This is a Russian winter soup but you won't find peppers in Russia in winter unless they're imported. Russians who have grown up in the southern ex-Soviet republics tend to adapt traditional recipes to include vegetables which grow in warmer climes. Putting tomatoes in borsch is another example.
We cook rasolnik regularly in winter and we can usually get local peppers right up to Christmas. They definitely make the soup more interesting. Salted cucumbers are my ingredient of choice if they are available but you can use any kind of pickled or marinated cucumbers.
Ingredients
1 mug of rice or barley
500g of potatoes
1 large onion
350g of salted/pickled/marinated cucumbers
3 or 4 carrots
2 peppers (one green, one red)
A few sprigs of fresh dill, parsley and green onion
3 or 4 bay leaves
3 or 4 vegetable stock cubes
Vegetable oil and a little butter or margarine or for frying
Start by putting the water on to boil in a large pot. Peel and
chop the potatoes and add them to the boiling water with the rice. Peel and
chop the onion and fry it in a good amount of butter and oil. While it's frying,
finely chop the peppers and add them once the onions have softened nicely. Rinse
and finely chop the cucumbers and add them to the pan, stir and cover. After
about ten minutes, add the carrots, grated and cook for another few minutes
until they soften. Add the contents of the frying pan to the soup pot. If you
do that about twenty-five minutes after you added the potatoes and rice, that'll
be about right. Throw in the stock cubes and a few bay leaves and cook for another
ten minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in some chopped dill, parsley and green
onion. You shouldn't need to salt the soup as the stock cubes and cucumbers
will probably contain enough.