Russian food 2

The word Svekolnik came from word svekla, which is beetroot. As the name implies, the recipe must include beetroot. Delicious soup is obtained with young petty beets, but last year’s beetroots will not spoil Svekolnik.

Svekolnik can be prepared on a beet broth with the addition of kvas or cucumber and cabbage marinade, yogurt, kefir, or sour milk, and even mineral water. In the old Russian recipes in svekolnik recommended to add a little wine. Svekolnik, or as it is sometimes called holodnik – an alternative to cold borscht. Often, svekolnik prepared with crawfish or boiled meat. But today we are going to stick with my family recipe. It is probably not a perfect one, but oh well…

You will need: 3-4 beetroots, 6 boiled eggs, 6-7 cucumbers, and a big bunch of chives. You can add a bunch of dill, if you like it, I don’t add it. Couple boiled eggs and sour cream for garnish.

First of lets cook a broth for our Svekolnik. Take a 4 liters pot (1.06 gallons), peel beetroots and shred them, like on the picture.

Add water and boil shredded beetroots in water about 10-15 min. Also, before boiling, add salt and couple table spoons of vinegar (you can also use lemon juice or lemon acid). That would be a beetroot’s broth for our svekolnik and it needs to be a quite sour. Plus vinegar will bring beet’s wonderful red color for the broth. That’s why you need to add vinegar. As soon as broth cools down, put it in to a fridge.