Botvinya

⏳ Time

15 minutes

🥕 Ingredients

🍽️ Servings

Description

Botvinya is a hybrid of beetroot soup and okroshka, packed with a variety of edible greens: beet tops, green onions, watercress, wild garlic, and other summer herbs. In this version of botvinya, anchovies serve as a seasoning, akin to a fish sauce, providing a spicy and salty flavor at the same time. Moreover, the anchovies remind us that traditionally, botvinya includes a lot of different smoked and boiled fish, just like okroshka includes meat and sausage.

Ingredients

Chicken Egg - 6 pieces
Anchovies - 2.1 oz
Sour Cream - 7.1 oz
Beetroot - 2 lbs
Cucumbers - 10.6 oz
Scallions - 10.6 oz
Mustard Greens - 10.6 oz
Radish - 10.6 oz
Dill - 5.3 oz
Lemon - 2 pieces
Ramsons - 3.5 oz
Bread Kvass - 1 qt
Salt - to taste
Ground Black Pepper - to taste

Step by Step guide

Step 1

Boil the beets in a large amount of water: for one kilogram of beets, use three to four liters of water. Squeeze the juice of two lemons into the broth and set the pot aside to cool.

Step 2

Boil the eggs hard.

Step 3

Peel the beets and grate them. Peel the cucumbers and grate them in the same way as the beets. Do the same with the boiled eggs and radishes.

Step 4

Finely chop the dill and green onions. Thinly slice the beet greens, wild garlic, green onions, dill, and any other greens you can find.

Step 5

Mix the vegetables, herbs, and eggs, then pour in equal parts of beet broth and kvass. Stir well, add the mashed anchovy fillet, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Step 6

Once on the plate, season with sour cream and—if there is an aesthetic or physiological need—add half or a quarter of a boiled egg to each plate. However, this means you will need to boil not six, as stated in this recipe, but ten or even more, depending on your appetite.