What are some russian foods

These traditional Russian recipes are easy to make and packed with flavor!

From soups to salads to pies, Russian cuisine brings a unique twist to your weekly menu!

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What are some russian foods

If you loved the biographical documentary, The Last Czars, and the animated movie, Anastasia, chances are you’re highly interested in Russian history and culture.

What better way is there to get to know a country more than through its food? 

Russia may be more famous for its rich history, but did you know that it also has a myriad of delicious dishes to offer?

Today, get to know this vast country a bit more by checking out this collection of authentic recipes.

Don’t be intimidated by their difficult-to-pronounce names! These dishes are packed with flavor and are also easy to make!

1. Russian Cabbage Soup

Schi is a traditional Russian soup made with cabbage.

Every region has its own version, and each uses other veggies instead of cabbages, such as sorrel, spinach, and sauerkraut.

While the soup doesn’t contain meat, it’s still hearty and tasty because it’s loaded with potatoes and tomatoes.

Flavored with vegetable broth, dill, and sour cream, it’s incredibly rich and savory!

2. Borscht

You’ve probably heard of it somewhere, but what is borscht, and what makes it so popular?

Borscht is another traditional Russian soup made of beetroot that’s loaded with potatoes, carrots, tomato, and a type of meat.

It can be served either hot or cold and topped with dill and sour cream. 

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Apart from the flavor, the color contrast between the red beets, green dill, and white sour cream makes it even more appetizing!

3. Ukha (Russian Fish Soup)

Ukha, or fish soup, is the ultimate Russian comfort food. A bowl of ukha consists of fish fillets, potatoes, and carrots in a savory broth.

To give it even more flavor, the broth is infused with black peppercorns and bay leaf. One slurp will warm you right up! 

4. Russian Cabbage Pie

Russia is highly abundant with cabbage, so they use it in many of their dishes. Case in point: the Russian cabbage pie.

Hearing about this dish the first time made me scratch my head. Cabbage in a pie? I wasn’t sure it would work, but it definitely does.

This pie is made of braised cabbage on boiled eggs on a bed of buttery crust. It’s wonderfully rich, savory, and downright delicious!

5. Russian Hot Honey Beverage

It’s almost always winter in Russia, so hot beverages are a must. Sbiten is a sweet honey-based drink that predates coffee and tea.

The combination of hot water, honey, jam, and spices makes this sbiten a wonderful drink.

One sip is guaranteed to warm not just your body, but your heart and soul as well!

6. Russian Piroshki (Meat Hand Pies)

Piroshki or pirozhki – however you want to spell it, one thing is for sure: this Russian mini-pie is ridiculously delicious.

Whether it’s stuffed with meat, fish, eggs, potatoes, or jam and cottage cheese, piroshki sure hits the spot.

You really can’t go wrong with a flaky and buttery crust filled with a sweet or savory filling!

7. Russian Lamb Pilaf (Plov)

Lamb pilaf of plov is a hearty mixture of rice, prunes, raisins, and lamb. These ingredients create a beautiful harmony of textures and flavors.

Just like the Spanish paella, plov makes use of saffron, which turns the dish into a vibrant yellow.

To make it, all you need is to toast rice in oil or butter and simmer it in a rich broth. Then, just add the rest of the ingredients until cooked. 

8. Russian Carrot Salad

Russian carrot salad is a super simple dish that features – as you may have guessed – carrots.

Flavored with lots of garlic and coriander, carrot salad is insanely addictive. Not to mention, it smells amazing, too!

9. Russian Blini

Blini is the Russian version of classic pancakes. They’re more similar to crepes, except they are made with yeasted dough.

Blini are super soft and light and taste even more amazing when served with sweet or savory fillings.

Egg salad, ground meat, and cottage cheese are common pairings, but the most popular ones are caviar, honey, and sour cream.

10. Spiced Tea (Russian Tea)

Warm black tea, orange juice, lemon juice, cloves, and cinnamon make up this unbelievably tasty tea!

It’s the perfect morning and afternoon drink! Pair it with your favorite bread or biscuit, and you’ll have the most comforting, heartwarming meal.

11. Russian Vinaigrette Salad

This gorgeous vinaigrette salad features beets, sauerkraut, potatoes, carrots, and pickles.

It has such tasty elements that together form an even more succulent dish! 

The combination of veggies is so good, you won’t even need too much for the dressing. Just some olive oil, vinegar, and onion are all it takes.

Be sure to make this salad ahead of time because it tastes ten times better the next day.

12. Russian Potato Salad

Also called the Olivier Salad (after its inventor), Russian potato salad is an ultra-rich dish packed with meat, veggies, eggs, and a creamy mayo dressing.

It’s both a feast for the eyes and the lips!

The best part is, it’s very easy to customize. You can use whatever meat, veggies, and herbs to suit your taste. 

13. Kurnik: Russian Chicken Pie

Kurnik is a mixture of rice, hard-boiled eggs, chicken, and mushrooms stuffed in a flaky and buttery crust. In short, it’s the ultimate chicken pie!

The fact that it also has rice in it makes this dish super hearty. It’s perfect for feeding a pack of hungry guests! 

14. Russian Beef Stroganoff

Beef stroganoff is a classic Russian dish that’s loved all over the world.

It’s strips of tender beef, mushrooms, and onions swimming in a super-rich gravy, and it’s amazing.

Whether you serve it with rice, pasta, noodles, or just by itself, you can’t go wrong.

15. Russian Romanoff

For dessert, how about an easy-peasy strawberry treat? 

Strawberries and sweetened whipped cream are all you need to make this uber-refreshing sweet.

Plus, look how pretty it is! The contrast between the red berries and white, fluffy cream is simply adorable.

What are some russian foods

Russian cuisine is distinctive and unique, and like any other national one, it was formed under the influence of different environmental, social, geographical, economic, and historical factors. The main feature of Russian cuisine is considered to be an abundance and variety of products used for cooking.  There are numerous dishes made of dough such as pies, cakes, rolls, blini, etc. as well as unleavened dough, including dumplings and homemade noodles. Being a country of Orthodox Christian religion which implies numerous fasts, Russian cuisine offers a great number of vegetarian dishes including mushrooms, pickles, etc.  The Russian culinary palette is also rich in meat, poultry, and fish dishes which are served on various occasions. There is also a great variety of soft drinks to every taste which must be tasted while you are on a Moscow tour.

If you are willing to taste traditional Russian dishes during your Moscow tour, here are some ideas of what you should try. Those who crave to cook traditional Russian dishes can find some of the recipes. Indulge yourself!

Bliny

What are some russian foods

is a Russian type of pancakes or crepes. They are usually thin and big, they may be served with sour cream, jam, honey, or caviar or smokes salmon. We often eat blinis folded or rolled with all sorts of filling such as mushrooms, cottage cheese, ground meat, cabbage and many othersread more

Sirniki

What are some russian foods

Sirniki are small blinis made of cottage cheese. This is a typical food for breakfast or branch.read more

Kasha

What are some russian foods

Kasha is the most common meal in Russia. It is easy to cook, healthy to eat and everybody can afford it.read more

Pelmeni

What are some russian foods

Pelmeni are meat or fish dumplings originally coming from the region of Siberia. They are usually kept frozen and cooked in boiled water right before eatingread more

Varenniki

What are some russian foods

Varenniki are dumpling similar to pelmeni but they're usually stuffed with cheese, mashed potatoes, cabbage, meat, hard-boiled eggs or different fruits (cherry or plump).read more

Pirog

What are some russian foods

Pirog is a big pie stuffed with fruits, mushrooms, meat or fish.read more

Borscht

What are some russian foods

Borscht is a soup originally coming from the Ukrainian cuisine but now equally popular in Russia. It has a distinctive reddish-purple color because it’s cooked with beetroot and tomatoes. In Russia borsch is always served hotread more

Okroshka

What are some russian foods

Okróshka is a cold soup popular in Russia in summer time. The main ingredients include diced raw vegetables, boiled meat, eggs and potatoes. The soup is served with kvas ( a popular Russian fermented drink made from black rye) and sour cream.read more

Shchi

What are some russian foods

Shchi is one of the staples of Russian cuisine known since the 9th century.read more

Solyanka

What are some russian foods

Solyanka is a thick, piquant soup popular in Russian and Ukrainian cuisine. It can be cooked with meat, fish, or mushrooms, other ingredients include olives, pickled cucumbers with brine, cabbage, potatoe, sour cream and dill. read more

Sorrel soup

What are some russian foods

Sorrel soup is extremely popular in Russia in summer time. It’s healthy and easy to cook. The main ingredients include sorrel leaves, potatoes, carrots, parsley and eggs. read more

Herring under the fur coat

What are some russian foods

Herring under the fur coat - is a traditional Russian salad. It's loved in Russia but might appear a rather weird dish to a foreigners. The salad has several layers: salted herring is covered with chopped onions, potatoes, carrots, beet roots and dressed with mayonnaise. read more

Salad Olivier

What are some russian foods

Salad Olivier is usually known as Russian salad in the West. It is popular in winter season. Among its ingredients are boiled potato, peas, meat, pickled cucumbers, onions, eggs and carrots.read more

Vinegrette

What are some russian foods

Vinegrette is a traditional Russian salad made of boiled beets, potatoes, carrots, pickles, onions and sauerkraut. It is easy to cook and remains very popular especially in winter time.read more

Holodets

What are some russian foods

Holodets is a traditional Russian meal which is served during various celebrations. The word holodets derives from the Russian word “holod” meaning “cold”. It is so because the final step of its meal preparation is cooling it in the fridge. Holodets looks like a meat jelly with pieces of meat, at times vegetables such as carrot and spices. To prepare holodets is very easy, but very time-consuming as well.read more

Pickles

What are some russian foods

Pickled cucumbers have been known in Russian for centuries. Since it is quite commonly grown culture, lot of recipes how to pickle cucumbers appeared. There is century old tradition in Russian to eat pickles as a “chaser” after drinking vodka, another tradition - to have them with potatoes.read more

Beef stroganoff

What are some russian foods

Beef stroganoff - a Russian dish very popular around the world. Small pieces of beef filet (usually strips) are sautéed in sour cream together with onions and mushrooms.read more

Chiken Kiev

What are some russian foods

Chicken kiev is a popular dish of chicken breast rolled around butter. It’s often stuffed with grated cheese, mushrooms, herbs, egg yolk, then breaded and baked in oil.read more

Sbiten

What are some russian foods

Sbiten is a traditional Russian hot beverage, very much loved by Russians in winter time.read more

Kvass

What are some russian foods

Kvas is a traditional beverage, quite refreshing in summer time, so-called Russian Coca-Cola. It is known as slightly fermented rye bread drink. It contains less than 1 % of alcohol, so even children are allowed to drink it.read more

Mors

What are some russian foods

Mors is a popular Russian drink made of sweetened berry juice mixed with water. Most traditional mors is prepared on the basis of cranberries, but you can also taste mors made of blackcurrant, raspberry, sea-buckthorn, cowberry and other berries of the season.read more

Varenye

What are some russian foods

A traditional Russian home-made jam. It’s very popular in Russia to make jam at home out of strawberry, apricots, cherry, raspberry and other fruits and berries of the seasonread more

Pryaniki

What are some russian foods

Pryanik is a sweet bread or cookie flavored with spices; it’s often described as "Russian gingerbread". Praniki are usually filled with jam, caramel or honey.read more