The story of Rassolnik
The name rassolnik comes from the Russian word rassol, brine. It is an old soup of Russian cooking, built on a simple idea: pickle brine is a seasoning. It brings sourness, salt and the smell of dill and garlic all at once. The best-known version is cooked with pearl barley, potatoes and carrot, and there is a lighter version with rice.
In the homes of olim from the former USSR in Israel, rassolnik is an everyday home soup, the kind cooked in a big pot and eaten over several days. Salt-brined pickles, sold in Russian shops in almost every town, are its heart. In Russia it is served with a spoonful of sour cream. In the kosher meat version, made on chicken broth, the cream goes and the dill does the work.
What makes Rassolnik itself
Rassolnik is a gently sour soup, neither spicy nor heavy. What sets it apart is the balance of three things: barley that gives body and a creamy texture, potatoes that give softness, and pickles with their brine that give sourness and salt. The secret is the order. First the potatoes and barley soften, and only then does the sour go in. Cooked the other way round, the potatoes stay hard even after an hour.
