Okroshka - Southern Russian Summer Soup

 O-baby! O-kroshka. Okroshka. This is the name of Russian summer cold soup – the sister of the world-famous Spanish “gazpacho” ( the sister, because in Russian “okroshka” is female) . The root of this name comes from the verb “to chop” – kroshit. The idea of this dish is to chop a certain number of vegetables and meat into small pieces.

Okroshka is not a gastronomic meal, but during the summer one can found it both in street-cafés and in a chic restaurants

It is mostly popular in the South of Russia as it is too hot during the summer. It is hard to imagine how to eat something the same temperature as July’s air.

Okroshka in mid-Russia ( Moscow, for example )  is not as good as in Southern Russia. They just do not have fresh vegetables from the garden and they don’t know how to cook this easy soup correctly. They are only able to manage to make a simple parody.

The right way to cook okroshka is to take the best gentle and fragrant cucumber from your granny’s garden, sweet rose radish and boiled young potatoes, add some boiled farm-eggs and green onion.

One can add small pieces of boiled veal, neat’s tongue, chicken or even Russian boiled sausage. The last one is the taste of childhood.

2 - Russian most famous "doctor's sausage"

 The most important part of this soup the liquid. There are two official variants – kvas and kefir. I think both of them do not exist outside Russia. These are non-alcoholic drinks that we use in our everyday life. The former – is made of bread and the latter – of milk ( the secret is to mix one part of kefir with one part of sparkling water as this makes the liquid dance on your tongue). 

With KVAS

with KEFIR

Another small secret of a good taste is to make a right filling – mix one part of boiled yolk and two parts of Russian spicy mustard with frayed horseradish.  As a result of this the neutral ingredients will be superbly contrasted by the sharp flavoring (the ingredients will be an awe inspiring combination solid chunks of smooth vegetables, a spicy taste of mustard seeds combined with the smooth flow of cooling Kvas).

Okroshka with Kefir ( we say "on Kefir")

Okroshka "on" Kvas

Welcome to the South and enjoy our meal!