Healthy Russian Recipes

This savory apple soup for two gets body from Yukon Gold potatoes and a touch of heat from paprika. Float some cocktail shrimp or a mound of lump crabmeat in each bowl to make it a main course.

This streamlined goulash skips the step of browning the beef, and instead coats it in a spice crust to give it a rich mahogany hue. This saucy dish is a natural served over whole-wheat egg noodles. Or, for something different, try prepared potato gnocchi or spaetzle.

This wholesome sweet-and-sour soup combines beef, caraway seeds, sweet paprika and cabbage--ingredients that star in a number of German dishes. It is particularly nice served with crusty rye bread. For an even heartier soup, add diced cooked potatoes along with the cabbage. Recipe by Nancy Baggett for EatingWell.

Mushroom-soup lovers, this soup is for you! Russet potatoes make it hearty, and dill and paprika add plenty of flavor. We skip the generous amount of full-fat sour cream and butter typically used in creamy mushroom soups. Serve with a green salad and warm pumpernickel bread.

Borscht is a simple beet soup typically made with beef broth and garnished with sour cream. We give it a kick with horseradish. For a vegetarian soup, use vegetable broth instead.

Even people who think they don't like beets love this vibrantly colored, vegetable-packed borscht soup recipe, inspired by the legendary borscht soup served at New York's Russian Tea Room. Plenty of mushrooms, cabbage and carrots along with a judicious amount of beef make this healthy borscht recipe special.

Here's a way to make better-than-store-bought pickles in under an hour. The secret is pouring the hot vinegar mixture over slices of cold, crisp cucumber. These pickled cucumbers have the perfect balance of sour and sweet—though closer to a "bread and butter" taste, these quick pickles still satisfy the vinegar-loving pickle crowd. In our humble opinion, there's no reason to ever buy another jar of pickles.

Circassian cooking is from the North Caucasus, which was at different times part of the Ottoman and Persian empires. This chicken stew recipe is made with a creamy walnut sauce and was originally served as a main dish, but became a mezze somewhere along the way. Serve at room temp along with some bread for dipping.