In hot summers it is especially pleasant to eat something light and cool. Many peoples have come up with special soups, such as Russian okroshka on kefir, Ukrainian cold beet broth or, gaining more and more popularity, Uzbek chalop, in which all the ingredients are filled with kefir. There are many variations of these dishes, you can change the shades of taste by choosing different types of kvass, adding different ingredients, changing seasonings.
How to cook okroshka on kvass
The recipe for okroshka on kvass is both simple and leaves a wide field for creativity. For the classic version of the dish, you will need the following ingredients: 1.5 liters of rye kvass, 3-4 potatoes boiled in their uniforms, 300 grams of boiled beef, 3 hard-boiled chicken eggs, 1 long-fruited or 2 short-fruited cucumbers, spicy greens - dill and parsley, salt and pepper, sour cream, and, if desired, mustard and horseradish. In Soviet times, meat in okroshka was often replaced with doctor's sausage, but with juicy boiled beef, this cold soup is much tastier. Prepare food for okroshka - peel the eggs and potatoes, remove the peel from the cucumbers, scrape the seeds with a spoon. Cut potatoes, meat and eggs into cubes, being careful to keep the same size. Cut the radish into thin slices. Try the radish slices when you start cutting the root vegetable - overripe can be too bitter. Chop the spicy herbs. Special green scissors are ideal for this. Combine all ingredients in a deep bowl, season with salt and pepper to taste. The okroshka base is placed in deep bowls or soup bowls in portions, and then poured with cool kvass. Each eater can taste cold soup with sour cream, horseradish, mustard, lemon juice. By the way, a very similar dish is popular in Germany, but carbonated water is used instead of kvass, with a small amount of apple cider vinegar.
Homemade kvass recipe for okroshka
The famous connoisseur of Russian cuisine, culinary specialist and blogger Maxim Syrnikov recommends cooking okroshka on homemade white kvass. This drink turns out to be moderately sweet and carbonated, and rye malt gives it a pleasant aftertaste. In order to make such kvass at home, you will need the following products - 1 tablespoon of rye malt and the same amount of wheat flour, half a glass of buckwheat flour, 10 large raisins, 25 grams of pressed yeast and 3 liters of water. You should take bottled water, not boiled or tap water. Kvass sourdough is prepared by stirring wheat flour with yeast and a little warm water. Set aside in a warm place. Boil a liter of water and stir the buckwheat flour in it. Let cool to body temperature and pour in the leaven. Do not wash the raisins, but simply put them in the kvass. Cover with a towel and leave at room temperature overnight. Kvass is best cooked in a ceramic pot. After 24 hours, pour in the remaining water, stir and bottle the kvass. Put it in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.
Chill or okroshka with beet broth
Belarusian cold store is a delight for vegetarians. There are no meat products in the classic Belarusian recipe for a cold chiller. You will need 0.5 kilograms of young beets along with tops, about 1 liter of beet kvass, as well as about 4 small white onions, 4 hard-boiled eggs, 2-3 fresh short-fruited cucumbers, dill, celery, salt, pepper, sour cream. Beets are washed and boiled in 3 liters of cold water. For a bright color and interesting flavor, add about half a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar. Boil the broth until about 500 ml remains. Take out the beets and pour in the kvass. Boil and refrigerate. Peel and cut the beets into cubes, also cut the cucumbers, from which you first remove the skin. Chop the tops. Chop spicy herbs and grind with salt. Chop the eggs and mix them with the previously minced foods. Place the base for the fridge into plates in portions and add the beetroot broth.
Chalop - okroshka on kefir
The recipe for Uzbek "okroshka" on kefir also does not contain meat, which is good for hot summer days. Take 1.5 liters of kefir with a fat content of no more than 3.5%. Sand three short-fruited cucumbers and cut into thin strips, cut 5-6 radishes into thin slices, take 50 grams of basil, green onions, dill and cilantro. Grind. Mix herbs with radish and cucumber, season with salt, red pepper, cover with kefir. You can add some crushed ice.
