Chlodnik Cold Soup

Name: Chlodnik Cold Soup
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Polish
Ingredients: Raw beetroot; Cucumber; Radishes; Fresh dill; Spring onions; Fat-free Greek yoghurt; Water; Buttermilk; 6 medium eggs; Salt

Chlodnik Cold Soup, plated as one serving.

244 kcal a serving, against 304 for the traditional version. That is 60 kcal off, or 20%, with 21.3g of protein. Serves 4. 35 minutes plus chilling.

What the traditional version is

Chlodnik is a cold Polish soup, beetroot front and centre, finished with soured cream or full-fat kefir, plenty of cucumber, radishes and dill. Hard-boiled eggs are quartered and dropped into the bowl, sometimes with a handful of chives or spring onion. Everything is raw or very lightly cooked, then chilled, and it looks fantastic on the table.

What changed, and what each change costs

350g soured cream replaced with 300g fat-free Greek yoghurt plus 200g buttermilk

Soured cream is 30% fat and that's nearly all the luxury here. The yoghurt-buttermilk mix gets close on tang and protein, but there's no fat left for that rounded finish.

What it costs you. It's thinner, with a less silky mouthfeel. Don't expect the body of the original. Still, it's cold, pink, and lactic - not a bad trade if you want freshness.

Hard-boiled eggs bumped up from 4 to 6

More egg means you get more bite and more protein with each bowl. The soup's much lighter so it can handle the extra.

What it costs you. It isn't the original proportion - there's more egg than veg now, but you're not complaining for a summer lunch.

Keep the veg the same, but up the dill and spring onion

With less soured cream to blanket the flavours, a heavier hand with the herbs keeps the taste bright.

What it costs you. If you hate dill, it's your fault for making chlodnik at all. If you like it, pile it on.

Lose 100ml of water

The light dairy is runnier, so the soup doesn't need as much liquid to reach the right consistency.

What it costs you. Hardly dramatic. You might not even notice unless you're counting spoons.

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.

Raw beetroot
Cucumber
Radishes
Fresh dill
Spring onions
Fat-free Greek yoghurt
Water
Buttermilk
6 medium eggs
Salt

How it starts

Grate the beetroot straight into a mixing bowl.
Add the cucumber, radishes, dill and spring onions.
Stir in the yoghurt and buttermilk, then pour in the water and salt.

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

The numbers

Per serving	Traditional	Lightened
Calories	304	244
Protein	10.8g	21.3g
Fat	22g	9.4g
Saturated fat	10.5g	3.4g
Carbohydrate	17.6g	19.4g
Protein per 100 kcal	3.6g	8.7g

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. milk, eggs.

The method is in the book

Chlodnik made this way is light, sharp and pink enough to convince a five-year-old it's radioactive. If you're here for the velvety texture, you'll miss it - the original's better for that. But if you want cold, tangy, refreshing soup with a protein hit, this gets you there. Just don't lie to yourself: it'll never feel as luxurious as the full-fat one and that's fine.

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