In the summer heat, you do not want to stand at the stove above a pot of boiling soup. Yes, and eat hot is not very pulling. So let's learn the recipes for cold soups. Every nation has its own summer-fresh, refreshing soup. Spanish gazpacho, cold Ukrainian borscht, Belarusian frigger, Russian okroshka, and, of course, Bulgarian tarator!
Every Bulgarian cafe or dining room serves this uncomplicated but very tasty cold soup. Sometimes - in a plate, as it should be the first dish, and sometimes - in a glass to drink the second one. Imagine how cool is such a light summer soup. We will prepare it today.
This tarator, refreshing and healthy, is made with sour milk. It is from this product, called in the homeland of the cold soup “kiselo mlyako”, that a Bulgarian wand was isolated at the beginning of the last century. Lactobacillus bulgaricus - so this “useful microbe” is called in Latin - is responsible for the fermentation of milk and for the correct balance of microflora in our body.
The properties of the Bulgarian wand were known long before it was opened “officially”. Back in the times of Louis XIV, Bulgarian sour milk was brought to France for the king. And modern researchers believe that among the Bulgarians there are many centenarian centenarians just because they often eat tarator with sour milk. Tarator is popular not only in Bulgaria and Macedonia, but also in Turkey and Albania, and in Greece this dish is known as tzatziki and served as a sauce - the recipe is almost the same, only the Greeks add lemon and mint. Let us and we will join the tasty and healthy tradition - refreshing in the summer heat not with beer, but with kefir soup.
Sour milk for soup you can make from milk and special sourdough - now they are easy to buy, for example, in pharmacies or supermarkets, shops at a dairy plant. Yoghurt (by the way, in Turkish this word also means “sour milk”) is suitable for taratora - just not sweet, with additives and preservatives, but “live”. You can take such dairy products as kefir, narine, simbivit.
Ingredients for cold soup “Tarator”
For 2 servings:
- 2 medium cucumbers;
- 400 ml of kefir, yogurt or yogurt;
- 2 tbsp. l vegetable oil (olive or sunflower);
- A bunch of dill;
- 1-2 cloves of garlic;
- Salt to taste (approximately half a spoon);
- Ground black pepper (optional);
- Walnuts.
If the sour milk is too thick, water is added to the tarator. You can dilute fatty 2, 5% kefir, and the product with a fat content of 1% is itself quite liquid. Sometimes instead of cucumbers, lettuce leaves are put in the soup. Some cooks add radish - this option is also delicious and brighter, although this is no longer a classic tarator.
Cooking method for cold soup Tarator
Kefir and water cool. Wash cucumbers and greens.
Peel the nuts and grind in a blender or rolling with a rolling pin on the board. A few nut kernels leave for decoration.
We put cucumbers on a large grater, and garlic - on a small grater, or skip it through a press. There is a version of the recipe, where cucumbers should not be rubbed, but finely cut. But tarator with grated cucumbers is more authentic, and it is more convenient to eat (that is, drink).
Combining cucumbers, chopped dill and garlic, salt, pepper and let stand 10 minutes.
Fill the mixture with kefir, add vegetable oil, mix. If necessary, dilute the soup with water to the desired consistency.
Vinegar, which is used in some recipes for tarator, is needed only if the soup is filled with water only - for sourness. If the base is a fermented milk product, additional acidification is not necessary.
We decorate a plate with cold soup with greens and pieces of nuts and serve to the table.
Enjoy your meal!
