Żurek - sour rye soup

Time:

2 h

Serves:

Level:

Intermediate

About the Recipe

This soup is made from homemade starter with white sausage, bacon, mushrooms and vegetable, is especially eaten for Easter.
I like to make it when it is very cold outside. During winter it is my go to dish, I make a lot of it and have lunch for 2 -3 days, it tastes especially exquisite after hiking, skiing and snowboarding day served in a loaf of bread or on top of boiled potatoes. In my opinion.

Ingredients

Sour rye soup starter

0.5 pound of white sausage (or bratwurst)

0.3 pound of polish sausage

3-4 pieces of bacon

1 chopped onion

For the broth:

1 purple turnip

1 small onion

3 carrots

1 parsnip

2 celery stick

1 clove of garlic

Extra:

7-8 pieces of dry mushrooms

1 clove of garlic

juice from 1/2 a lemon

1 1/2 tbsp marjoram

salt, pepper

1 tbsp of horseradish

Garnish:

1-2 hard- boiled eggs, 2 medium sized boiled potatoes

Preparation

The soup requires you to make a few things at the same time, while one is cooking you will chop and fry other ingredients (the time does not add up with the overall time because you will do few things at the same time).

If you are making the Sour Rye Soup starter you need to start at least 5 days a head.

Step 1

Start by soaking dry mushrooms in a cup of water for at least 30 min, and hard boiling the eggs.

Step 2

For the broth: peel, wash all the vegetables and the garlic, pour 8 cups of water in a big pot. Add the white sausage, vegetables, some pepper and simmer for 45 min.

Step 3

While broth is cooking, slice Polish sausage, chopped bacon and onion. Fry the bacon on a pan for 4-5 min and drain it on a paper towel. Leave some bacon fat on the pan and brown the polish sausage on it. When the sausage has color, put it aside, and fry the chopped onion.

Cook the mushrooms for 10-15 min. Next, cool them down and then chop, do not throw away the liquid. Cool down the eggs and then peel them.

Step 4

Take the white sausage and vegetables out of the stock. Slice the sausage and the carrots. Discard the other vegetables. Strain the broth though a sifter.

When the white sausage cools down a bit, fry it on the pan for a few minutes to get some color on it.

Step 5

Time to assemble all the prepared goodies: to half of the broth pour all the rye start, add all meats, fried onion, mushrooms and carrots, and 5 spoons of the mushroom liquid. Let it simmer for 10 min on small heat.

Step 6

Mince the garlic into the soup, add marjoram, lemon juice, horseradish. TRY IT! And simmer for 30 min., on a small heat.

If it's too sour add a bit of the leftover stock - you have to play with the ratio of stock and soup starter - keep on trying the soup. If it needs salt, add it.

Serve it with bread or inside a bread, with the hard boiled eggs cut lengthwise (one egg per portion).