Polish cold beet soup (chlodnik) is a delicious, refreshing soup popular in Poland during warmer months. It contains both beets as well as beet greens and is super quick and easy to make. You might also like Polish kohlrabi soup.
Polish chlodnik cold beet soup is a refreshing vegetarian dish, great to make on a hot day. As it's summer and we are expecting a heat wave here in the UK any day now (!) I thought I'd introduce this delicious cold beetroot soup with yogurt on my blog.
Making this easy beet soup involved a visit to Unicorn, a vegetarian grocery shop in Manchester, UK. This is the only place I know where beet greens don't get chopped off! Visiting this shop is a treat in itself, as it stocks a large variety of organic locally sourced fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs as well as lots of fabulous hard to come by products.
Why I love this soup
I usually make 'healthy' adjustments to traditional Polish recipes but this beetroot soup is really nutritious and simply perfect the way it's always been prepared.
What I love most about chlodnik, apart from the taste, is that it contains both the beet roots as well as greens! Beet greens are very underrated despite being full of goodness and flavour. Together with the beets they create a wonderfully rich, delicious dish, full of flavour as well as colour. And nothing gets wasted!
This soup is super nutritious and low in fat and perfect served on a hot day. Try it!
If like me you love green beets check out also this simple beet greens vegetable soup.
How to make easy Polish cold beet soup: step-by-step
This healthy chlodnik soup requires a bit of chopping and grating but is very easy to make.
1.Start by finely chopping the beet greens (stems and leaves) and grating the beets (peeled).
2. Place in a pot, add the water (or vegetable stock), lemon juice, cover and bring to the boil. Then simmer for 5 minutes, remove from the heat and set aside to cool completely. You won't have to do any more cooking!
3. Whilst the soup is cooling prepare the rest of the ingredients. So grate the radish and cucumber, chop the herbs and garlic.
4. Then simply toss these into the beet mixture, add the yogurt, seasoning, stir and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes (up to 4 hours) before serving. Serve chilled.
Top tips
- Use either water or vegetable stock (if you use the latter do not season until the soup is ready).
- You can use either Greek or natural yogurt, combined with kefir or buttermilk if you like. I do not recommend sour cream or creme fraiche as they have a much higher fat content.
- Chill for at least 20 minutes (up to 4 hours) before serving.
- Storing: refrigerate for up to 3 days.
- Not suitable for freezing.
Serving suggestions
This Polish cold beetroot soup is traditionally served with hard boiled eggs. You can also enjoy it on its own or with hearty rye or pumpernickel bread. This soup makes a great starter, perfect to serve at a summer party.
If you like cold soups you might also like cold cucumber soup with peas and my quick fruit soup recipe.
You might also like
- Simple Borscht Recipe (Vegetarian Barszcz)
- Creamy Beet Soup with Kale & Fennel
- Polish Borscht Recipe (Christmas)
You may also like this collection of over 12 creamy vegan soups.
Keep in touch!
How has your chlodnik soup turned out? Let me know int the comments below, thanks!
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Cold Beet Soup (Polish Chlodnik)
Ingredients
- 2 small beets with their greens or use 1 medium beet and greens from 2 beets
- 2-3 tbsp lemon juice
- 400 ml water or vegetable stock
- 750 ml natural/Greek yogurt you can also add buttermilk and/or kefir
- 3-4 tbsp dill finely chopped
- 4 tbsp chives finely chopped
- 10 radishes coarsely grated
- 1 cucumber 15 cm long, peeled, coarsely grated
- 1 garlic clove crushed
- Season to taste if using water add approx. 1.5 tsp fine sea salt plus pepper to taste
- Serve with hard boiled eggs optional
Instructions
- Once the beet mixture has cooled add the remaining ingredients, season to taste and stir thoroughly. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes (up to 4 hours) before serving.
Notes
- Use either water or vegetable stock (if you use the latter do not season until the soup is ready).
- You can use either Greek or natural yogurt, combined with kefir or buttermilk if you like. I do not recommend sour cream or creme fraiche as they have a much higher fat content.
- Chill for at least 4 hours before serving.
- Storing: refrigerate for up to 3 days.
- Not suitable for freezing.
Nutrition
*Nutritional information is automatically generated and should be considered as an estimate.
**A note about baking: If using a fan-assisted oven refer to your appliance's instructions and adjust the temperature accordingly.
This is a close variation to my grandmother and my great aunts recipe. I haven’t made it many times. It is a must for the summer. I’d like to know if you can freeze this before putting in the sour cream?
Once the mixture has cooled completely you could freeze it. I am assuming you want to freeze it to use later? You'd need to defrost it before adding in the yogurt.
Delicious Polish ( chłodnik )cold soup.
Thank you! My favourite summer soup.
Looks incredible and divine!! So yumm 🙂
Thanks! Glad you like it:)
This looks lovely. I don't think I've ever tried beetroot soup before but must give it a try soon. I love using the beetroot greens too, I make a very nice beetroot curry that blends then into the sauce #CookBlogShare
Thanks Mandy! I am never bored with beetroot and putting it in a curry dish sounds marvelous:) And the greens too!
This soup is a "must" on a warm/hot summer day. It's one of my favorite's by the way! Some people may find the pink color strange, but, believe me, once you dip into it, it's "heaven in the mouth" (an old Polish saying: "Niebo w gebie!"). So --- smacznego!!! And a nice warm "Dziekuje slicznie" to Monika for posting this classical and delicious Polish recipe! Greetings from Lyon!!
Thank you Krystyna! I am a huge fan of beetroot in general and this soup certainly does it justice. Thanks for visiting my blog:)