Cold beetroot soup

Summer! Heat! I don’t want to stand at the stove ... but I want to eat! Even in the sweltering days of heat, like an endless siesta, you need something to cook and eat. And it is desirable that this “something” was cool, fresh and light, cooked quickly, and eaten with pleasure.

These are the cold soups - nutritious, healthy and tasty. You and I have already tried the Bulgarian tarator, and now I suggest making a tasty, refreshing and bright summer beetroot. A great option when reluctant to stand at the stove above the boiling pan with borscht. This hot borsch is great to cook in the winter, when you want something warming, rich. A beetroot can be called a summer, "lightweight" version of borscht. Such is the “borschik-light” without cabbage and zazharki. In Ukraine, it is called “cold borscht”, and in Belarus - the fridge; one of the names of the dish is beetroot hash.

Ingredients for making beetroot

For 2 servings:

2-3 small beets;
2-3 medium potatoes;
1-2 fresh cucumbers;
2 chicken or 6 quail eggs;
For a few feathers of green onions and dill twigs;
A small bunch of beet tops;
At will - boiled meat.

For refueling:

500 ml of water;
Salt, ground black pepper, sugar, horseradish, vinegar, vegetable oil - to your taste.
Approximately 1/3 tsp. salt, a pinch of pepper, 0, 5 tbsp. l sugar, 0, 5 tsp. horseradish, 2/3 of Art. l vinegar and oil.

Try the dressing in the cooking process to find the ratio of ingredients that will suit your taste.

There are recipes in which the beetroot soup is filled not with water, mineral or just boiled, but with kvass or kefir. You can try these dish options to choose your favorite cold soup recipe.

Beetroot cooking method

To make your beetroot soup bright, colorful, choose beets of rich color. To find out if it is suitable, scrape the peel with your fingernail. You can take the vegetables of the old harvest, but better - young, summer.

Boil the potatoes and beets in the uniform or bake in foil until soft. The first option is faster, the second one is more useful, since when baking, the utility does not go into the water, but remain in the vegetables. But in the summer heat, I don’t really want to turn on the oven for 40 minutes (so many potatoes are baked), and especially for an hour and a half (for beets). Therefore, I cooked from boiled vegetables.

Cook potatoes for 20-30 minutes, taking into account its size; beets longer - 40-50 minutes. Check for readiness by piercing the root with a wooden skewer or knife tip. If the vegetables are soft, pour out the hot water and pour it cold: it will be easier to clean them.

In some recipes it is advised to boil the beets in the already peeled and chopped form. I do not recommend doing this so that the beets during cooking do not lose their beautiful color. In addition, when boiling in the peel retains more nutrients.

Boil eggs hard-boiled and fill with cold water to make the shell easier to clean. Cool the boiled vegetables and eggs, clean them from the skin and shell. My cucumbers, if the skin is hard or cucumbers purchased - it is better to clean; if homemade, it is not necessary to clean the skin. We hold the greens for five minutes in cold water to soak up the dirt particles from the beds, and rinse under the tap.

Ingredients for beetroot can be rubbed on a large grater, and can be cut into strips. It is easier to grate, but the straw is more interesting by its texture and looks prettier, since larger pieces in the finished dish do not mix into porridge. However, part of the beets, I still rubbed on a grater, so that the color of the dressing turned out to be more intense, and cut the rest for beauty.

Pour or rubbed beets with cool, boiled water and leave for 20 minutes to make the dressing infuse and acquire a beautiful ruby color. In the meantime, prepare the remaining ingredients for beetroot.

Cut potatoes and cucumbers into straws of the same size, and eggs into halves.

Spoon the sliced vegetables.

If you want not a vegetarian, but a more substantial version of beetroot, you can add a few pieces of boiled meat or sausage.

And the gas station was real! It's time to add spices. But first, filter it through a colander so that during the mixing the tender boiled beets will not turn into mashed potatoes.

Add a little olive or sunflower oil to the dressing (it tastes better and more aromatic), salt and pepper to taste, a little horseradish, acid is adjusted with vinegar, and sweetness is adjusted with sugar. Vinegar is not just delicious table, but wine, apple or balsamic.

Stir the dressing well and fill it with vegetables in a plate.

Dill and green onions finely cut. Washed, clean and slightly dried leaves of beet tops cut into thin strips. The stems and central veins of the leaves in the soup do not need to add, as they are hard, but the delicate leaves of young beets will add a flavor to the dish ... and good!

It turns out that there are more vitamins and microelements in beetroot than in the root crop itself. It's just that there is a lot of sugar in beets, because it is sweet, tasty, and the tops are slightly bitter - that is why it is not so often used in food. But you can add elegant green leaves with crimson veins not only in the first dishes, but also in salads; to make from tops, like from sorrel, filling for pies and even prepare for the winter.

Beet tops are good for the heart and blood vessels, for digestion and metabolism. Dishes with it will help to keep youth, excellent attention and strong memory longer. And if you do not like the peculiar taste of tops, pour boiling water over it: the bitterness will disappear and the leaves will become more tender.