Lithuanian pink soup, also known as cold beet soup or šaltibarščiai, is a delicious and refreshing summer soup. It takes on a deep pink hue from a combination of beets and kefir (or buttermilk). The soup originated over the centuries, but had been documented in the 18th century during the time of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (a nobility democracy) which included Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, and parts of Latvia, Estonia, Russia, Slovakia, Moldova and Romania (1569 – 1795). No one really knows who invented the soup, but it is extremely popular in Lithuania and Latvia.
Lithuania holds an annual Pink Soup Festival at the end of May. For several days, the city of Vilnius is dressed in pink from buses painted pink, to participants who sport pink soup inspired clothing. The festival hosts a pink boat parade, a pink soup eating contest, an obstacle course race, and a 50-meter pink slide that ends in a giant inflatable bowl of foamy “soup”. You can watch a video clip of some of the events here or read more about it in article written by Toyo Odetunde of adventure.com.
Every Lithuanian family has its own recipe for this soup. I learned from my mother, and she learned from her mother and so on. The basic ingredients include beets, cucumber, hard boiled eggs, dill, chives and kefir or buttermilk. Some use green onions instead of chives and others use pickled beets. I make my soup with more eggs than is traditional because I like to eat it as a hearty vegetarian meal. In a moment of serendipity, I also discovered a way to keep the cucumbers extra crunchy so that you can enjoy the soup for several days without the cucumbers getting soggy. Every generation adds their own twist on this delicious soup! If you’d like a copy of my recipe, send me a message on the contact page of this website.
Finally, I can’t create a blog post without including some Lithuanian folksongs. I picked a couple songs that mention gardens. You can listen to FolkLT Ritmai sing Skinsiu Daržely Gėleles (I’ll pick flowers in the Garden) here. The young maiden picks flowers from her garden and waits for her love to come. He arrives in the evening on his horse and they talk until dawn, and when they part she hopes that he will want to marry her.
The second song I selected is a song sung in an ancient song form called a sutartinė. A sutartinė is a polyphonic form of singing. The singers sing different melodies and lyrics simultaneously. They were often sung by two to four female singers. You can read more about sutartinėshere.
Listen here to the song “Saula Sodu Sodina” presented by Vambuolė.
Saula sodu sodina, Darži vietų dabina. Dobile baltasai, Dobile baltasai. Kas kad sodų sodina, Kad nebuva žiedelių. Dobile baltasai, Dobile baltasai. Kad nebuva žiedelių Kad nieks nėja kvietkelių. Dobile baltasai, Dobile baltasai.
The Sun planted an orchard, Beautified the garden patch. Oh white clover, white clover. So what if there’s an orchard If there are no blossoms. Oh white clover, white clover That there are no blossoms, That there are no flowers. Oh white clover, white clover. (translated by BP Tautvydas)
