Cold borshch (kholodnyk) is the summer cousin of the famous hot Ukrainian borshch. Northern Volyn region's version uses pre-cooked beets combined with kefir or sour-milk products, served well-chilled with hard-boiled egg, cucumber, scallion, and dill. The technique is older than Russian okroshka and has Lithuanian-Belarusian parallels. The dish is electric magenta-pink, slightly tart-sweet, deeply refreshing — proper Volyn cooks insist the kefir must come from cow's milk left in a clay pot for 24 hours.
A cold spoonful of Volyn kholodnyk: electric pink, slightly tart from kefir, deeply earthy from beet. Quartered egg floats; cucumber crunches; dill perfumes. The cold boiled potatoes alongside complete the meal — a full Volyn summer dinner with no heat in the kitchen.
Kefir is fermented milk with both bacterial and yeast cultures — its pH around 4.4 stabilizes the cold borshch against bacterial spoilage even at room temperature for hours. Beet juice's high natural sugars (10%) balance the kefir's tartness; if substituted with sour cream alone, the soup would taste flat and overly creamy.
Variations
Volyn version uses kefir; Lithuanian šaltibarščiai (the word means 'cold borshch') is kefir-based like the Volyn version and is Lithuania's national summer dish, served with warm boiled potatoes on the side; Belarusian holodnik uses sour cream and no kefir — three Slavic cold beet soups.
On the Palate
Where Volyn Cold Borshch sits in the Ukrainian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
5 steps · 25 min active + 50 min waiting
- 132 min
Cook 4 medium beets (peeled and cubed) in salted water for 30 min until tender. Reserve 500ml of the deeply-colored cooking liquid; cool both beets and liquid.
Watch outSave the deep-crimson cooking water before it cools — that beet liquid, not the beets, is what gives the soup its ruby color and earthy sweetness.
- 211 min
Hard-boil 4 eggs (10 min); peel, quarter.
- 34 min
Whisk 600ml chilled kefir (or buttermilk) with 200ml cold beet liquid, 2 tbsp sour cream, juice of 1 lemon, 1 tsp salt until smooth.
Watch outWhisk the chilled kefir and beet liquid until fully smooth with no streaks — taste for a clean tart-sweet balance; lumps of kefir mean it wasn't cold or well-beaten.
- 43 min
Stir in the cooled cubed beets, 1 finely chopped cucumber, 4 thinly sliced scallions, 1 small bunch chopped dill.
- 535 min
Chill 30 min more in fridge. Serve in cold bowls; float quartered hard-boiled eggs on top; finish each bowl with extra dill and a thin slice of cucumber. Serve with cold boiled potatoes on the side.
Watch outServe it properly cold in chilled bowls — this soup is meant icy; if it warms up the kefir tastes flat and sour instead of refreshing.
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