gazpacho soup
Photo: Shutterstock.
I don’t feel like eating anything when it’s hot. But cold and very healthy summer soups come to the rescue: they refresh and give the body the necessary energy. We collected useful basic recipes and asked our expert, nutritionist Lyudmila Denisenko, to comment on them.
And yes, there will be no okroshka! Everyone knows its recipe, but we have already talked about what to fill it with: kvass or kefir. And we came to the conclusion that anything, as long as you like it.
1. Beetroot (holodnik). Belarusian cuisine.
Ingredients: beetroot (1-2 pieces depending on size), 1 fresh cucumber, 1-2 boiled eggs. Greens (parsley, dill, cilantro) – to taste. 9% vinegar, salt, sugar, water.
Preparation: grate raw beets on a coarse grater, add water in which a teaspoon of sugar is dissolved. Cook for about 10-20 minutes, depending on the volume, until cooked. At the end, pour in a tablespoon of vinegar, immediately remove from heat and let cool.
Finely chop all the vegetables, grate the cucumber on a coarse grater and mix with cold beetroot broth. Pour into plates, add half a boiled egg and a tablespoon of sour cream to each.
Calorie content: 36 kcal per 100 g.
BY THE WAY: sometimes different ingredients are added to this soup for satiety: pieces of ham (in Spain), feta cheese or fetaksa (in Greece). Some people use pickled beets right away, pour kefir or tan into the soup and add herbs – then the preparation is much simpler and faster.
NUTRITIONIST’S COMMENT: To make sausages even more useful, it is better to bake beets, so they retain their benefits. It has immunostimulating and wound-healing properties. And instead of vinegar and salt (which is not very useful for people with gastrointestinal problems and hypertension), I recommend adding lemon juice at the end of cooking beets and immediately turning off the heat.
Beetroot (holodnik)
Photo: Shutterstock.
2. Gazpacho. Spanish cuisine.
Ingredients: 3-4 tomatoes, 2-3 cucumbers, 1 bell pepper, 1-2 garlic cloves, ¼ onion. Olive oil – 2-3 tbsp.
Preparation: Blend the butter, garlic, onion and a pinch of salt in a blender. Gradually add the cucumbers, peeled peppers and well-washed tomatoes (from hard to soft vegetables). Cool the resulting puree; you can add vegetables to dishes if you wish.
Calorie content: 37 kcal per 100 g.
NUTRITIONIST’S COMMENT: Lycopene and antioxidants in tomatoes fight off-target cells that accelerate aging and provoke the development of cancer. Other vegetables are sources of vitamins and minerals. To balance proteins and carbohydrates, you can add soft pickled cheese – Adyghe or feta cheese. The only “but”: tomatoes should be limited to people with exacerbation of gastric and duodenal ulcers, cholelithiasis or high acidity.
3. Tarator. Bulgarian cuisine.
Ingredients: kefir (1%) or tan, ayran, drinking unsweetened yogurt (200-300 ml). Medium cucumber 2 pieces. Dill, 2-3 cloves of garlic.
Preparation: grate three cucumbers on a coarse grater, crush the garlic in a press or chop it very finely (three on a fine grater). Finely chop the dill. Mix everything together and fill with fermented milk product.
Calorie content: 24 kcal per 100 g.
BY THE WAY: You can dilute kefir with mineral water to make it thinner. Sometimes finely ground walnuts and a couple of tablespoons of olive oil are added to the tarator – this enriches the taste.
And in Turkey this soup is called “dzhadzhik”, only they add a lot of vegetables to it and, together with cucumber and yogurt, they puree it in a blender.
NUTRITIONIST COMMENT: Probably the most dietary of all summer soups. And very healthy: cucumber fights bloating, excess cholesterol and is very good for hypertensive patients. Well, any fermented milk product is great for the intestines. True, the combination of “cucumber and kefir” is not suitable for everyone. If you have irritable bowel syndrome, it is better to be careful with it.
4. Dovga. Azerbaijan.
Ingredients: kefir (tan, ayran, matsoni, katyk – to choose from) – 500 ml. Water 150-200 ml. Greens (cilantro and dill). 1 clove of garlic. One raw egg. Boiled rice – 4-5 tbsp.
Preparation: Boil the rice in advance. Mix the kefir with water in a saucepan, beat one raw egg well and add it to the saucepan. Place on the stove, bring to a boil, stirring constantly, and open the lid, but do not boil (otherwise the kefir and egg will curdle and nothing will work). Add the rice and herbs and keep it on the heat for a couple more minutes. Remove and cool.
Calorie content: 50 kcal per 100 g.
BY THE WAY: If you want the soup to be thicker, add a tablespoon of flour.
NUTRITIONIST COMMENT: An interesting and well-balanced soup, but it requires attention; you should not be distracted while it is cooking. Definitely worth a try!
5. Radish and yogurt soup. Great Britain
Ingredients: water – 500 ml. 1-2 medium potatoes. Radishes – 350 g. Natural yogurt – 500 ml (can be replaced with matsoni or tan). Salt, pepper (cumin if desired).
Preparation: Peel the potatoes, cut them into cubes, cut the radishes in half. Bring the water to a boil, add all the vegetables (yes, the radishes too), cook for 15-20 minutes until the potatoes are ready. Five minutes before the end, you can add cumin (optional). Cool the vegetables together with the broth, blend in a blender until puree, pour in the yogurt and mix well again.
Calorie content: 32 kcal per 100 g.
BY THE WAY: You can use pre-cooked vegetable broth (for example, boiled celery and carrot) or chicken broth.
NUTRITIONIST COMMENT: Boiled radishes, of course, are very unusual for us. And I think it is better to eat it fresh to take advantage of its benefits. Although this soup can be an interesting addition to the summer menu.
6. Beet, apple and mint smoothie (seen on culinary forums).
Ingredients: 2 medium cucumbers, 400 g (one large or 2 medium) beetroot. Apple juice 500 ml. Natural yogurt 250 ml. Lemon juice – 10-15 ml. Mint 20 g. Salt, pepper to taste.
Preparation: Boil the beets, peel and cut into cubes. Place in a blender together with half of the juice and half of the yogurt, blend everything until smooth, add lemon juice and salt and pepper, mix. Grate the cucumbers on a coarse grater, mix with the remaining juice, yogurt and mint. First put the cucumber mixture in a glass, pour beetroot puree on top.
Calorie content: 37 kcal per 100 g
NUTRITIONIST COMMENT: Excellent combination of ingredients! Just to reduce the amount of salt, I recommend trying to add herbs. Beetroot, apple juice and yogurt are what hypertensive patients need.
