A BOWL of chilled borscht laced with sour cream seems like an ideal late-summer soup, right up there with gazpacho made from the last of the ripe tomatoes. But unlike gazpacho, which can be whipped together in a blender without once turning on the stove, traditional beet borscht requires a pretty lengthy stint of simmering. Ideal, maybe, to make in the chilly dawn of a Russian winter but not something you would want to bother with during the still-warm September days here in New York.

This was my thinking until one day in Fairway when I was indulging in a favorite pastime: perusing the produce aisle. There, garnet-hued and vacuum packed, were small, bulbous bunches of cooked peeled beets. They looked familiar. I had seen something similar in France, where supermarkets sell cooked beets as a matter of course. And, indeed, these were French imports, each package about half a pound (250 grams) and retailing for only 89 cents.

A vision popped in my head: instant borscht, a recipe as quick as a smoothie and much more appropriate for supper. So I bought the beets, along with a can of chicken broth, a red onion (to match the beets), a tub of crème fraîche and a bunch of fresh dill. Thus armed, I headed to my kitchen.

Just like the beets I had bought in France, these were cooked until meltingly soft, and perfectly suited to a purée. So I whirled them with the onion in the blender, gazpacho style, adding ice cubes along with the broth to eliminate the chilling time. Out came a velvety, magenta liquid with the intense flavor of fresh summer beets.

Clean and vibrant on its own, it was even better with a swirl of horseradish-spiked crème fraîche, an extremely elegant garnish that both underscored the soup's earthy sweetness and further belied its simplicity.

The horseradish cream was a last-minute brainstorm inspired by a borscht I enjoyed at Artisanal. There, Terrance Brennan crowns his marvelous cool broth with a scoop of savory horseradish ice cream. It's a perfect combination that probably takes all morning to make.

My version, cheating though it may be, takes about 10 minutes, no heat required.


Time: 10 minutes

1 cup crème fraîche or sour cream

2 teaspoons prepared horseradish

Salt and pepper to taste

2 packages (250 grams) cooked, peeled beets

1 small red onion, peeled and quartered

1 can (14 ounces) chicken broth

1 cup ice cubes

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, or to taste

1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill.

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together crème fraîche and horseradish. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

2. Place beets, onion, chicken broth, ice and 1 1/2 cups cold water into a blender. Blend until smooth. Season with lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste.

3. Serve borscht with dollops of horseradish cream, garnished with dill.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

Photo: SMOOTHIE -- Cooked beets whirled in a blender, gazpacho style, yield an earthy soup. (Tony Cenicola/The New York Times)