Chilled Balkan “Soup”

🖨️ Print post

Homemade fermented dairy is a nourishing, living food, vibrant with flavor, live probiotics, and a distinctive pleasant tang that is the hallmark of good fermentation.

Three fermented dairy staples form our exquisite dish today: kefir, yogurt, and sour cream.

Also featured here are lacto-fermented cucumbers from the local farmers’ market and fresh herbs from the back garden. It doesn’t get any fresher than that.

Originally inspired by the beloved Greek Tzatziki, this recipe has been in our family for four generations now, each tweaking it a little until it transformed into the chilled Balkan soup that it is today — a refreshing, flavorful, standalone dish that is superb on a balmy summer day, and is the epitome of what real food made from simple, clean ingredients should be like.

If you grow your own produce and make your own ferments, then making this recipe will be pretty self- sufficient.

If not, no worries. A trip to the farmers’ market will yield fantastic alternatives (and will help support our local farmers at the same time). Many health food stores have great options too. Just read the ingredient lists to know what you’re getting, and avoid unrecognizable compounds and other unwarranted nasties.

Before we dive in, a few quick tips on how to adjust the consistency and the flavor:

• For a rich and thick result, use full-fat dairy
• For a thinner result, use more kefir than yogurt or add more whey than curds from yourfermented dairy
• For a consistency closer to a spread/dip, use more sour cream and less yogurt/kefir
• For something closer to a cucumber salad, increase the ratio of fresh produce to dairy

Experiment with it and have fun! It takes 5 minutes to prepare and serves 4:

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups of kefir
• 1 cup of yogurt
• A generous dollop of sour cream (Don’t be shy)
• 1 large crispy cucumber (or 4 small crispy cucumbers), diced
• 2-3 lacto-fermented cucumbers (“pickles”), diced
• 1 clove of garlic, pressed
• 1-2 tbsps. fresh dill, chopped
• 1 tbsp. fresh mint, chopped + a few leaves for decoration
• 2 tbsps. squeezed lemon or raw apple cider vinegar
• Unrefined salt, to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, season to taste, mix, decorate with a few mint leaves, and serve or refrigerate. Flavors will set by the next day.

🖨️ Print post