Cold borscht

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The lurid pink colour of traditional Lithuanian cold borscht. Often eaten with a hot boiled potato, sour cream and dill.

Cold borscht or Cold beet soup (Lithuanian: Šaltibarščiai, Polish: Chłodnik litewski, Russian: Kholodnik) is a soup traditional to the Belarusian, Lithuanian, Polish, and Russian cuisines, a variety of borscht. Its national names are derived from the fact that the soup is cold and is best served cold.

Its preparation starts with young beets being chopped and boiled together with their leaves. After cooling them down, the soup is usually mixed with soured milk, kefir or yoghurt (depending on regional preferences). Typically, raw chopped vegetables such as radishes or cucumbers are added and the soup is garnished and flavored with dill or parsley. Hard-boiled eggs are often added after they have been chopped. The soup has a rich pink color which varies in intensity depending on the ratio of beets to the dairy ingredients.