Ogirochnyk (огірочник, cold cucumber soup)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •A large mixing bowl
• •A box grater
• •A whisk
• •A ladle

Instructions

1. 1

   Salt the cucumbers

   Grate the cucumbers into a large bowl, skins and all if they are tender. Sprinkle with the salt, toss with your hands, and leave them until they go glossy and wet at the bottom of the bowl. This is not wasted juice. This is the soup beginning.

   If your cucumbers are seedy and tired, split them and scrape out the watery middle first. Cook it anyway, but help them a little.
2. 2

   Make the base

   Whisk the cold kefir or whey with the smetana until smooth, then stir in the grated garlic, spring onions, dill, and sunflower oil. The oil should make small green-gold beads on the surface. That is Ukraine in a bottle of oil doing its work.

3. 3

   Loosen the soup

   Add the salted cucumbers and all their juice to the dairy base. Stir until the spoon moves through it softly, with cucumber lifting and sinking instead of clumping. If it feels too thick, add a splash more whey, kefir, or cold water. Thin it until it sounds right.

   Whey makes the soup lighter and sharper; kefir makes it creamier. A bit more modern is using yogurt thinned with cold water, and the bowl will still empty.
4. 4

   Sharpen and chill

   Taste it now. It should be cold, salty enough to wake the cucumber, sour enough to make your mouth water, and loud with dill. Add the cucumber brine if it needs a lift, then chill until the flavors settle into one another.

5. 5

   Serve outside

   Ladle into deep bowls and finish with more dill, black pepper, and a thin thread of sunflower oil. Put cooled boiled potatoes and halved eggs alongside if this is lunch rather than a snack. Make the big bowl. Six servings is enough for eight guests or one hungry Ukrainian.

Chef Tips

• •Use cucumbers that smell green at the stem end. If they smell of nothing, salt them a little longer and lean harder on dill and garlic.
• •Do not squeeze the grated cucumbers dry. Their salted juice is the reason the soup tastes like cucumber instead of dairy with green bits.
• •If you have homemade whey from syrnyk or curd cheese, use it here. That is the old kitchen logic: yesterday's cheese gives today's cold soup its sour backbone.
• •Keep the potatoes separate until serving. If they sit in the soup, they drink the liquid and make it dull.

Advance Preparation

• •Boil the potatoes and eggs earlier in the day, then chill them before serving.
• •The soup can be mixed up to 4 hours ahead and kept cold. Stir before serving, because the cucumber will settle.
• •Add the final dill just before serving so it stays bright and smells alive.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 550g)