Mom Photographer and The Gang

Middle of Winter, and who does think about dishes that would refresh you and help you to cool down?

Only pregnant women 🙂 

Pregnant and living in CA where in January we have ripening tomatoes and growing lettuce outside our apartment.

“Chłodnik” literally means “cooler” and in Poland and many European countries is eaten during the Summer and late Fall when fresh veggies are very easy to get. If you have the access to fresh veggies all year long there is no reason to not to make it. It’s delicious, easy to make and good for breakfast, lunch, dinner (or 2am sinless snack – in my case).

The base for it is always plain yoghurt, kefir or buttermilk. 

In the recipes I know of and have eaten in the past the main ingredients were: beets, cucumber, radish, chives, dill.

If you skip the beets you don’t have to boil anything. Just cut everything up, mix it with:

yoghurt and kefir

or just kefir

or just buttermilk

or mix of yoghurt-kefir-buttermilk

and chill in the fridge at least for an hour.

As easy as that.

What you need for the soup:

• 1 medium (or 2 small) beet(s), boiled and grated
• 1 bunch of radishes
• 1 English cucumber
• bunch of chives
• or buch of green onions (in this case use only the green part of the onions)
• 1 cup plain yoghurt
• 2 cups kefir
• salt
  
• pepper
  

The recipe makes a very thick consistency soup. If you think you might not like it skip the yoghurt and use only kefir instead.

Boil and grate the beet. Put it asaid until is cold. In the meantime cut radishes, cucumber and chives into small pieces (not too small, though).

Mix it all together in a big bowl.

Add 2 cups of kefir and 1 cup of yoghurt.

Mix it all together. Add salt and pepper. Taste. If the consistency is to thick add more kefir. If it isn’t salty enough you might want to wait to add more after is chilled and ready to serve.

Chill in the fridge for an hour at least.

Serve with hard boiled egg cut into quarters.

Sprinkle with chopped dill. I didn’t have it so I skipped that part. I am not the biggest fan of dill, anyway.

My husband said it would work perfect as a chip dip (?). I would’ve never thought about that but after he said it… I kind of agreed.

btw, Polish kefir it totally different from the one I found here so the soup is not exactly the way I am used to it, but it’s  still delicious.