Cold Beet Soup Recipes

COLD BEET SOUP (POLISH CHLODNIK)

Steps:

• Peel the beets and grate (coarsely). Finely chop the greens (leaves and stems). Place all in a large pot, add the water or vegetable stock, lemon juice, cover and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5 minutes, then remove from the heat and leave to cool completely.
• Once the beet mixture has cooled add the remaining ingredients, season to taste and stir thoroughly. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes (up to 4 hours) before serving.

COLD BEET SOUP - SUMMER BORSCHT

Steps:

• In a pot, add the beets, cucumbers, kefir and water. Add the dill, and stir. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Add a splash of vinegar or lemon juice if required. Refrigerate for few hours.
• Serve the soup in a bowl with some quartered or chopped boiled egg. Don't add eggs to the pot, because they will soak up the pink color. Sprinkle the scallions on top. Enjoy!

NINA'S RUSSIAN COLD BEET SOUP (KHOLDNYK)

Steps:

• Mix the buttermilk, cucumber, beets with their juice, green onions, dill, salt, and vinegar in a bowl; stir to mix thoroughly, and chill, covered, in refrigerator at least 2 hours or overnight for best flavor. Serve cold.

LITHUANIAN COLD BEET SOUP - ŠALTIBARš?IAI

Steps:

• Note on ingredients; You can use fresh or canned beets. If using canned, make sure they are plain, not spiced. If using fresh, you can roast or boil. If boiling, save some of the cooking liquid. Seedless or the small pickling cucumbers worked best. If using the larger standard cucumbers, peel and seed them for best results. Buttermilk (pasukos) was traditional, but some time during the Soviet years, kefir became popular and it works really well. But we always used buttermilk, and my grandmothers, both farmers, would have used buttermilk from their own cows. If you cannot find whole milk buttermilk or kefir, add some sour cream to create the right taste. Mother always did this. Also, you can add more beets or cucumbers, if you like - I don't usually measure, but I did this time just to have a starting point.
• Combine the beets, cucumber, scallion, dill, and radish, if using, in a medium bowl. Add sour cream to buttermilk or kefir if you need to and add to the bowl. Taste and add salt as desired - buttermilks vary in how much sodium they contain. (If you boiled the beets and saved some cooking liquid or used canned, you can add some to make the soup more vivid. If you roasted beets, the color will intensify while the soup is refrigerated).
• Refrigerate for a couple of hours or up to overnight.
• Add chopped egg, if desired, to each serving, as well as a fresh sprinkle of chopped dill.
• Serve with hot boiled potatoes. Some people like to plop their potatoes into the šaltibarš?iai - I don't, as I think it warms up the soup and the contrast between hot and cold is delightful.

COLD BEET SOUP FOR SUMMER

Steps:

• Drain beets, reserving liquid.If using whole or sliced beets, slice into matchstick pieces.Peel and dice cucumber. (I like fairly large dice.).
• Hold back about 3/4 cup of julianned beets in a seperate bowl.Add remaining beets and chopped cucumber to a large bowl. Add reserved beet juice,14 oz. of water and 2 tablespoons vinegar.
• Stir about 1/2 cup of sour cream into the beets you held in the seperate bowl.(this process keeps the sour cream from "breaking up" in the soup and making lumps.)Stir until the sour cream/beet mixture is smooth. Add another 1/2 cup of sour cream. Stir until smooth. Add 1/4 cup of the beet juice from the large bowl and stir until smooth.Stir in the last 1/2 cup of sour cream. Mixture should be without lumps (sour cream should be liqified.)This seems complicated, but once you get the hang of it, it goes quite quickly.
• Add the beet/sourcream mix to the large bowl and stir to combine. At this point, taste to see if the level of vinegar is to your liking, if not add a little more.
• Add the dried dill. The 2 tsp is a good place to start, but I usually add more.
• Cover and chill at least 2 hours.Serve in chilled bowls. My mom adds chopped hard boiled eggs to this soup, so if you want to give that a try it's up to you,.