Lithuanian Cold Beet Soup, Saltibarsciai,

also known as known as cold borsch

or cold bortsch or cold borscht

The recipes I have are happy variations around a theme for cold beet soup, Lithuanian style. All have been kitchen and taste tested and are delightful indeed. All are accompanied by some boiled potatoes sprinkled with a bit of chopped dill.

Here are two cold borsch beet soup recipes followed by a third which I’m not even going to write down – I’m sending you off to watch a neat and short video on the making of cold borsch. The most difficult thing there will be to open two cans of whole beets.

Ingredients:

About 5 large grated beets that have had skins removed after being well scrubbed and boiled. (You know – just rub the skins off when the beets are cool enough to handle)
Reserve 2 cups of the water used for boiling the beets.

1 larger size cucumber, peeled and chopped

2 or 3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill depending on taste

About 1/4 cup chopped green onions, otherwise known as scallions

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 quart of cold buttermilk (Do not use low fat buttermilk!)

salt and pepper to taste

1 hard boiled egg, chopped (I like two eggs.)

Assembly:

Grated beets, chopped cucumbers, chopped dill, green onions and reserved cooking water are all gently blended in a large bowl.

Whisk together lemon juice and buttermilk and slowly pour over the beet mixture until the consistency satisfies you. Go slowly; you might not want to use the entire quart.

Add salt and pepper to taste

Gently blend in the chopped egg.

Caution on the reserved beet water – the beets will have to be ultra clean before boiling – grit in the soup would be terrible.

Refrigerate until well chilled.

Don’t forget to have some boiled potatoes ready to go with, sprinkled with some chopped fresh dill of course.

Some Variations! (endless)

Almost the same recipe as above but don’t reserve any of the beet water.

Maybe reduce the cucumber to a medium (?) and the beets to three.

Use two hardboiled eggs and reduce the chopped fresh dill to one tablespoon.

Very thinly slice the beets, cucumber and if you can the eggs into very thin strips, as in matchsticks.

Whisk the buttermilk in a large bowl and add everything else. If you need more liquid, water or ice cubes are suggested. Me, I would reserve the cooking liquid and add a
touch of that.

Chill until cold and garnish with the chopped dill.

More!

No buttermilk – grate the beets and boil in sufficient water boil the beets, and their chopped stems and leaves. When cool add sour cream, not buttermilk, plus chopped hard boiled eggs, chopped cucumber and chopped green onion. For a bit more “pop” on the tongue add some lemon juice to taste.

Or use defatted chicken stock rather than buttermilk.

Use kefir rather than butter milk or sour cream.

Serve the potatoes cold – made the day before and refrigerated.

Best advice I read is to just imagine that you are making a salad to which something is added to make it a soup. I like it thinner than salad but thicker than soup!