Okroshka

Okroshka is traditional russian cold soup. It is perfect meal for hot summer weather as it is prepared on the base of kvass – russian bread drink – and it is light and very refreshing.

Finding good fresh kvass for okroshka can be challenging outside of former-USSR. You may try russian or ukrainian shop, or, of course, you can prepare kvass yourself. But If you are not lucky with any of these, you can also replace kvass with mineral water, kefir diluted with boiled cold water or even light beer.

Ingredients:

• 2 potatoes
• Half of english cucumber of medium size (or 2-3 baby cucumbers)
• 0.5lb of bologna (can be replaced with the same amount of boiled vial or beef)
• 4 eggs
• 1 small bunch of radish
• 15 oz of canned sweet peas
• 1 bunch of fresh dill
• 1 small bunch of green onions
• 5 tbsps of sour cream
• 2 tbsps of dijon mustard
• 1.5-2 quarts of kvass (russian bread drink), you may replace it with kefir diluted with cold boiled water or mineral water
• Salt, ground black pepper

How to make, step-by-step:

1. Prepare ingredients: boil potatoes for salad in advance, prepare hard boiled eggs, drain liquid from peas:
   
   

   Okroshka Recipe: Step 1

2. Skin potatoes and dice them, put to the big cooking pot:
   
   

   Okroshka Recipe: Step 2

3. Dice bologna (you can replace bologna with boiled vial or beef or even ham if you like), add diced meat to the pot:
   
   

   Okroshka Recipe: Step 3

4. Add drained sweet peas to the pot:
   
   

   Okroshka Recipe: Step 4

5. Dice cucumber and add it to the cooking pot, if cucumber is ripe you can remove seeds and skin it:
   
   

   Okroshka Recipe: Step 5

6. Dice hard boiled eggs:
   
   

   Okroshka Recipe: Step 6

7. Cut radish of tails, rinse them with cold water and slice, put to the cooking pot:
   
   

   Okroshka Recipe: Step 7

8. Add chopped fresh dill and green onion:
   
   

   Okroshka Recipe: Step 8

9. Add salt and black pepper, put 2 tbsps of mustard (I usually put Dijon one) and about 5 tbsps of sour cream (or more if you like), someone also add mayonnaise at this step (or even replace sour cream with it):
   
   

   Okroshka Recipe: Step 9

10. Mix everything:
    
    

    Okroshka Recipe: Step 10

11. Add about 4 cups of bread kvass (filter it if is needed) and let Okroshka to settle before serving:
    
    

    Okroshka Recipe: Step 11

12. Add more kvass to Okroshka right before serving (you may vary amount of kvass to your taste). Serve Okroshka cooled:
    
    

    Okroshka

Bon Appetit!

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• Radish and Fresh Cheese Salad
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• Herring Under Fur Coat (Herring Salad)
• Egg and Ham Salad