 In the summertime , cold borscht is a popular , refreshing alternative to the aforementioned variants , which are normally served hot . It consists of beet sour or beet juice blended with sour cream , buttermilk , soured milk , kefir and / or yogurt , and is refrigerated . The mixture has a distinctive pink or magenta color . It is typically served over finely chopped beetroot , cucumbers , radishes and green onion , together with halves of a hard @-@ boiled egg and sprinkled with fresh dill . Chopped veal , ham , or crawfish tails may be added as well . This soup probably originated in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , which comprised the territories of modern @-@ day Lithuania and Belarus , and it is still part of the culinary traditions of these and neighboring nations . The Lithuanian language is the only one in the region which actually refers to it as ' cold borscht ' ( <unk> ) . In Belarusian it is known simply as <unk> , or ' cold soup ' ; in Polish as <unk> litewski , or ' Lithuanian cold soup ' ; and in Russian as <unk> , or ' beetroot soup ' . 
