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Chłodnik

Name: Chłodnik
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 30 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 3 medium beets with stems and leaves (about 1 lb); 2 cups buttermilk; 1 cup kefir or plain yogurt; 1 English cucumber, finely diced; 4 radishes, thinly sliced; 3 scallions, thinly sliced; 1/2 cup fresh dill, chopped; 1 tbsp lemon juice; 1 tsp sugar; Salt, to taste; 4 hard-boiled eggs, halved, for serving; 4 small boiled potatoes, for serving

A cold, refreshing Polish soup of beets, yogurt, and cucumber, finished with dill and hard-boiled egg.

⏱ 25 minPrep time

🔥 30 minCook time

🍽 4Servings

🏷 Eastern European KitchenCategory

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Chłodnik is Poland’s answer to summer heat — an ice-cold, blush-pink soup of young beets blended with buttermilk and kefir, finished with cucumber, radish, and a raft of fresh dill. It’s bright, tangy, and impossibly refreshing.

Served well chilled with a halved hard-boiled egg and a warm boiled potato on the side, it turns the simplest picnic into an occasion. In Poland, chłodnik season is a cherished part of summer, when garden beets are at their sweetest.

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Step by stepInstructions

Scrub the beets, cut into chunks, and boil in salted water for 25-30 minutes until tender. Reserve 1 cup of the cooking liquid and cool the beets.
Peel the beets and grate them coarsely. If the leaves are young and tender, blanch and chop them too.
Whisk together the buttermilk, kefir, reserved beet liquid, lemon juice, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.
Stir in the grated beets, cucumber, radishes, scallions, and most of the dill.
Chill for at least 2 hours. Serve very cold, garnished with egg halves, a potato, and the remaining dill.

💡 Chef tips & storage

Chłodnik must be thoroughly chilled — an hour is a minimum, two is better. Young spring beets with their greens make the most delicate version.

Recipe details

Prep25 min

Cook30 min

Servings4

CategoryEastern European Kitchen

PublishedAugust 17, 2026

Hi, I'm Emily 🧡

Hi, I'm Emily — the cook behind My Comfort Recipes. Simple, tested comfort food for real weeknights, written down the way grandma would. Pull up a chair. More about me →

Chłodnik

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Chłodnik

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