Recipe for Zurek - we cook Polish soup

Today's recipe is for zurek, our absolute favourite soup in Poland. I don't think we've ever been to Poland without eating zurek - it's a must! Now, for the first time, we have made the soup on our own, and it was really good! Have you ever had this soup, or do you have other favourite dishes that you have brought home from your travels?

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The Polish soup zurek

We have been to Poland many times, and each time we take the opportunity - at least once - to eat our favourite soup. By now, we have many great zurek memories. One special occasion was when we visited Malbork Castle in northern Poland, together with our friends Lennart and Beata.

We found a houseboat restaurant where we ordered zurek as a "starter", but wise from previous experience we calmed down by ordering the main course. Absolutely right it would turn out! Along with homemade bread, homemade liver paste, the restaurant's own pickled cucumbers and a large strong (and nubbe!) we absolutely did not need a main course. Zurek is a very moderate soup.

The Polish soup zurek is not a luxury food, perhaps rather the opposite. This is an everyday soup with relatively cheap ingredients, such as sausage, eggs and potatoes. But it always tastes just as good. Zurek is perfect with a big spicy one on a rainy day, or uh... any day!

Making your own zurek?

If you follow our blog, you might know that we like to shop at the supermarket. The world of foodwhere they have food from almost all over the world. What do you think we found on the Poland shelf? Yes, zurek base! We googled several different recipes and made our own Freedom version.

Recipe for zurek

Here is our recipe for zurek. The soup is actually made from fermented rye, but if you don't have the time or inclination to make the fermented rye yourself (apparently it takes at least a day!) you can take a shortcut and buy ready-made zurek base. We used the following ingredients (for a soup that together with bread is enough for six people):

• 2 carrots
• a piece of celeriac, about 100g
• a parsnip
• one red onion
• 5 potatoes
• dried parsley
• 1 tsp marjoram
• 1.5 litres of water
• vegetable stock
• 2 tbsp beef stock
• 1 packet of bacon (140 grams)
• 250 grams of flattened ham
• acidified zurekbas, about 5 dl
• 3 hard-boiled eggs in wedges
• 5 small (preferably Polish) savoury sausages
• salt and pepper

How to make zurek!

You start by chopping carrots, parsnips, onions, bacon and ham into small pieces, then fry them all together in a large pot. The potatoes can be cut into slightly larger pieces, and then they also go into the pot along with the water, stock, fond and spices.

Cook everything together for about fifteen minutes, until the potatoes are soft. Then you should blend the soup "carelessly" with a hand blender, so that the soup is thick, but you still have large pieces of potatoes, for example. Now it is also time to add the zurek base. The soup should be thick and reasonably acidic.

Tips! For example, if you don't have bacon or smoked ham at home, you can use cassoulet instead. You can also swap one of the root vegetables for more of another. Go by feel!

While the soup is cooking, you can take the opportunity to hard-boil some eggs and fry pieces of a spicy sausage. The soup can cook for a few more minutes. Then it's time to flavour it with salt and pepper. When serving, add egg halves and sausage pieces as desired. You can also serve it with a good coarse bread - perhaps with liver paste and pickled cucumber as we had at Malbork Castle.

More Polish soups

The Poles are really good at making hearty soups with lots of accompaniments, and it's like a buffet with cucumbers, pies, cheeses and different kinds of bread.

Grzybowa mushroom soup

Mushroom soup, and preferably with porcini mushrooms, is very popular in Poland. On Christmas Eve it is served with dried mushrooms.

Beetroot soup Barszcz

This soup could be the Polish national dish, but it could also be the soup zurek. It's incredibly popular made from beetroot with sour cream and mini pierogi, or chopped beetroot and potatoes.

Ogorkowa cucumber soup

Here's another hearty soup with pickled cucumber, carrots, potatoes and dill. Add some crème fraiche, which is very tasty.

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