Russian cuisine, shaped by its vast geography, climate, and history, offers a fascinating array of dishes. From hearty soups and dumplings to pickled vegetables and unique beverages, the "typical" Russian diet is anything but monotonous. It’s a blend of traditional Slavic, Byzantine, Mongolian, and Eastern European influences, further shaped by Soviet-era food restrictions and modern culinary innovations. This article delves into the key components of a typical Russian diet, highlighting popular dishes, ingredients, and culinary traditions.
A Glimpse into Russian Culinary History
Russian cuisine has evolved significantly over the centuries. In the Old Russian period, the focus was on staples like bread, grains, and starchy foods. Pies with fillings like mushrooms or berries were common, and kasha (porridge) made from buckwheat or oats symbolized well-being. Honey and berries were used to make gingerbread, a popular dessert to this day.
The 17th century saw a divergence in cuisine based on economic class, with the wealthy enjoying meat and delicacies like caviar, while the poor subsisted on simple dishes. During the reigns of Peter and Catherine the Great, minced meat dishes and culinary influences from other European countries began to appear. The French popularized potatoes and tomatoes, which became staples in Russian cooking.
The Russian Orthodox Church's fasting days, during which fish was the only meat allowed, also significantly shaped the diet.
Following the revolution in the early 20th century, elite cuisine declined, and after that the fall of the Soviet Union saw the end of state monopoly on food service, and a corresponding diversification of cuisine.
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Core Ingredients and Flavors
The essence of Russian cuisine lies in combining simple staples to create satisfying meals. A typical Russian diet emphasizes seasonal, local ingredients, including vegetables, mushrooms, grains, pork, fish, poultry, dairy products, and local honey. Many Russians cultivate their own produce on household plots.
Sour flavors are prominent, with a significant emphasis on pickled vegetables and soured dairy products, owing to their suitability for winter storage. Recipes reflect both traditional Russian cuisine and the more austere Soviet cuisine, which prioritized locally sourced, storable peasant food with minimal spicing and few ingredients, influenced by periods of famine and restricted access to food.
Meal Structure
While specific dishes may vary, a typical Russian day of eating often follows a pattern:
- Breakfast: Often includes whole grains and tends to be high in protein. Warm buckwheat porridge or toast might be accompanied by eggs, sausage, ham, or cheese.
- Lunch: Usually served later in the day, around 2 pm.
- Dinner: A substantial meal, often starting with a round of appetizers like cheeses, various meats, and pickles. A salad, frequently containing potatoes, eggs, and mayonnaise, is also common.
Must-Try Russian Dishes
Russian cuisine boasts a wide variety of dishes, each with its unique flavors and history. Here are some of the most popular and iconic:
Soups: A Russian Staple
Russians love soups, with countless variations to choose from. One secret to their flavor is podjarka, a technique of pre-frying chopped onions, grated carrots, and a bit of garlic in vegetable oil.
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Borscht: By far the most popular Russian soup, borscht is a beet soup, usually bright red. While countless varieties of borscht can be found today, the most traditional version is based on a beef or pork broth to which beets, cabbage, carrots and potatoes are added. Cream or sour cream is often mixed in just before eating this healthy, filling soup.
Shchi (Cabbage Soup): A deceptively simple soup with a complex taste. What may look like a simple cabbage soup is actually a filling but light soup made from sauerkraut, cabbage, or other green leaves. Shchi is an integral part of Russian cuisine, and has been eaten almost daily for centuries in Russia. When this soup is served, smetana is added. It is eaten with rye bread. "Kislye" (sour) schi are made from pickled cabbage (sauerkraut), "serye" (grey) schi from the green outer leaves of the cabbage head.
Ukha: A warm, watery fish dish, but not quite a fish soup in the traditional sense. It's a fish broth, often cooked with potatoes and other vegetables. A minimum of vegetables is added in preparation, and in classical cooking, ukha was simply a rich fish broth served to accompany fish pies (rasstegai, kuliebiaka, etc.).
Rassolnik: A hot soup with a salty-sour cucumber base. Pickle water was known to be used as a base for soups from the 15th century at the latest. Its concentration and ratio with other liquids and soup components gave birth to different soups: solyanka, shchi, and of course rassolnik. The latest is moderately sour-salty soups on pickled cucumber base. Some are vegetarian, but more often with products like veal or beef kidneys or all poultry giblets (stomach, liver, heart, neck, feet).
Solyanka: A thick, piquant soup combining elements of shchi (cabbage, smetana) and rassolnik (pickle water and cucumbers), with spices like olives, capers, tomatoes, lemons, and salted mushrooms. Solyanka is much thicker than other soups, about 1/3 less liquid ratio. Three types are distinguished: meat, fish, and simple solyanka. The first two are cooked on strong meat or fish broths, and the last on mushroom or vegetable broth.
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Okroshka: A cold soup perfect for hot summer days. Okroshka is made from either a milk base (buttermilk or kefir) or a kvass base (a traditional drink made of fermented bread). Add a bunch of vegetables and some meat, and okroshka is a refreshing meal ready for the hotter months.
Svyokolnik (Kholodnik): A cold borscht made with beet sour or beet juice blended with sour cream, buttermilk, soured milk, kefir, or yogurt. It is served chilled, typically over finely chopped beetroot, cucumbers, radishes and spring onion, together with halved hard-boiled eggs and sprinkled with fresh dill.
Salads: Beyond Lettuce and Dressing
Russian salads are hearty and filling, often more akin to American potato or chicken salad than a simple leafy green salad. Sometimes the ingredients are quite simple, like mayo, ham, and cheese salad, and sometimes they are packed with every vegetable within reach - carrots, garlic, peas, pickles, cabbage.
Olivier Salad (Russian Salad): A mayonnaise-based potato salad with a diced texture and contrasting flavors of pickles, hard-boiled eggs, boiled carrots, boiled potatoes, meat, and peas.
Vinegret: A salad made of boiled beets, potatoes, carrots, pickles, onions, sauerkraut, and sometimes peas or white beans.
Main Courses: Hearty and Flavorful
Pelmeni: Translating to "ear-shaped dish," pelmeni are dumplings very similar to ravioli. They are made with minced meat filling, wrapped in thin dough (made out of flour and eggs, sometimes with milk or water added). For filling, pork, lamb, beef, or any other kind of meat can be used; mixing several kinds is popular. By the late 19th century, they became a staple throughout urban European Russia. The resulting dish is served with butter or sour cream (mustard, horseradish, and vinegar are popular as well).
Kotlety (Minced Cutlets): Pan-fried cutlet-shaped patties, similar to Salisbury steak. Kotlety are made from pork and beef, or from chicken, sometimes also from fish. In common recipes, ground meat, pork, onions and bread are put in a bowl and mixed thoroughly until it becomes relatively consistent.
Beef Stroganoff: Sautéed pieces of beef served in a sauce with smetana (sour cream).
Shashlyk: A form of shish kebab (marinated meat grilled on a skewer) popular in former Soviet Union countries. It often features alternating slices of meat and onions.
Kholodets (Studen'): Jellied chopped pieces of pork or veal meat with spices (pepper, parsley, garlic, bay leaf) and vegetables (carrots, onions). The meat is boiled, chopped, boiled again, and chilled to form a jelly mass.
Gulyash: The Hungarian dish Goulash is also very popular in Russia.
Blini: Think of French crepes, but often more savory. Blini are thin pancakes served with meat, caviar, cabbage, or something sweet. Blini with honey, jam, or condensed milk make for a sweet breakfast, while several blini with minced meat and sour cream is a satisfying dinner.
Pierogies: It’s impossible to try Russian foods without trying some pierogies. You can find pierogies that are open or closed, and that are sweet or savory.
Pickles: A Preservation Tradition
Pickles are an integral part of Russian cuisine, extending beyond just cucumbers to include mushrooms, tomatoes, garlic, meat, fish, and more. Pickles can be included into a variety of other dishes (including soups like solyanka), or can be served alone. Pickles were especially important in Russia as a way of preserving vegetables through the long, cold winters. Pickled apples and some other fruit also used to be widely popular.
Beverages: Beyond Vodka
While Russians are famous for vodka, they also have other delicious national drinks.
Kvas: A beverage made from fermented bread.
Mors: Juice made from boiled berries.
Sweets: A Sugary Wonderland
Russia is not without its fair share of sugary wonders. Stores devote entire aisles to chocolate, providing different flavors, forms, fillings, and more. Belgium may be famous for producing chocolate, but Russia is where chocolate is appreciated.
The Modern Russian Diet
Today, the majority of Russian food comes from household plots. The modern Russian diet, while still rooted in tradition, has also been influenced by global culinary trends. The availability of a wider variety of ingredients and increased exposure to international cuisine have led to a more diverse and dynamic food scene.
Health Considerations
A ‘typical’ Russian diet has a higher saturated fat and sodium intake than the US Department of Agriculture and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.