A Potent Mixture

Russian cuisine without soups is a bit like French cuisine without cheeses. Probably no other world cuisine has as many soup recipes as Russia.

You will already have heard of borshch and maybe shchi, and now it’s the turn of a no less interesting soup, solyanka. This is the name in Russia for both sauerkraut and a thick soup made from a very strong broth with hot spicy seasoning.

Today solyanka (the soup) is prepared much more often in restaurants than in Russian homes, although at one time it was considered a peasant dish and made with a base of sauerkraut and pickled cucumbers. Later, it was discovered by the nobles and became more of a delicacy: they added kvas, lemon, olives and capers. Thus the taste changed too, becoming more tart and salty.

There are currently three basic types of solyanka in Russia: made with meat, fish or mushroom. In fact, however, it is most often made by mixing several types of meat or fish together. This explains the name — in old Russia solyanka meant mishmash or muddle. Some historians believe that the name first appeared  in those far-off times when a ‘collective’ soup was prepared in Russian villages on feast days. Each person brought any food they could find at home, put it in one big pot and made an enormous hot soup out of it. For this reason, it was impossible to tell what exactly the main ingredient of this soup was.

Here is a recipe for the best known solyanka, known as Moscow solyanka.

— Yelena Utenkova

Russian Life wishes to thank the family of photographer Igor Yunakovsky for providing the meal you see above.

Ingredients* :

7 oz. fresh salmon

7 oz. perch pike

7 oz. sturgeon

3 1/2 oz. olives

2 tbsp. tomato puree

3 pickled mushrooms

2 pickled cucumbers

1 onion

2 tbsp. butter

1 tbsp. flour

1 cup cucumber pickle

1 tbsp. of capers

black pepper, bayleaf and salt to taste

1 1/2-2 quarts of strong meat or fish broth

Make the broth. Put finely chopped onion in a saucepan and fry in butter. Then pour on flour, add the broth and cucumber pickle, mix well and bring to the boil. Then add shredded mushrooms, capers, olives, bayleaf and pepper, and bring to the boil again. Scald the fish, chopped into medium-sized pieces, with boiling water, then add to the soup. Add the cucumbers (which should have been shredded finely, mixed with tomato puree and left for ten minutes). Simmer the mixture on a low flame until the fish is cooked. Add salt to taste.

The result should be a light-colored, slightly red broth with a sharp taste, smelling of fish and spices.

Now put one piece of each fish in each bowl, pour on the soup, add a slice of lemon, and olives and herbs to taste. Solyanka is usually served with pirozhki (see October recipe).

*  This is the classic recipe for solyanka. The types of fish given here can be replaced by virtually any others.