Tradition is good, and sometimes recipes are classic and should be left alone.

The rest of the time though, we can take a recipe and play around with it a bit, because we do or don’t like one ingredient, to alter the taste in some direction, or just because we are feeling lazy and want something quicker and easier than the original.

This recipe fits in a couple of those categories, it’s enough of a departure from the original to have a distinctly different and unique flavour, and it is also quick and easy enough to be perfect for people who are feeling lazy.

Chłodwhat?

For any of you who might not be well versed in Polish cuisine, chłodnik is a cold soup traditionally made of cream, radishes, cucumber, dill, beetroot and veal.

It’s a cold pink soup, but in spite of that it’s actually really pretty good.

We had it served as the first course at our wedding, for double joy. First there was the fact that it tasted delicious, and secondly there was the fun of watching all of the non Poles present try to decide what the hell it was and what to do with it.

M’s lazy version

So, in order to make this as quick and easy as possible, here is what we are going to do.

We are going to bugger tradtion, omit the veal, leave out the beetroot, not cook anything, and sit back and have a nice Polish wódka while we are waiting for the flavours to develop.

Notes on ingredients

Since this is a lazy version of chłodnik, it would be kind of self defeating if you then had to go and hunt out overly specific ingredients. For this reason, there are plenty of possible substitutions here.

This recipe calls for kefir, but if you don’t have and/or can’t find kefir, then you can use buttermilk.

To thicken the mixture we are using natural yoghurt, but you could also use either sour cream or a thick fresh cream. If you are using something low in fat, then it is a good idea to throw a spoonful of olive oil into the mixture.

If you don’t have chives, you can use finely chopped spring onions (scallions if you are in North America) in their place.

The recipe

1. Throw all of the liquid ingredients into a bowl, and mix them together.

2. Finely chop the radishes and cucumber (you want these as thin as possible – use a mandolin if you have one).

3. Dice the tomatoes into pieces about half a centimetre square.

4. Press (or crush and finely chop) the garlic.

5. Roughly chop the dill and chives.

6. Throw everything into the bowl with the liquids, season with salt and black pepper, and mix together.

7. Leave it in the fridge to cool for a minimum of 2 hours and preferably overnight.

It should be slightly sour with just the tiniest hint of sweetness. Take it out of the fridge for a few minutes before eating, and enjoy it outside on a hot sunny day.

You could…

… finely grate half of an in season beetroot, and add it to the chłodnik for a funky pink colour (both the soup and your wee after eating it).