by the word.
Green borscht: made with sorrel, served with chopped hard-boiled egg and sour cream.
Cold borscht (kholodnyk): beets and vegetables blended with sour dairy and served cold with egg.
White borscht: varies by region; in the Hutsul region it is cooked with fermented white beets and Carpathian oregano.

How borscht is made

In our Ukrainian borscht recipe 700 g of beef short ribs simmer for 2 hours to make the broth. Separately, 400 g of grated beetroot is fried in salo with tomato paste and vinegar for 10 minutes; the acid keeps the soup red instead of brown. Onion and carrot are sweated in the same fat to make the smazhennia.

Potato goes into the broth first, then cabbage, then the fried beetroot and the meat. The soup simmers gently, never at a hard boil, and a paste of garlic pounded with salo is stirred in off the heat. It rests 30 minutes before serving with dill and sour cream, and it is better on the second day. UNESCO notes it is typically served with bread or garlic buns, pampushky.

Is borscht Ukrainian or Russian?

Borscht is claimed as a national or ethnic dish by several peoples, especially Ukrainians, Russians, Poles, Lithuanians and Ashkenazi Jews. Here is what the sources say, without a verdict:

Ukrainian origin of the beet version: Wikipedia's borscht article states that the beet-based version most probably originated in what is now Ukraine. A 1785 description of the Kharkiv Governorate calls borscht the food Ukrainians ate most, and 19th-century Russian and Polish cookbooks called beet borscht "Little Russian", the imperial term for Ukrainian.
A shared older soup: the dish descends from an ancient soup of pickled hogweed, and its history predates the modern nation states of Eastern Europe, so the claims are not necessarily exclusive of each other. The Russian food writer William Pokhlyobkin classed beet borscht among the dishes of Ukrainian cookery.
UNESCO's position: the 2022 inscription recognises Ukrainian borscht cooking but states it "does not imply exclusivity, nor ownership". Neighbouring traditions are covered in our articles on Russia's national dish and Poland's national dish.

Why borscht matters in Ukraine

Borscht was popularised as a national dish in Ukraine by the 19th century, when many recipes were known, some with more than 20 ingredients. Tomatoes and beet sour were used side by side until tomato won out in the last third of that century. Ukrainian legends, probably from the 19th century, credit the beet version to Cossacks on campaign in the 1680s and 1690s.

Borscht is part of everyday food and of ritual. In Podillia, the third day of a wedding is still called do nevistky na borshch, "visit the daughter-in-law to eat borscht". UNESCO describes it as an expression of hospitality and an identity marker, and the dish is on Ukraine's National Register of Elements of Cultural Heritage.

The 2022 listing as heritage in need of urgent safeguarding followed the Russian invasion, which UNESCO says displaced the people who cook it and damaged the farmland that supplies its vegetables.

Other dishes to know from Ukraine

Varenyky, from the verb varyty, "to boil", are half-moon dumplings of unleavened dough with a thinner, softer dough than Polish pierogi. Potato is the classic filling; they come with sour cream, butter, fried onions or crisp salo, and meatless versions are made for Christmas Eve. Western Ukraine favours potato and cheese or fruit, central Ukraine cabbage and mushroom, the south meat. Holubtsi, cabbage rolls, complete the trio of national favourites.

Chicken Kyiv is a pounded chicken fillet rolled around cold herb butter, breaded and fried. Its origin is poorly documented and disputed, but it spread in the Soviet era and became a symbol of Ukrainian cuisine; since 2018 a bronze mini-sculpture of it stands on Horodecki Street in Kyiv. Our recipe freezes the herb butter rock hard and breads each roll twice, so the butter stays inside until the knife goes in.

All three recipes are on our page about the food of Ukraine. For the neighbouring kitchens, see our guide to Eastern European food.

The recipes

Questions people ask

Is borscht Ukrainian or Russian?

Both countries, and also Poland, Lithuania and Ashkenazi Jewish tradition, claim borscht. The beet-based version most probably originated in what is now Ukraine, and UNESCO listed Ukrainian borscht cooking in 2022 while stating that this does not imply exclusive ownership.

What is served with Ukrainian borscht?

Sour cream, chopped dill and bread, usually pampushky, small garlic buns.

What gives borscht its red colour?

Beetroot. Frying the grated beetroot with an acid such as vinegar or tomato before it goes into the broth keeps the colour red instead of brown.

Is borscht served hot or cold?

Red borscht is usually served hot. Ukraine also has a cold borscht, kholodnyk, blended with sour dairy and served with hard-boiled egg.

What is the difference between varenyky and pierogi?

Varenyky have a thinner, softer dough and usually a simpler filling, most often just potato, while Polish pierogi have a firmer dough.

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