• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Polish Housewife

Polish recipes served up with tidbits of folklore, customs, and history

  • Home
  • Polish Recipes
    • Polish Breads
    • Polish Soups
    • Polish Mains & Sides
    • Polish Desserts
    • Polish Pantry
    • Polish Beverages & Liqueurs
  • Recipes
    • Appetizer
    • Beverage
    • Salad Dressing
    • Salads
    • Soup
    • Stew
    • Main
    • Vegetables
    • Dessert
  • About
  • Expat Life
    • Art
    • Concerts
    • Crime
    • Current Events
    • Daily life
    • Dining Out
    • Euro 2012
    • Events
    • Holidays
    • Museums
    • People
    • Pets
    • Sightseeing
    • Sports
    • Travel
  • New? Start Here
  • Store
  • Polish Cookbook

Trio of Cold Soups for Summer

May 7, 2014 by Lois Britton 2 Comments

Even with temperatures rising, soup is the way to begin a meal in Poland, so much so that I’ve had a waitress argue with me when I ordered a salad for a first course.

cooking class, church, soup

With that thought in mind, I shared three great cold soups recipes in a cooking class this week. It was a good excuse to spend time with my old friends. On Monday night, we gathered in the church kitchen, diced up a ton of vegetables, and created some light, vegetarian soups that are perfect for summer, but we didn’t stop there.

One of my friends has an herb garden, so we whipped upĀ a garlic herb compound butter — just the thing to go with a couple of loaves from our favorite bakery. It’s so easy to do. We used two sticks of soft butter, a minced clove of garlic, a pinch of salt, and a 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup diced herbs. We used lemon thyme, flat leaf parsley, and tarragon; you could use any combination you like.

Getting back to the soups, we made a cold Polish beet soup, Chlodnik. This soup’s most notable feature is its bright pink color. It combines cooled beets and other raw vegetables with lots of dairy, including kefir — something very popular in Poland, but new to my American friends. I urge you to give kefir a try. I’ve read that it has five times the probiotics found in yogurt; add it to a smoothie or try one of the flavored versions.

Chlodnik (Cold Polish Beet Soup)

We also made an asparagus vichyssoise. This was a little different than the version I make in Poland where the asparagus is white; I must admit the green color was very attractive.

asparagus potato soup

A Spanish gazpacho finished off our trio. This has been one of my favorites ever since the 1980s, when we spent four years living in Spain, and I researched gazpacho and sangria all over the Iberian peninsula, but that’s another story.

Gazpacho

Ninety minutes after we started, we gathered around the table for interesting conversation and soup sampling. The lone man who joined us told us about The Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa. As a cyclist, this was especially interesting to me. In its 42nd year, the week long ride is almost 500 miles. Our friend who has made the ride five times tells us that it’s really just an excuse for a week long party. It is possible to join in just for a day. That might be more my speed if I could find a day that would guarantee a tailwind! šŸ˜‰

As for our soups, there were many trips to the kitchen to refill our bowls, but no clear favorite. So take a break from salads this summer, give these soupsĀ a try and let me know which one you would choose.

 

 

Lois Britton

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,Ā  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.

Share this...
  • email
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin
  • Reddit

Filed Under: Cooking Class, French, Polish, Soup, Spanish, Summer, Vegetables Tagged With: cold soups, cooking class, summer soups

Previous Post: « Celiac Awareness Month – May
Next Post: Salmon Patties with easy sauce »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Lori

    May 8, 2014 at 5:03 am

    And you need to add the wonderful cold cherry soup that is a feature of summer in Hungary. When I went to the International Week at the University of Pecs in 2011 we all had some for a late afternoon snack at the University library. Someone asked, “What’s different about this one?” And then we all had great fun discovering what the word was for cloves in all the languages represented around the table!

    Reply
    • polishhousewife

      May 8, 2014 at 4:20 pm

      Cold cherry soup, Lori? That sounds fantastic; I’ll have to google it. As you know, they’ll be selling Polish cherries on every corner in a month or two.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Let’s Connect!

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube

Use the code POLISH15 for a 15% discount!

Welcome – Witam!

Hi, I'm Lois; welcome to Polish Housewife! Here you'll find my culinary and cultural adventures in Poland and in the USA.
Zapraszamy! Click here…

Polish recipes sent to your inbox!

* = required field

Looking for something special?

The Polish Housewife Cookbook – order your autographed copy here!

Footer

  • Privacy Policy
my photos on tastespotting
Living in Poland
my foodgawker gallery
Poland Blogs

Copyright © 2023 · Foodie Pro & The Genesis Framework