Chilled Polish Beet Soup
Polish Beet Soup
Serves 8-10
This chilled beet soup is a blend of two recipes from my mom’s tattered Polish cookbook. In it, ruby red beets meet crunchy cucumbers and salty pickles. Which makes for a deep pink, highly refreshing soup that my Polish-American father claims is better than gazpacho.
4 large beets with stalks and leaves, washed
4 cups beef broth
¼ cup water
2 tablespoons flour
½ teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
¾ cup pickle juice, from the jar
½ cup sour cream
2 large dill pickles, diced
3 pickling cucumbers, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon fresh dill leaves
3 scallions, sliced thin
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
5 hard boiled eggs, peeled and halved
Cut leaves and stalks from beets, and place them in large saucepan along with beet roots. Cover with water, bring to a boil, and cook beets until tender, about 35 minutes. Reserving the cooking water, remove beets and leaves. Discard the stocks and leaves, and let beets cool, about 20 minutes. Peel and dice beets.
While the beets are cooking, heat the beef broth in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Combine the flour and water until smooth. When broth is simmering, add flour mixture and sugar. Cook for one minute, remove from heat, and cool about 20 minutes.
When beef mixture has cooled, add lemon and pickle juices, plus sour cream. Whisk until combined. Add beets, pickles, cucumbers, garlic, dill, and scallions. If soup seems too thick, add reserved beet water. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Chill for at least 2 hours.
To serve, fill bowls with soup and top with half a hard-boiled egg.
big world | small kitchen
http://www.bigworldsmallkitchen.com/recipe/polish-beet-soup-recipe
