Potato Soup (Zemiaková Polievka)
Soup is an important part of Slovak cuisine. Just like every American meal starts with a salad, Slovak lunch starts with light soup. No wonder Slovak cookbooks are full of them. Slovenská Kuchárka (Slovak cookery), from which this recipe comes, has 36 pages of soup recipes! At nine recipes per every two pages, that’s some 160 types! Included are even some quite unique variations: soup made out of strawberries, apples, or stinging nettle.
Nothing that wild here. Instead, below you will find recipe for one of my favorites: potato soup. Since potato soup is somewhat bland in taste, I flavored it with a handful of dried mushrooms and bacon. You can never go wrong with mushrooms and bacon!
Ingredients: 4 cooking potatoes, 6 dried mushrooms, one strip of bacon, pepper, one small onion, 2 tablespoons oil, 2 tablespoons flour, 4 chives, salt, marjoram
Prep Time: Very fast, under 30 minutes.
Start by peeling and cubing the potatoes (zemiaky). Add them to boiling salted water. Use approximately twice as much water as potatoes (in volume). Also add in the dried mushrooms (sušené hríby) and sliced bacon (nakrájaná slanina).
Then grate the onion (nastrúhaj cibuľu). Brown the flour on oil and add the onion. It will soon turn into solid mass. Brown on each side for a minute to let the onions caramelize.
Take the skillet off the heat and add a cup of water to dissolve the onions. Add to the soup.
Then just season to taste with pepper, salt, and marjoram. Also add finely sliced chives or parsley. (note, the soup was not that red, it’s my camera playing tricks on me)
And that’s it. Very simple. Enjoy!
For few other soup options, check out mushroom soup (which is quite similar to this one, but creamier), and soup out of green beans.
How do you make potato soup? And what is your favorite kind of soup? Leave a comment – or two. I like hearing from you.
I am a slovak born Canadian and was raised on good flavorful slovak foods.My soups are enjoyed by my family and the children enjoy making them,Cabbage ,chicken.Green bean,and of course crepes with cottage cheese and assorted fillings,but would love to get a recipe for Harula enjoy the comments!
Here you go: http://www.slovakcooking.com/2009/recipes/potato-pancakes/
Moja maminka toto delávala. Ona pridala do toho vývarené vajcá (hard-boiled eggs). And she thickened the soup with flour and milk so it was a thick and white soup !! I remember that she also added dill and vinegar to make a tangy zing to the creamy, eggy soup. S Bohem, maminko !! Thanks for the recipe, Luboš !!
When John and I were in Slovakia this summer, I had the best potato soup at the Verdict Tavern in Old Town Bratislava. It was a red potato and sausage soup. It tasted like it had sour cream or bryndza cheese in it. We wanted to go to the tavern again before we left on our last day but we didn’t have time.
Today I made your recipe for potato soup. I haven’t tasted it yet but will shortly. It is made the same way we make our pea and potato soup.
My mom always made ham potatoes and green beans in a white sauce and we never knew what it read called or where our had originated. Years later I made some for friend and her dad he said it was an it was an old slovak dish and he told us what it was called but I can’t remember what he told us. Do you know? Thank you for your help.
Laura
It’s a sauce of green beans, so-called “lúsková”. “Lusk” means a bean pod.
http://www.mimibazar.sk/recept.php?id=17750
Laura, it’s just good old green bean soup, like Lubos described in
http://www.slovakcooking.com/2010/recipes/green-bean-soup/
addition of ham is optional, many folks add boiled eggs, though it’s good by itself without meat or eggs.
if i don’t find dried mushrooms can i use fresh?
I use fresh mushrooms sometimes when I don’t have a dried at hand. It’s OK, dried mushrooms will anyway re-hydrate in a process of cooking. Advantage of dried mushrooms is that you can keep them around for a long time and hey don’t lose the taste. That was one of the main reasons to dry them so you can use them through long winters when you can’t pick up fresh mushrooms. In the US fresh mushrooms are available year around an thus dried mushrooms are sometimes hard to get and are expensive.
If using fresh, make sure that you pick up some good wild mushrooms, like portabella, shitake, etc. White mushroom don’t have much taste, but they are good to sauté and some meat stews.
Just made this today for a quick lunch for my wife and I.It’s a very good, simple soup. It reminds me of a potato soup my grandmother used to make. She was Slovak.