Cuisines Guide is a small team from Georgia sharing home-style recipes from around the world – from khinkali and khachapuri to Turkish, Polish, Moroccan and Portuguese classics – explained step by step for home cooks.
👉 In Russia, soup is not a starter – it is the heart of lunch. For centuries families have eaten a bowl of hot soup almost every day, and Russian cooks have a soup for every season: hearty cabbage and beet soups for the long winter, sour pickle soups for cold days and refreshing cold soups for the summer heat. Here are 10 classic Russian soups you should know – with recipes for several of them.
🍲 1. Borscht
The famous beet soup with cabbage, potatoes and meat, served with sour cream and dill. It is originally Ukrainian, but it has been cooked in every Russian home for generations. 👉 Red borscht recipe
🥬 2. Shchi
Cabbage soup – the oldest and most everyday Russian soup. It is made with fresh cabbage in summer and sauerkraut in winter, simmered with meat, carrots and onion. An old saying goes: “Shchi and kasha are our food”.
🍋 3. Solyanka
A bold, sour-salty soup with several kinds of meat and smoked sausage, pickles, olives and capers, served with lemon and sour cream. 👉 Solyanka recipe
🥒 4. Rassolnik
A lighter pickle soup with pearl barley, potatoes and chicken or kidneys. Its name comes from rassol, the brine of pickled cucumbers that gives it a gentle sourness.
🐟 5. Ukha
A clear fish soup that fishermen cooked over a fire on the riverbank – traditionally made with several kinds of fish, potatoes, onion and bay leaf, and sometimes finished with a splash of vodka.
🥗 6. Okroshka
The favourite summer soup: chopped boiled potatoes, eggs, cucumbers, radishes, sausage and lots of herbs, served cold in kvass or kefir.
🌸 7. Svekolnik
A cold, bright pink beet soup with cucumbers, eggs and dill, made with beet broth and kefir – the cool summer cousin of borscht.
🌿 8. Green Shchi
A spring soup of sorrel and greens with potatoes and a boiled egg in every bowl, loved in Russia and Ukraine alike. 👉 Green borscht (sorrel soup) recipe
🍄 9. Mushroom Soup
Gribnoy sup is made with forest mushrooms – fresh in autumn and dried in winter – with potatoes, onion and sometimes pearl barley, and always a spoonful of sour cream.
🥟 10. Pelmeni in Broth
Siberian meat dumplings are not only served with butter and sour cream: in many homes they are cooked and served in their own hot broth with dill. 👉 Pelmeni recipe
🍽️ How Russians Eat Soup
Soup is the first course – pervoe (“the first”) is what Russians call soup, eaten before the main dish at lunch.
Sour cream and dill go into almost every bowl.
Dark rye bread is always on the side, often with garlic, salo or a pirozhok.
Better the next day – shchi, borscht and solyanka are cooked in big pots and taste even better after a night in the fridge.
❓ FAQ
What is the most popular soup in Russia? Borscht and shchi are the most common everyday soups, while solyanka is a favourite in restaurants and on holidays.
What Russian soups are eaten cold? Okroshka and svekolnik are the classic cold summer soups.
Why do Russians put sour cream in soup? Smetana makes soups creamier and balances sour and salty flavours – in Russia it is served with almost every soup.
