The perfect summer soup is of course a cold soup. In addition to the Spanish gazpacho and the Bulgarian tarator, there is another Russian specialty that you could try this summer: okroshka soup. If you are curious, read on, because in this article we would like to introduce you to this dish and offer the okroshka recipe in the original as well as in a few variations.
Russian dishes for the summer - the original recipe and its variations
Traditionally, Russian soup is made with potatoes, cucumbers, eggs, radishes and dill. There is also kefir or alternatively kvass, which can also be replaced with buttermilk, crème fraîche and lemon juice or yoghurt if you don't have the traditional ingredients on hand. This makes okroshka vegetarian, but some people also prefer sausage in summer soup. We would like to offer you different variants.
Okroshka recipe with kefir
In contrast to traditional kvass, kefir is not only available in Russian shops, but in almost every supermarket. For this reason, our first okroshka recipe contains this ingredient. This is how the soup turns outwith kefirmade:
- 4 boiled potatoes, cooled
- 300 g meat sausage, diced
- 4 cucumbers, peeled and diced
- 2 eggs, diced
- 500 g radishes, thinly sliced
- 1 bunch of spring onions, chopped
- 1 bunch of dill, chopped
- 2 cups of carbonated mineral water
- 1 ½ Liter Kefir
- ½ TL Pfeffer
- ½ tsp salt
- to serve: 4 tbsp sour cream
Mix kefir and water in a pot, season with pepper and salt and then add all the chopped ingredients. Mix everything together well and then put the pot in the fridge for a few hours. You can prepare the soup the evening before and let it sit and cool in the fridge until the next day. Serve each serving with a tablespoon of sour cream.
Okroshka with kvass and sour cream
Kvass (also “kvass”) is a drink (often called “bread drink”) that comes primarily from the East Slavic region. It is made by fermenting rye bread and yeast. Would you like this ingredient forcold soupsyou can choose the following okroshka recipe:
For 4 servings:
- 4 potatoes
- 1 ½ Liters Kvass
- 300 g meat sausage (e.g. beer ham sausage or cooked ham)
- ½ cucumber
- 1 bunch of radishes
- 2 Owner
- 2 cups sour cream
- ½ tsp mustard
- ½ tsp sugar
- chives
- Dill
- Parsley
- ½ tsp salt
Cook the potatoes until soft and the eggs until hard and then let both cool well. You can also prepare them the night before for this purpose. Dice or grate the radishes and cucumber as well as the eggs and potatoes and put them in a pot with the dill, diced sausage, parsley, chives and sour cream. After you have mixed everything together, pour in the kvass and season with sugar, salt and mustard.
The Russian cold soup okroshka gets its best taste if you let it steep in the refrigerator for at least a few hours before eating. For this purpose, you can prepare them the evening before, for example.
Tipp: Kvass can also be replaced in this recipe with a liter of water and half a liter of kefir. Instead of meat sausage you can also use boiled sausageUse beef.
Cold summer soup with fish and kvass
As already mentioned, you can adapt any okroshka recipe to your liking and swap out the dairy products or omit the meat. Another option is to simply use sausage or beef insteadto use fish. This one should be bestfat-freebe. Pike, cod or perch, for example, are ideal. Here is a delicious variant with kvass:
- 1.5 liters of white kvass
- 300 g of cooked fish without skin and bones
- 3 cucumbers, peeled and diced
- Spring onion, chopped
- Dill, chopped
- parsley, chopped
- Mustard or horseradish
- Salt
Put the vegetables and spices in a pot and stir them together well. If you want, you can mash the whole thing very lightly with a pestle, just enough to release some of the vegetable juices. Then mix kvass with horseradish/mustard and season with salt if necessary. Shred the fish meat into the pot and add the seasoned kvass. It's readydelicious fish soup.
Okroshka recipe with buttermilk and sour cream
The carbonated mineral water used for this okroshka recipe makes the cold summer soup even more refreshing. Serve them next time your friends come to visit!
For 6 servings:
- 6 potatoes
- 5 hard-boiled eggs, diced
- 1 cucumber, diced or grated
- 3 spring onions, cut into thin rings
- 1 bunch of radishes, grated or thinly sliced
- ½ bunch parsley, chopped
- ½ bunch of dill, chopped
- 1 EL Senf
- 1 cup each of sour cream, sour cream and buttermilk
- 1 ½ liters of carbonated mineral water + possibly additional
- Salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste
Boil the potatoes and allow them to cool before dicing them. The eggs should also be cooled for further preparation of the soup. In the meantime you can prepare the other ingredients. Then put all the listed ingredients in a pot. If you don't like the thickness of the soup yet, you can thin it with additional water. Up to 2 liters in total may be necessary for this. Then you can season with pepper, salt and lemon juice. It is best to let the finished cold soup sit in the refrigerator for a few hours.
