Beat the Heat, Go Green!

T

emperatures soared in Russia this summer. It was the hottest June in Russia in the last 120 years! In such conditions, even rapacious carnivores like Russians will turn to lighter, almost vegetarian meals to keep ovens and stoves cool. 

The eggs (continuing with the theme from our past two recipes) and cabbage (with its immense healing powers) in this recipe combine for a traditionally Russian, low calorie summer meal, called letny salat (“summer salad”). Dacha dwellers love this light yet nourishing salad because they can cut all the ingredients right from their garden plot (pryamo s gryadki), which makes the meal psychologically pleasant and ecologically safer. As to the eggs and sour cream, dachniki can buy them at nearby railway station stores or at neighboring farms.

The ingredients used in this salad are reminiscent of the famous kvas-based cold soup, okroshka. So, quite logically, cold kvas is a perfect accompaniment to this summer salad. 

If you are in Russia, you will find plenty of kvas brands to choose among, including Monastyrsky classic, Monastyrsky with  horseradish, Stary (old) kvas with honey or apple flavor or the classic Ochakovksy. 

If you are not in Russia, you can always make your own. Look to our Food Editor Darra Goldstein’s forthcoming A Taste of Russia for a tasty and easy recipe. In either event, no matter where you are, when the temperature is in the 90s, a bowl of letny  salad with a love potion of ice cold kvas is all you need to make it through the summer. Then, in the fall, you can heartily welcome back meat-filled pirozhki or pelmeni. 

Letny Salat

1 medium egg, hard boiled

1 head cabbage

1 tsp. salt

1/2 head lettuce (or a full small head)

1 fresh cucumber, peeled

1 white onion

1 yellow or red sweet pepper

3 large sprigs parsley

1/2 to 3/4 cup sour cream (to taste)

Salt and pepper to taste

Boil the egg until hard (preferably before the sun comes up!). Let it cool and set aside. Wash one head of cabbage, removing the outer leaves and the core. Slice the cabbage very thinly, then add the salt and heartily toss it with your hands, rubbing the salt into the leaves so that it becomes softer and juicier. Peel the fresh cucumbers and cut them in slices. Cut the top off the pepper and remove the seed core. Peel the onion and rinse in cold water. Slice the pepper and onion into thin, round slices. Wash the parsley, pat it dry then chop fine. Similarly, wash and chop the lettuce.

Mix all the ingredients (except the egg) together, then add the sour cream, salt and pepper to taste. Place in salad bowl and garnish with the egg, quartered (lodochkoy—like a little boat, in Russian), as shown in the photo.