Beet and Beet-Green Borscht

My has husband been a total sport about eating my vegan lentil, spinach, and wild rice soup.  But I think he's craving meat.  And, to be honest, I am, too.

I recently lost about 40 pounds, thanks to tough workouts from P90X and strict adherence to a high-protein, low carb, low fat diet.  I ate A LOT of egg whites, chicken breast, and pork tenderloin.  A lot of broccoli and spinach.  But pretty much no potatoes or other starches, and virtually no bread, rice, or pasta.

I'm a little nervous that carb-heavy seasonal foods (potatoes, etc.) are going to make me fat.  But I'm trusting that the home-cooked bounty of the earth will not fail me.  And, in fairness, despite a marked uptick in my consumption of carbs, my weight has not changed an ounce in the many weeks I've now been working on the locavore thing.

Nevertheless, I'm feeling the need for some protein to go with my lovely veggies.  The last timeI had beets in the house, my husband requested borscht.  So, with the "no feedlot" stew beef I found in the 'fridge (hubby is good at keeping it stocked with some kind of meat, in the hopes I'll eventually cook it), I decided to try the traditional Russian soup.

The recipe I loosely followed is one I found at Simply Recipes.  I wasn't up for all the fancy meat-shank cooking in the original recipe, so I just browned the stew meat in a pot with the onions and then threw everything else (up to beet greens and stems) in with it to cook.  [The original recipe called for cabbage, which I had forgotten to buy.  But the beet greens and stems looked like good roughage, so I chopped them up and threw them in, too].

5 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
3 cups water
1 pound stew beef
1 large onion, peeled, chopped
8 large beets, peeled, chopped
4 carrots, peeled, chopped
4 small blue and red potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 cups beet greens and stems, chopped
3/4 cup chopped fresh dill
3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 cup fat-free Greek yogurt
Pepper to taste

Spoon into bowls and serve each with a splash of red wine vinegar, and scoop of yogurt, and fresh dill sprinkled over top.

It was delicious, filling, and so veggie and protein packed, I'm convinced it'll actually do good things for my figure!