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Chilled Beet and Cucumber Soup

Eastern Europe has given rise to many versions of the peasant soup of beets known as borscht, commonly served with dark rye bread. This version makes a cool, festive and bright soup to cleanse the palate. For a party, garnish with tangy yogurt, a few feathers of dill and a dollop of caviar.

By williamssonoma · From Open Recipes · 13 ingredients
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Chilled Beet and Cucumber Soup

Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Chilled Beet and Cucumber Soup

Serves 8.

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

665Calories
56 gProtein
5 gFat
92 gCarbs

Counts 13 of 14 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 13 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Rice1 cup cooked (158g) white206
Chicken100g cooked165
Yogurt170g plain Greek100
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Beet1/2 cup (85g)35
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Cucumber1/2 cup sliced (52g)16
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Dill5 sprigs fresh (1g) / 1 tsp dried4
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By williamssonoma. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Onion + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  4. Onion + chickentop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Cucumber + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, chicken, sugar, cucumber, rice wine, vinegar, pepper):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Avocadofits about as well
  3. Plumfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, chicken, sugar, cucumber, rice wine, vinegar, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.