Classic cold beetroot recipe

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

With the onset of summer comes the time for refreshing cold soups. But many cooks are limited only to cooking okroshka on kefir or kvass with the addition of sorrel leaves and fresh cucumber from the garden. But there are much more options for cold first courses for the summer menu. Cold beetroot is especially popular with experienced housewives.

This dish is quite simple, it is prepared quickly from available products. Very often it is called "cold soup". And in vain. There is not so much in common in these soups as it might seem at first glance. Cold beetroot is more similar in recipe and taste to holodnik or illuminating okroshka.

Recipe options

Beetroot is a universal dish that allows housewives to experiment and fantasize with the recipe and set of ingredients. Most often, the soup is made lean. However, no one forbids avid meat-eaters to add boiled beef, pork, smoked boiled pork and even the usual doctor's sausage to cold beetroot.

Different and filling options. The classic recipe isbeetroot broth, but you can use sour cream, kefir, yogurt and even bread kvass. It turns out that when preparing one dish and a small change in products, you can get a variety of cold summer soups.

From history

Initially cold classic beetroot was called "holodnik". The first mention of the dish is found in the culinary archives of Eastern European countries (Poland, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania). Later, having slightly changed the composition of the products, the "holodnik" appears in Russia, but with a different name. Neither time, nor distance, nor geographic location has changed the main ingredient. In any recipe, even the most forgotten and ancient, beetroot decoction is used as the basis for making cold beetroot.

List of ingredients

• Beets - 400 g. It is advisable to use young root crops. If fresh beets are not at hand, then a pickled version is also suitable. Can be added to soup and marinade, in which there were root vegetables. In this case, do not forget to reduce the amount of s alt and vinegar.
• Chicken eggs - 5 pcs. For a change, you can take 3 chicken and a couple of quail eggs.
• Fresh cucumbers – 4 pcs
• Potatoes - 350g
• Boiled beef or smoked ham (optional) - 300g
• Lemon - 1/2 piece
• Sugar - 1 tbsp. l.
• Wine/apple vinegar - 3-4 tbsp. l.
• Fresh parsley.
• S alt.
• Kefir - 750 ml.
• Ground pepper.
• Sour cream.
• Water.

Even in beetroot on kefir, sour cream will be an important attribute. Without this product, as experienced housewives say, the “refrigerator” turns out to be quite insipid. It is also important to use fresh herbs in large quantities. As they say, no cold summer soup can be spoiled with a bunch of parsley.

How to cook cold beetroot

One of the most important ingredients of this dish is beets. In some recipes, it is recommended to boil it, in others - to bake. Experienced housewives believe that in the second version, the beets turn out to be more tasty, fragrant and give a better broth for the “refrigerator” than boiled.

Stage one

Before baking, the beets should be washed, cut off the “tails” and wrapped in foil. It is important that each root crop has its own "house" of foil. Depending on the size of the beets, the baking time will vary from 45 minutes to an hour and a half. The temperature inside the oven is 200 degrees. Young beets will cook for 30-35 minutes.

Readiness is best checked with a fork or wooden skewer. A sharp knife, passing easily and through uncooked beet pulp, gives an erroneous result. We advise you to pierce in the center. If the beetroot is soft in the middle, then the root crop is cooked along the edges. We take out the beets from the oven, unfold and leave to cool for 15-20 minutes.

Stage Two

While the beets are baking, the hostess will have plenty of time to prepare the rest of the ingredients for the cold beetroot. Chicken eggs are boiled for about ten minutes, cooled andcut into cubes. Quail eggs are boiled in the same way. You can cut them into cubes or just in half.

Stage three

In a large saucepan prepared in advance, put the chopped eggs. You can leave one half of a boiled quail egg to later decorate cold beetroot with it (the photo in the article shows the options for decorating and serving the dish).

We also send finely chopped fresh cucumbers there. If the skin of cucumbers is too hard, then it is best to cut it off. We also cool the boiled potatoes and cut them into long sticks or even cubes.

We advise you to add more fresh greens to the "fridge". It can be a decent bunch of dill, basil or parsley. Cold summer soup is not complete without feather green onions. Finely chop all the greens with a knife and send to the pan.

Stage Four

As for the beets, there are two options. According to one recipe for beetroot on cold kefir, baked beets are simply crushed with a grater and sent to a common pan. Kefir is mixed with lemon juice, a pinch of sugar and s alt, wine vinegar is added.

According to the second recipe, it is recommended to pour boiled chopped beets with water and lemon juice and leave for 30-40 minutes. Then the resulting beetroot brine is mixed with kefir and spices. They will refuel beetroot. Beetroot from the brine is simply taken out with a slotted spoon and added to the rest of the products.

Which option to choose is up to you. If a decision was madeto cook cold beetroot on kefir, it is better to take the first recipe as a basis. If the “holodnik” is on kvass or just on beetroot broth with sour cream, then the second recipe will do.

How to Serve

Experienced housewives advise to let the beetroot stand in the refrigerator before serving. For a complete "rest" of the dish and the best impregnation of all ingredients with beetroot marinade, an hour or two will be enough.

Served "cold" in deep bowls or tureens. Let's not forget the sour cream. It is important that this product is added to the soup immediately before serving. If sour cream is added to the total volume, then the entire beetroot in the pan will quickly turn sour. Without dressing, a cold summer soup will stand in the cold for a couple of days.

Decorate the dish with half a boiled quail egg, which was left in advance specifically for this purpose. And a sprig of fresh parsley will not be superfluous either.

Helpful tips

• Boiled meat in beetroot can be replaced with sausage, sausages, ham, mushrooms or seafood.
• A more delicious and rich broth for the dish is obtained from beets and carrots.
• You can add not only fresh cucumbers to a cold summer soup. Great for beetroot sorrel, green onions in large quantities, radishes and even tomatoes.
• When serving, you can add not only sour cream, but also table mustard or horseradish.
• No fear of experiments!