Polish beetroot soup with potato babka
- Prepare
- less than 30 mins
- Cook
- 10 to 30 mins
- Serve
- Serves 4
- Dietary
- Nut-freePregnancy-friendly
This Polish beetroot soup is served chilled with crisp radishes, cucumber, herbs, sour cream and hard-boiled egg. Serve it with warm potato babka, or slice and fry the babka in butter until crisp.
Ingredients
For the beetroot soup
- 500ml/18fl oz kefir
- 500ml/18fl oz buttermilk
- 500g/1lb 2oz cooked beetroot, finely grated
- 6 radishes, chopped
- 1 chives bunch, chopped
- 3 spring onions, chopped
- 1 lemon, juice only
- 50–100ml/2–3½fl oz white wine vinegar
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
To garnish
For the potato babka
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 150g/5½oz smoked streaky bacon, diced
- 2 Polish sausages, diced
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 2kg/4lb 8oz floury potatoes, peeled
- 60ml/2fl oz whole milk, plus extra if needed
- 1–2 tbsp plain flour
- 1–2 medium free-range eggs
- 1 tsp marjoram
- 1 tsp caraway seeds
- 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
- 2 tbsp melted butter
- butter, for frying, optional
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
To serve
- 4 tbsp sour cream
- 2 tbsp chopped chives or dill
- 4 pickled gherkins
- 4 tbsp apple sauce
- 1 Polish sausages, cooked
Method
To make the beetroot soup, mix the kefir and buttermilk in a large bowl. Add the beetroot, radishes, chives and spring onions and stir well.
Season with salt and pepper, then add the lemon juice and white wine vinegar. Cover and chill until ready to serve.
To serve the soup, ladle it into bowls and garnish with the sour cream, dill, hard-boiled egg and cucumber.
To make the potato babka, preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Grease a loaf tin with butter.
Heat the olive oil in a frying pan. Add the bacon and Polish sausages and fry until crisp and cooked through. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Add the onion and garlic to the same pan and fry until soft.
Grate the potatoes, then squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Put the grated potatoes in a large bowl.
Add the milk, flour, eggs, marjoram, caraway seeds, thyme, bacon, sausages, onion and garlic. Season with salt and pepper and mix well.
Tip the potato mixture into the greased loaf tin and brush the top with the melted butter.
Bake for 1–1½ hours, or until golden, set and cooked through.
Serve the potato babka warm with sour cream, chives or dill, pickled gherkins, apple sauce and cooked Polish sausages.
Alternatively, leave the babka to cool slightly, then slice and fry in butter until crisp on both sides.
