If you see someone eating Chlodnik, the color will get your attention. It’s a bright, vibrant pink from the combination of beets and dairy. The color isn’t one that you usually find in food, certainly not in savory.
Like Polish housewives everywhere, I tried my hand at this soup last summer, but I’ll be making this version from now on; it’s quick and easy, and ever so fresh tasting. Gosia not only shared her recipe, but she also invited several of us to her home for a day of traditional Polish cooking. Memories that I’ll always treasure.
Smacznego!
Lois
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Chlodnik (Cold Polish Beet Soup)
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Total Time: 45 mins
- Yield: 7-8 1x
- Category: Soup
- Cuisine: Polish
Description
A colorful, healthy, cold soup for summer
Ingredients
- 4 or 5 young, tender beets, with tops if possible
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cucumbers, peeled and grated
- 6 radishes, grated
- 3 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped
- 2 green onions (white and green parts), chopped
- 4 cups plain yogurt
- 4 cups kefir or buttermilk
- 1 cup sour cream
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 3 hard boiled eggs, quartered
Instructions
- Prepare the beets by removing and dicing the stems up to the leaves
- Add the chopped stems to a large soup pot
- Peel and grate the remaining beet roots, add to the pan
- Add enough water just to cover the beets, add salt
- Simmer until tender, about 15 minutes
- Cool the beet mixture
- Add the cucumbers, radishes, dill, green onions, yogurt, kefir, and sour cream.
- Season with salt and pepper
- Chill and serve garnished with hard boiled egg
Notes
Now that I know the proper way to make this, I usually substitute two jars of grated beets for the whole beets, and simply combine all of the ingredients and chill – 10 minutes max prep time.
An accountant by trade and a food blogger since 2009, Lois Britton fell in love with Polish cuisine during the years she lived in Poznań, Poland. As the creator of PolishHousewife.com, she loves connecting readers with traditional Polish recipes. Lois has a graduate certificate in Food Writing and Photography from the University of South Florida. She is the author of The Polish Housewife Cookbook, available on Amazon and on her website.
Yana Greenman
Thank you for a great and easy (!) recipe.
In this hot weather this was the only soup I could think about, so obviously I looked in the Polishhousewife.com and it was Wonderful! Even my picky 5 years old ate it.( He was so exited to add all the vegetables and eggs by him self so he forgot to resist 🙂
★★★★★
polishhousewife
Oh, Yana, I’m so impressed that your children eat chlodnik! I don’t think mine would have been that adventurous. Great trick getting him involved in the preparation. 😉
Jacek
Yeah,
One of thlose amazing flavored soups I grow up with .
Mom was good making them on hot days… Tried…get recipe from Basia .,
polishhousewife
Flavorful and colorful, Jacek. Glad I could remind you of your mom’s cooking!
Maria
I am from Cyprus and I came to Lublin, Poland with my husband this week on a business trip. We had this soup last night in the old town and we loved it!! I will make it as soon as we get back to Cyprus because it’s super tasty and very refreshing for the very very hot summers of our island! Thank you for the recipe!! 🙂
polishhousewife
Hi Maria,
It’s my pleasure to supply the recipe! I think you’re very adventurous to try this bright pink soup, and you’re right– it’s perfect for summer! Let me know how yours turns out.
Ina
It’s nice to hear that people enjoying Lithuanian dishes☺️
cindy
so – the stems are cooked right with the beets and served in the soup? I’m anxious to try this – my daughter is having her first baby this August – might be a good recipe to make them for August weather
polishhousewife
Yes, Cindy; the diced stems get cooked with the grated beets. I think it would be perfect for August. It keeps for several days in the fridge. I love cooking once and having several meals. Best wishes to your growing family!
I HATE POLICH
this soup is from lithuania. NOT FROM POLISH
polishhousewife
Yes, I’m aware of the origin.
robert mroz
It’s not just Lithuanian or Baltic region. It is extremely common national dish in Slovian countries of Eastern Europe. Each of them probably think of it as their own national dish. It’s Eastern Europe dish.
polishhousewife
You make a good point, Robert!
Evelina
Actually, if you’ll read old history books o culinary heritage you’ll learn that this soup originates in Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Back then Lithuania was a huge state that included territory of present-day Belarus, parts of Ukraine, Poland and Russia, so it makes a lot of sense the soup is now popular in all these countries.
Ina
It’s actually Lithuanian, which was passed on further.
Ina
If you are aware then don’t say it’s Polish, it’s called chlodnik litewski for a reason
Laurie Kane
Idiot.
Yasya
LOL
Yvonne
Wow, haters show up even on cooking websites. Pathetic
polishhousewife
Nothing is immune
Yasya
You should be reported for your hate speech, troll.
Suzanne
Can you pulse the peeled beets in a food processor to grate them, or will texture be wrong?
polishhousewife
Hi Suzanne,
If your processor has a grating blade, that would be perfect. I think you could process them with the steel (knife) blade; you’ll just need to be very careful not to process too much. Make sure you stop when there’s still some texture left. Let us know how it turns out!
Suzanne Guida
I used the old fashioned box grater and it worked fine of course. Since I was only grating a few beets it seemed more work to use the food processor. I also had concerns about controlling the texture.
★★★★★
polishhousewife
I think the box grater is the classic tool in a Polish kitchen. When I was growing up, we used it to grate cheese. At my Polish friends house, they used it to make bread crumbs from a stale baguette, something I wouldn’t have thought of.
David
Regardless of its origin (I agree that many countries have a similar soup) , I love beet soup like this. I have never had a recipe, though, so am so glad to have yours now! Thanks, Lois!
polishhousewife
My pleasure, David!
Elizabeth Beaudoin
I can the leaf/beet/broth part of the soup and add a tablespoon of vinegar to each quart that I can. We have very hot springs here in Ottawa so I have the chlodnik at the ready before my beets are mature which is usually in August. I find that cooking the beets separately, dicing them and combining them with the leaves and broth works best for canning.
polishhousewife
Thanks for sharing this, Elizabeth!
Bonnie
Elizabeth, how long do you prices the quarts? Do you pressure can or hat water bath. In so glad you commented because I was working they how I would can it! Thank you so much. And thank you for the great recipe.
Mary
Years ago a friend’s mother made a soup that looked like chlodnik – the pink color and it had small dumplings. I thought it was the most incredible thing I had ever tasted. But as I recall it was not cold – it was served warm or hot. Does this have to be served cold?
polishhousewife
It was probably barszcz. Some people stir a little yogurt into the hot soup which would give you the pink color. I’ve made barszcz with kroket, but many people serve it with filled dumplings, something similar to pierogi.
https://polishhousewife.com/homemade-barszcz-krokiety/
Dolly
I absolutely hate the regular hot Russian Borscht but this was delicious, better than my old favorite cold soup, gazpacho. I made this with fresh beets and the jarred beets and cannot tell the difference. I used some big Daikon from market in my 2nd batch….just as good as regular radish. It is also very pretty, my granddaughter thought it was a dessert and insisted on trying some….she was quite surprised and upset it wasn’t, lol! I wish I had a photo of her face.
★★★★★
polishhousewife
I’m glad to hear you like it, Dolly!
Jillian
I tried this soup recently on a trip to Warsaw and it was amazing. I’d like to try it at home. Does this recipe freeze well?
polishhousewife
I haven’t tried freezing it, Jillian. All of the dairy makes me think that it might be better to scale down the recipe and make a smaller batch instead.
Has anyone had success freezing chlodnik?
Jean
My family loves this soup. My husband immigrated from Lithuania in 1951 where this is a summer staple. We have been married 50 years so my children and now my grandchildren can’t wait for a hot summer day to enjoy “salta barscia” or otherwise known as “pink soup”.
★★★★★
polishhousewife
It’s so good for you; that’s great that your family loves it!
Jane Hayes
Hi Lois, I’ve just returned from a wonderful tour around Poland and was looking for a recipe for a good beet soup, so felt lucky to find your website. Some of the versions of beet soup I saw in Poland, had meat in them, although I did find a good vegetarian one in Krakow, which tasted as if it had many of the ingredients you list in your recipe. It was blended smooth, served with a dash of cream cheese on top. Whilst that was delicious, I’m looking forward to trying your recipe with the chopped beets. …now I just need to buy some beetroot! Many thanks, Jane
polishhousewife
Hi Jane! I’m so glad to hear about the culinary side of your trip to PL and hope you’ll enjoy the soup. Thanks for taking the time to comment. All the best!
Linda
Hi, My Mom used to make a similar soup with red beets and sour cream. Does anyone know a recipe like that? She served it warm. I believe she had potatoes in it too. Never had a written recipe but I loved it and would like to make it. Any help would be appreciated!
Shimon
Probably, you refer to barsc czerwony. Borsh, in Russian
★★★★★
Julie
Linda, I have a fabulous recipe for the red beet soup you described in your comment. If you get this reply and still want/need the recipe, let me know.
Shimon
Polish food is so delicious! This recipe fits well for a hot day. I just use to cook it in a somewhat different way. First, I use to cook 4 beets together, 2 for barsc and 2 for this one. Then, I mix the other ingredients and it’s ready. Quite easy and so tasty, thanks for sharing, and smacznego.
★★★★★
Theresa Tribble
I like your recipe. I had never used the beet greens, but I cook the beets in their skin and just peel it off and grate on a box grater. My family used a bit of water to thin it and I cooked the beets until they started to run so they did not boil. I will try the buttermilk and yoghurt although we used sour cream and a bit of sour salt (citric acid) for the tartness and the usual dill, cukes and scallions. I sometimes add a bit of cornstarch to keep it a bit thicker and my kids loved it when they were small and still ask for it as middleagers!! Great for hot days for sure.
Cliff
I come from a polish background and am very excited I found your recipes! I just made the dish and it’s tasty and bright thank you for posting.
★★★★★
polishhousewife
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Cliff. Thanks for your kind words!
Heather Thorpe
Is this a lot like Beet Borcht soup? I love that soup…grew up on it and so did my kids
polishhousewife
Both are full of beet flavor. My barszcz recipe is very garlicky and this is not.
Max
Really enjoyed this. Ended up adding juice of a lemon to make a little brighter (might just be the quality of English beetroot which needed it!) Next time would cook the beetroot in stock to up the savouriness even further.
polishhousewife
Thanks for sharing, Maren!