Svekolnik | Cold Borsch
Svekolnik is a cold soup made on hot summer days. Thankfully, it’s crazy easy to make. The main component of svekolnik is svekla, which means beet in Russian.
Ingredients
- 1½ quarts water
- 3 small beets (about 1 pound)
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp vinegar
- 1 potato boiled skin-on then peeled
- 3 eggs hardboiled and peeled
- 2 cucumbers
- 2 scallions green parts, finely chopped
- Handful dill finely chopped
- ½ lemon
- Sour cream for topping
Instructions
- Put beets in a pot with water. Add salt, sugar and vinegar (vinegar preserves the beets’ bright red color). Bring to a boil, then simmer for 40 minutes.
- Remove beets from the pot, reserving the broth. Put both aside to cool.
- While the broth and beets are cooling, coarsely chop potato, eggs and cucumbers.
- When the beets are fully cooled, coarsely grate them.
- Mix together potatoes, eggs, cucumbers, scallions, dill, and beets.
- When the beet broth is cool, squeeze the lemon juice into it, add previously mixed ingredients, and stir thoroughly.
- Soup is served cold with a dollop of sour cream.