Borscht

1. Place beans in a large pot. Add enough water to cover the beans. Keep on low heat. Add the potatoes and boil for 5-7 minutes. Reduce to medium heat and add the cabbage.
2. In another small pot, boil the dried mushrooms. Strain in colander, but make sure to keep the mushroom broth. In a small pan, saute the pieces of mushroom in vegan butter over medium heat. Add to the large pot with the cabbage.
3. In a medium pot, combine the beets with lemon juice followed by adding the tomatoes. Stew covered on medium to high heat until beets are tender, about 15 minutes. Add the beets to the large pot with the other ingredients. Also add the celery, parsnip, and carrot at this time.
4. Saute in the large pot for 10 minutes. Next, saute the onions in the pan you used to saute the mushrooms. Do this for a few minutes over medium heat until they become tender. Add to the borscht. Pour in the mushroom broth you reserved.
5. If broth does not cover the soup entirely, add vegetable broth, as needed. Cook for another 15-20 minutes. In the last 5 minutes of cooking, add the sugar, salt, dill, celery greens, green onion, and parsley.Top the soup with vegan sour cream and serve with a side of rye bread.
Source of recipe: This recipe was inspired by a borscht recipe from Russian Cuisine cookbook by Lydia Liakhovskaya. For more information, please see my blog here: http://veganmiss.blogspot.com/2011/06/borscht-cabbage-salad.html