Barszcz

Name: Barszcz
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Polish
Ingredients: Beetroot; Onion; Garlic; Caster sugar; Lemon juice; Red wine vinegar; Black pepper; Dried marjoram; Salt; Water

72 kcal a serving, against 96 for the traditional version. That is 24 kcal off, or 25%, with 2.5g of protein. Serves 6. 3 days, most of it waiting.

What the traditional version is

Whole beetroot, peeled and sliced, left to ferment for two days in water with a little rye bread to start it. It's then simmered with garlic, onion, a touch of sugar, lemon juice and sometimes a splash of vinegar, finished with black pepper and a little marjoram. Served over little ear-shaped dumplings (uszka) filled with mushrooms, but you're not doing those here.

What changed, and what each change costs

Dropping the sugar from 20g to 5g

People add sugar to boost the sweetness and colour, but you don't need as much as you think. Beetroot is already sweet and fermentation brings out plenty of flavour.

What it costs you. The soup loses some of that almost jammy comfort. You get something earthier and sharper. If you're hanging on for rosy sweetness, you'll notice it's not as plush. If you want to kid yourself it's the same, it isn't - it's cleaner.

Rye bread out entirely for fermentation

You can kickstart the ferment with salt alone, and that removes the trace of gluten. If you're not coeliac, the piece of bread is traditional but not essential.

What it costs you. Fermentation might take a little longer, and you lose a minuscule background malty note. Most people won't notice unless they're eating it next to the original. I'm not.

Vinegar from 20g down to 10g

Less sugar means you don't need as much sharpness to balance it. The broth tastes rounder. Beetroot and lemon take the lead.

What it costs you. If you're chasing that tartness from a New Year's Day hangover, you'll need to throw the rest of the bottle in. For everyone else, it's more subtle.

What goes in it

The ingredients, without the quantities. The weights are what the figures below are computed from, and they are in the book.

Beetroot
Onion
Garlic
Caster sugar
Lemon juice
Red wine vinegar
Black pepper
Dried marjoram
Salt
Water

How it starts

Peel and slice the beetroot into thick rounds.
Cover it with a plate or a lid (not airtight), and let it stand at room temperature for 48 hours.
Once it's tangy and smells a bit like pickled beetroot, strain the liquid into a large saucepan.

The rest of the method, and every weight, is in Authentic-ish Polish.

The numbers

Per serving	Traditional	Lightened
Calories	96	72
Protein	2.9g	2.5g
Fat	0.5g	0.3g
Saturated fat	0.1g	0.1g
Carbohydrate	21.3g	16.4g
Protein per 100 kcal	3.1g	3.5g

Every figure is computed from the recipe's own weighed ingredient list against public food composition databases. The appendix in Authentic-ish Polish prints the exact database row used for each ingredient, so any number here can be checked. How every number is computed sets out the method.

Allergens. sulphites.

The method is in the book

No, it doesn't taste as lush or sweet as the Christmas Eve original. It's sharper, more beetroot than pudding. But it's refreshing, genuinely restorative, and you can drink a mug for lunch without regretting anything. Once you get used to the grown-up version, going back to the sugar bomb is harder than you'd think.

The quantities and the method for this dish are in Authentic-ish Polish, along with 53 more. Buy the paperback