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pickle classic with pearl barley and pickles

Classic Rassolnik with Pearl Barley and Pickles

A fragrant, hearty soup made with pickled cucumbers. "Mom stepped out and a second later came back with a plate in her hands. The plate was steaming so wonderfully that I knew right away it was rassolnik. Mom set it down in front of me." — "Watermelon Lane," by V. Dragunsky. Rassolnik is a soup everyone knows from childhood. Is there a family that didn't make it for lunch? Plenty of kids love it, too, by the way. Let me jog your memory about this soup and make it for lunch today. And don't forget the fresh sour cream.

Anna

Recipe author

pickle classic with pearl barley and pickles

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Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Pearl barley

0.5

Pickled cucumbers

Carrot

Onion

Garlic

Celery stalk

Potatoes

Broth

2.5

Tomato paste

100

Salt

Pepper

Fresh herbs

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 29 % 2 g

Fats 0 % 0 g

Carbohydrates 71 % 5 g

33 kcal

GI: 100 / 0 / 0

Cooking method

Cooking time: 45 min

Step 1:

How do you make classic rassolnik with pearl barley and pickles? Gather the ingredients listed. Make the meat broth ahead of time from beef or chicken — you can also make a vegetarian version with just water. I usually make rassolnik without tomato paste, but this time I added some for variety; it's optional. For seasoning: salt, black peppercorns, and allspice.
Step 2:

Rinse the pearl barley until the water runs clear.
Step 3:

Add the rinsed pearl barley to the hot broth and cook over medium heat.
Step 4:

For rassolnik it's best to use sour, very salty pickles. If your cucumbers are mild, it's a good idea to add some of the brine to the soup as well. Take the pickles out of the brine and grate them on a coarse grater.
Step 5:

Wash, dry, and peel the potatoes. Cut them into cubes. Keep them in water until it's their turn to go in.
Step 6:

Peel the carrot, onion, and garlic. Grate the carrot on a coarse grater and finely chop the onion, celery, and garlic.
Step 7:

Sauté the vegetables in oil, adding the tomato paste. The tomato paste is optional.
Step 8:

After about twenty minutes, add the diced potatoes to the pearl barley and continue cooking over medium heat.
Step 9:

Ten minutes later, add the sautéed vegetables to the soup. Salt to taste.
Step 10:

After another ten minutes, add the grated pickles. Add black peppercorns and allspice to the soup.
Step 11:

Simmer the rassolnik with the pickles for five minutes, then turn off the heat. Add the chopped fresh herbs. Let the soup rest on the stove for 10–15 minutes, then it's ready to serve.
Step 12:

When serving the rassolnik, add a spoonful of fresh sour cream and some herbs to each bowl.

Rassolnik is a dish of Russian cuisine — a soup built around pickled cucumbers, sometimes with a splash of cucumber brine added too. The dish comes to us from olden times, when it was called kalya and made with caviar, chicken, or meat. Cucumber brine has been used as a base since the 15th century. Modern rassolnik contains pickled cucumbers, potatoes, root vegetables, grains, plenty of aromatic vegetables and herbs, and a few classic spices (bay leaf, pepper). The grain is chosen to match the meat: pearl barley for rassolnik with kidneys and beef, rice for one with chicken and turkey giblets, as well as for a vegetarian version.
Important! To make pearl barley dishes turn out delicious every time, read the article on choosing and cooking pearl barley.
Important! Whether or not the recipe specifies an amount of water for the soup, it's best to go by your own preferences (whether you like a thicker or thinner soup), as well as the size of your pot and the ingredients you're using. Keep in mind that the author has their own view on how much meat, potato, grain, and other ingredients belong in the soup, and it may not match yours. In practice, this means that if you're making it for the first time, you shouldn't cook a whole pot at once. Make a tasting batch — enough for one or two people. To do that, scale all the recipe's ingredients down to 1–2 servings, and figure the water at one cup per serving for a very thick soup, up to 1.5–2 cups for a thinner one. Don't forget that some of the liquid will boil off during cooking. After tasting a small portion, you can adjust both the amount of liquid and the proportions of the ingredients to suit your taste. Over time, like most experienced cooks, you'll be able to add the water and the ingredients by eye.