Well technically I have to say with both presidents of a political party. That’s right, this political party has two co-presidents and I made soup with both of them. I’m talking about Alexia DeBono and Arnas Lasys, the co-presidents of Volt Malta.

Together they founded the Maltese chapter of the pan-European political party Volt in 2021 and have been running it ever since. They provide a fresh, progressive voice in an otherwise conservative, archaic political landscape.

Naturally, I was quite curious about this group of people with their interesting, progressive ambitions for the island. And thus I decided to get to know the party a bit better. I got to know its members and also the driving force behind the party: Alexia and Arnas.

I’ve met up with Arnas a couple of times to discuss various interesting topics. From politics to web development, all the way to board games and nature. What you need to know about Arnas is that he was born in Lithuania and moved to Malta when he was only 4 years old. And still his connection with Lithuania is very strong. Most of his family still lives there, and he visits them each year for a couple of weeks.

So when I asked my Instragram followers in 2022 to suggest soups that I could make for my Soup Boy Challenge, Arnas suggested that I would make Šaltibarščiai a.k.a. cold Lithuanian beetroot soup. Fascinated by the concept of this soup, I added it to the list. Arnas informed me that because this soup is served cold it’s usually regarded as a summer soup.

So when Arnas texted me recently with the suggestion to grab a beer sometime soon, I proposed to swap out the beer for this soup. Because what is better than learning how to make Šaltibarščiai from a pure-bred Lithuanian?

Not a lot indeed. And thus I present to you below some photos of all of us making cold beetroot soup. You’ll also be able to find the ingredients, the recipe, and my review.

Becky, Arnas, and Alexia 🙂 I’m a bit sad we forgot to take a picture with me included 🙁 But this is a nice picture regardless 🙂

Ingredients

  • One pack of cooked beetroot (500 gram)
  • 1L kefir (2% fat)
  • 1 long cucumber
  • 1 portion of dill
  • A couple of spring onions
  • 1-2 potatoes per person
  • 2 eggs

Recipe

  1. Start boiling some potatoes & eggs
  2. The second step is to chop all other ingredients up into tiny cubes. You can use the image below as a reference. For the beetroot you can use a grater (use the side with the big holes).
  3. Add the kefir and mix in the chopped up egg! And that’s it basically… now you have your soup!
  4. The soup is served with a boiled potato on the side. You can take a bit of your potato and scoop it through the soup for optimal enjoyment.
Beetroot, cucumber, spring onions and dill

Added the kefir
Grating the beet root can get a bit messy 🙂
The end result, with the chopped up boiled egg inside as well

Review

Taste ⭐⭐⭐⭐★
Ease ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

If it would be possible, I would’ve given this soup 10/5 stars for ‘ease’, because it literally only takes 15 minutes to make this soup. And there are hardly any dishes to be washed afterwards! Amazing.

It’s literally just chopping up the veggies and then adding the kefir to it. Arnas told me that officially in Lithuania they would use a special type of kefir, dedicated for this soup in particular. To increase the dairy level even more, it’s also possible to add some sour cream.

The thick, dairy element of the kefir, combined with the cold, fresh vegetables make this soup very closely related to various mayonaise-based salads. Think of coleslaw salad, or cucumber salad. It is very refreshing.

I personally don’t really eat a lot of dill, even though I enjoy the flavour of it. So to meet this flavour in this soup was a welcome surprise. Combined with the wonderfully sweet flavour of the beetroot and the sour edge of the kefir we get a great flavour palette. And not to forget about the fresh and crunchy additions of the cucumber. What a great soup! I’m a big fan and I can definitely see myself making this soup more often during the hot summer months. Especially because it’s so easy. It gets a outstanding 4.5/5 stars for me.

I told Arnas whilst eating the soup that I might give the soup a 5/5 flavour-rating (there cannot be any discussion about the 5/5 ease-rating). But now that I’m writing this review a few days later and my euphoria of the first bite has calmed down a bit, I have to be honest and give it a 4/5 flavour-rating. This is purely based on the comparison with the French onion soup I made earlier. That soup is incredibly rich, salty, and sweet. And salt and sweetness are two flavours humans react to very strongly. The French onion soup is a soup you want to keep eating, even though your stomach hurts. And in all fairness, the cold beetroot soup was delicious to eat and had great flavours, but it doesn’t have those addictive properties that are required for a 5/5 flavour-rating.