Ingredients
Scale
- 10 cups water or beef stock (depending on the method you choose, as I outlined above)*
- Stock ingredients (optional) – carrot, onion, salt, peppercorns, bay leaf
- 1–1.5 lbs brisket or beef piece with bone (beef short ribs also work well)
- ½ cup barley
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 carrot, sliced or diced
- 1 potato, cut into small pieces
- 2–3 pickles, diced
- 1 cup pickle brine (or more, to taste)
- 1–2 tbsp olive oil (or other cooking oil)
- 1.5 tsp salt
- pepper
- dill (optional – for serving)
Instructions
Place the meat and stock ingredients (carrot, onion, salt, peppercorns, bay leaf) into a pot. Add 10 cups water. Bring to a boil, skim the foam, turn down and simmer for 1 – 1.5 hours. Remove vegetables and discard. Remove meat, cut into small (bite-size) pieces and set aside. Then start your soup at step 1, but skip step 2.
- Prepare your vegetables — chop onion and carrot; peel and dice potato. Dice the pickles. Rinse the barley.
- Cut your cooked meat into smaller, bite-size pieces
- Pour water or stock into soup pot. Add meat and barley, and bring to a boil. Add salt, turn down heat and simmer for 30 minutes, covered.
- Keep an eye on your soup pot. When the water boils, you’ll need to skim the foam off the top before you turn it down.
- Heat the oil in a separate frying pan. Once heated, add the onion and carrot. Season with salt and pepper, and fry on low heat until softened.
- After 30 minutes, add the potatoes, fried onions/carrots, pickles and brine to the soup.
- Simmer for another 15 minutes. Check that the barley and potatoes are cooked through. Add more salt if needed.
- To serve, sprinkle with fresh dill (flat-leaf parsley also works). You can also add a few spoonfuls of pickle brine, to taste.
Notes
- Stock — if you’re using premade stock, you may need to reduce the salt.
- Barley — be careful of over-adding barley, as it will absorb all the water, especially after the first day.
- To “refresh” soup after the first day, add a bit of water and more pickle brine.
- Pickles — traditional Russian pickles are salt-brined (full-sours or half-sours). These are the best pickles to use. Standard kosher dills also work well. Avoid sweeter pickles, such as bread-and-butter pickles or sweetened gherkins. Many people grate their pickles but I find it’s too messy and you lose a lot of pickle juice. But this is personal preference and either option is really fine.
- Pro tip – save your pickle juice by popping it into the freezer, so you always have plenty on-hand.
- Vegetarian variation — simply omit the meat, and use water or a vegetable stock. You may also add some mushrooms for additional vegetables. Parsnip is another common Russian soup vegetable.
- Category: soup
- Cuisine: Russian