Intermediate Russian – Food in Russia

Learn Russian with Russian from Russia! These are stories about Russian customs and traditions, history and other things that are well-known to most people in Russia. This lesson is Intermediate Russian: Food.

I will recommend 4 dishes.

The most exotic Russian dish is okroshka.

Okroshka is a mixture of finely chopped various types of meat or fish, vegetables and pickles (initially – fresh and / or pickled cucumbers, onions, salted plums, pickled mushrooms, in later versions – boiled potatoes, turnips, carrots, rutabaga), spicy herbs (chopped green onions, parsley, dill, celery, chervil, tarragon), seasoned with special white kvass or kvass in half with bread and sour cream.

The general way of preparing okroshka is the following process:

  • Cut ingredients;
  • Mix with spicy dressing;
  • Let stand in the cold for at least half an hour;
  • Mix with spicy greens;
  • Pour kvass;
  • Add sour cream.

Kvass for okroshka should be special, so-called white kvass, unsweetened, unlike ordinary bread kvass. Kvass wort consists of rye flour, possibly with the addition of buckwheat and wheat, as well as various types of malt: rye, barley, buckwheat.

Watch the video to find out which traditional dishes I recommend, besides okroshka 🙂


If you would like to further improve your knowledge, check my podcast about the verb ‘to fry’ or my other video lessons here