Kholodnik

Ingredients

• Beetroot500 g
• Sorrel200 g
• Kefir — cold1 l
• Cucumbers3
• Eggs — hard-boiled5
• Spring onion50 g
• Dill40 g
• Soured cream200 ml
• Potatoes — to serve, hot800 g
• Vinegar1 tbsp
• Saltto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Boil the beetroot until tender with a spoon of vinegar so it keeps its colour, and cool it completely.

   50 min

2. 2

   Cook the sorrel in a little water for five minutes, until it darkens, and cool it.

   12 min

3. 3

   Grate the cooled beetroot coarsely and cut the cucumbers into matchsticks.

   12 min

4. 4

   Mix the beetroot, the sorrel with its liquid, the cucumber and herbs with the soured cream and salt it.

   8 min

5. 5

   Add the cold kefir and stir to an even pink.

   4 min

6. 6

   Chill it an hour so the soup infuses and turns genuinely cold.

   62 min

7. 7

   Boil the potatoes and serve them hot on a separate plate, with halved eggs in the soup.

   25 min

About the dish

The Belarusian version differs from the Lithuanian in its sorrel. It is cooked separately and stirred into the kefir, and it supplies the extra acidity šaltibarščiai lacks.

The beetroot and sorrel are cooled completely before they meet the kefir. Into anything warm the cultured milk splits and the soup goes to flakes.

It comes with hot potatoes on a separate plate. The contrast of cold soup and hot potato is as obligatory here as among the neighbours.

Worth knowing

• — Sorrel darkens as it cooks — that is normal and does not spoil the soup. The colour comes from the beetroot anyway.
• — The kefir has to be cold from the fridge. At room temperature it gives none of the freshness the soup is eaten for.
• — Vinegar in the beetroot water is not optional. Without it the colour fades and the soup comes out brownish-pink instead of bright.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

320 kcal

Protein

15 g

Fat

12 g

Carbs

38 g

More from Belarus

• Draniki — Potato pancakes from raw grated potato, fried to a crisp edge and served with soured cream.
• Machanka — A thick pork and sausage gravy on soured cream, into which pancakes are dipped. Hence the name.
• Kalduny — Potato pancakes with a meat filling inside, fried and then stewed in soured cream.