This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy.
I call this Okroshka a summer soup because it’s served cold. It’s very refreshing to have chilled soup on a hot summer day.
I can eat three bowls of this on a hungry stomach. (A mom who chases after a 1-year-old gets hungry ok?!) It’s relatively guilt free; no butter or oils required. Easy, cheap and healthy; that’s my kinda meal.
Ingredients for Okroshka Soup:
8 cups cold water
1/3 cup sour cream
3 1/2 Tbsp Vinegar divided
2 1/2 tsp Salt
3 Tbsp chopped dill (fresh or frozen)
1/2 cup green onion, finely chopped
1/2 ham diced
3-4 medium cooked potatoes, peeled and diced
3 hard-boiled eggs, diced
3-4 cucumbers, diced
How to Make my mom’s Okroshka:
1. Peel potatoes and dice them into 1/4″ cubes (we used the Vidalia Chopper). Place diced potatoes in a medium pot and cover with water. Add 1 Tbsp vinegar and bring to a boil then continue boiling for 10 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked, but not falling apart.
Drain well and set aside to cool. For quicker cooling, you can rinse potatoes with cold water. (This cooking potato method is thanks to one of my readers. Nadia thank you for sharing!).
2. While potatoes are cooking , boil 3 eggs and cooled them in ice water. Here is the link to make perfect boiled eggs.
3. Next, dice 3 eggs, 3-4 cucumbers, and 1/2 lb of ham. Also chop 3 Tbsp of dill and 1/2 cup of green onions. Place everything in a large pot.
4. In a separate large bowl, whisk together 8 cups of cold water, 1/3 cup of sour cream, 2 1/2 Tbsp of vinegar, 2 1/2 tsp of salt until combined. Pour the mixture in the pot with the rest of ingredients. Stir to combine and serve.
And I just realized I’m very much a part of this picture. Lets play, find Natasha…
Okroshka Recipe: Russian Summer Soup
Ingredients
- 8 cups cold water
- 1/3 cup sour cream
- 3 1/2 Tbsp Vinegar divided
- 2 1/2 tsp Salt
- 3 Tbsp chopped dill, fresh or frozen
- 1/2 cup green onion, finely chopped
- 1/2 lb good ham, diced (we used black forest ham)
- 3-4 medium cooked potatoes, peeled and diced
- 3 hard-boiled eggs, diced
- 3-4 cucumbers, diced
Instructions
- Peel potatoes and dice them into 1/4" cubes (we used the Vidalia Chopper). Place diced potatoes in a medium pot and cover with water. Add 1 Tbsp vinegar and bring to a boil then continue boiling for 10 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked, but not falling apart. Drain well and set aside to cool. For quicker cooling, you can rinse potatoes with cold water. (This cooking method is thanks to one of my readers - Nadia).
- While potatoes are cooking, boil 3 eggs and cool them in ice water.
- Next, dice 3 eggs, 3-4 cucumbers, 1/2 lb of ham. Also chop 3 Tbsp of dill and 1/2 cup of green onions. Place everything in a large pot.
- In a separate large bowl, whisk together 8 cups of cold water, 1/3 cup of sour cream, 2 1/2 Tbsp of vinegar, 2 1/2 tsp of salt until combined. Pour the mixture in the pot with the rest of ingredients. Stir to combine and serve.
Hi Natasha
THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK ON THESE AWESOME RECIPES ☺️☺️
I have a question – What’s going to happen if I add buttermilk instead of water mixed with sour cream?
Did you try to do it with buttermilk and didn’t like it? 🙁
Hi Tanya! Thank you for the great feedback :). I haven’t made it with buttermilk before, not sure how it will react to the vinegar. But I would love to hear the results if you decide to try it.
Hi. I was wondering what you serve with this soup?
Hi Anka, we really just serve it plain. I suppose you could pair it with crackers or bread. 🙂
My mother would use 1 quart of buttermilk, cut with 1 cup of cold water. She would omit potatoes and use thinly sliced high quality hotdogs for the protein…that was her “Amerkanski” version!
Love that version! Thank you for sharing your memory with us!
I use lemon juice instead of vinegar and slightly more sour cream. Also, i add radishes. 🙂 Great recipe base though 🙂
That sounds delicious! Thanks for sharing your tips with other readers Irene!
i have added green jalepeno tobasco to mine and it gives it a whole new taste. very delicious.it will depend on how much you like that tobasco
Great tip Kenneth, thanks for sharing!
Can’t wait to make this! I’ve had it made with kvas and milk/sour cream version.
Great along with salmon pirok.
It’s so good! Please let me know what you think!
It was delicious
Thank you for the recipe! I have one question though, is there any substitute for ham? Would boiled chicken work? Of course I would love to put doktorskyu kolbasu, but it’s impossible to find 😅
Hi there, I boil the chicken is not as flavorful as him and can be pretty bland and something like this. I agree with you the doktorskyu would work well. If you have a Russian store, or even a Winco nearby, they sell that kind of kielbasa. You can use different kinds of sausages or kielbasa for more flavor.
Is vinegar a replacement for kvass? If so is there a significant difference in light of the small amount of vinegar?
Thank you in advance.
Hi Deborah, I have always preferred the greater depth of flavor from using vinegar, but alot of people do put kvass in their cold soup instead. Since vinegar is so much more potent in flavor than kvass, you will want to replace some of the water with kvass for it to be flavorful enough. I don’t have a recipe for the kvass version posted so I don’t have an exact conversion to recommend.
I was born in Ukraine and lived half of my life there; once my mom’s friend came up with something extremely extravagant for okroshka recipe and it was more delicious that you can possibly imagine!
Instead of ham/beef/chicken she added a can of toad goby in tomato sauce! sounds insane i know… sour cream and tomato fish. but so delicious!
you can find them in a big russian store in any big city in North America, just ask for: “bychki v tomate”
For those of you who will decide to try this, make sure you get the highest quality canned fish, with no skin, and remove all the big bones.
I havent tried this recipe for ages! I think i’ll go to Russian store and get some right now 🙂
Wow that sounds so unusual and wild really! I don’t think I’ve ever seen that done before but I’m so intrigued! 🙂
Very good recipe. I cooled the potato water (and skimmed off the potato scum) to use for the broth- adding water to get 8 cups. We ate Okroshka in Moscow made with kvass and I had searched for the flavor profile. This took me right to Russia. Delicious and easy to prepare. Keeps for several meals.
Joyce, thank you for the nice review, I’m glad it brought some good memories for you 😀.
My mother in law make Okroshka using beef (she doesn’t eat pork) and then makes the water with the beef broth and sour cream and lemon. It adds a nice bit of extra flavor! I came to your recipe for the measurements 😄 She doesn’t measure anything.
Beef Okroshka sounds yummy 😀. Thank you so much for sharing.
I use Ayran (the Turkish yougurt-based drink).
Thanks for sharing!
You may also use unsweetened kvas as base
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kvass
also you can use instead of water and sourcream, 50/50 kefir and carbonated mineral water and add some spicy mustard, if you like sharp note.
instead of ham you may use bologna or chicken breast.
Bon appetit!
Thank you so much for sharing your version! 🙂
I just made this today for my parents! I make this in Ukraine with whey (сыворотка) and mayonnaise with citric acid as the “sour” part, but I can’t find whey here in America or a mayo that tastes as good as what we get in Ukraine. So I was happy to find your recipe with ingredients that “American” friendly. I needed to add a little bit of lemon juice to get it as sour as I like it. My parents LOVED it! My Mom requested for me to make this as it was one of her favorites from their visit to Ukraine. Thanks for taking the time to make Ukrainian recipes available and easy to make! It is some of the best food in the whole world!
I’m so happy you and your parents loved the recipe! Thank you for sharing that with me. 🙂 I completely agree, I absolutely love okroshka!
I’m back in Ukraine now and have just made Okroshka again using your recipe instead of mine! Why add all that mayo and buy whey when I can do it with less calories and have it taste just as good! Thanks again for the great recipe! PS Whenever I buy the ingredients for Okroshka it is hot out, then when I go to make it, the weather always turns cool! True to form, it just starting down pouring here in Kyiv and is cool! But we are still going to sit down, right now, and enjoy a wonderful bowl of cold soup! 🙂
It’s the soup! ha ha :). I’m so glad you like the recipe 🙂
My mom (also Natasha!) used to always make okroshka for me after a long summer day. However, we always made it with kvas as the liquid (plus a spoonful of sour cream). Have you ever heard of this version?
P.S. Love your blog! I moved to Canada when I was 4 and was still raised with very authentic Russian cooking. Now I’m in university and I miss my mom’s cooking! Will definitely be trying a bunch of your recipes.
I’ve tried a kvas version that I didn’t like a whole lot but maybe it was that specific recipe. Can you share your version and maybe the brand of kvas you like? Thanks Alena!! I hope you find many new favorite recipes on our blog 🙂
Natasha,
I loved your version, Ochen Vkusno!
I make mine the same but with 1 ltr of kefir instead of sour cream, and I mix / mash the cooked yolk with 1.5 tblspn Russian mustard.
Whenever I make either version, it doesn’t last long in the fridge!
And 5 shredded radishes as well.
Thank you so much for sharing your tips! 🙂
I use a different recipie to make okroshka which is really good too.
Potatoes
Dill
Cucumbers
Radish
Eggs
Green onion
And I buy Alexs meat bologna the red packagin one from the russian store.
I cut everything up small. Then mix it all with mayo. After which I pour in water. Then you salt it to taste and add лимоная кислота. I use the dry one in little envelopes that they sell in Russian store usually as well. You should definitely try it! Might not be the healthiest with the mayo… but soooo good!!!
That does sound like a really tasty version. Thank you so much for sharing that with me. Do you think it would work well with fresh lemon juice also?
Personally I like it the best with lemon juice. My mom always makes it with lemon juice and sour cream either from real lemons or the 100% lemon juice that they sell in the store. Soooo good!!!
Hi Natasha,
I am so enjoying your blog. My mom cooks all these amazing Russian dishes but she never measures so it’s so nice to see it and know how its done. Thanks so much!
My husband is prefers to be vegetarian (don’t ask me why). Can I make this soup without the ham? What would be a good substitute?
Thanks,
Helen
Yes, you can absolutely make it without the ham and just add more of the other ingredients.
try with firm tofu, marinate it first to add flavor though. probably with teriyaki and brown sugar, so it tastes more like ham
I also substitute cold water will natural mineral water, bubles enfuse the tase!!
That’s a great tip Alex, thanks for sharing :).
My mom (and I now) make our okroshka with buttermilk, mineral water, a bit of mayo and vinegar (salt and pepper). You can probably skip the mayo for a healthier version. We also add radishes..makes for pretty color! I like it a lot and I think I will make it soon! 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing your version! i love the idea of radishes too!
Hello, loved your recipes that we’ve tried, including the baked salmon and garlicky potatoes. I just tried this Okroshka cold soup, and though delicious, I wondered what you might think of using 1/2 buttermilk with 1/2 sour cream instead of water and sour cream?
Thanks for all the hard work producing this blog and your wonderful recipes!
Eric
Eric, thank you for the great feedback :). I haven’t made it with buttermilk before, not sure how it will react to the vinegar. But I would love to hear the results if you decide to try it.