Simple Pickle Soup – Zupa Ogórkowa bez śmietany

In the middle of the day last night I had this craving for Pickle soup. I started thinking about it, and then could not wait to get home and make it. JC and I stopped in to a grocery store to pick up a few white potatoes and a carrot (because I knew we had a bunch of onions and pickles at home), and I was ready to get cooking.

Making this soup felt like I was running on some kind of deep genetic pickle soup knowledge when I got into the kitchen, because of course, zupa ogórkowa (ZOO-pah, Oh-goorr-Koh-Vah), is a thing I’ve eaten since I was a kid. I’m sure I watched my mom make it when I was growing up. Maybe even helped peel or chop potatoes (maybe.)

This recipe is simple and perfect for preparing after a long day. Not too many ingredients, and doesn’t take too much time. It could conceivably serve four people, but the two of us ate all of it.

Ingredients:

• 3 small chopped yellow onions
• 2 small chopped rinsed leeks
• a splash of oil
• 1 medium sized carrot
• 4-5 diced potatoes, you can peel them if you want to (I didn’t)
• 6 cups of vegetable broth (I used Go Bio’s veggie broth)
• 4 large chopped pickles
• 2-3 cups pickle juice
• salt & pepper to taste (the pickles/pickle juice is already pretty salty)
• extra chopped pickles as a garnish

Serves 4 (or 1 MeShell, 1 JC)

Directions

I used a heavy dutch oven pot for my soup, but any pot will do. Put it on a burner and turn it to medium. Add onions and leeks, stirring occasionally. Wait to add the carrots until the onions are slightly translucent and then throw them in.

You’ve got a nice pile of potatoes – add them to the pot after the carrots have had time to saute up with the onion for a few minutes.

Pour in your vegetable broth and stir everything together. Bring the whole mixture to boil and add chopped pickles, and pickle juice slowly. Add 1 cup first and taste the broth. You might not like your soup as sour as I do. Know that part of the mix will boil off, so you’ll end up with a flavourful and slightly more sour broth at the end of it. I added 2-3 cups of pickle juice from the jar.

Let it simmer until the potatoes and carrots are soft and enjoy! You can add a bit of chopped pickle and black pepper to the top as garnish. My mom would also always add some extra bits of chopped dill to the top as well.

Hope you enjoy this, or anyone of the other dozen pickle soup recipes on the internet.