I gave you stuffed cabbage (an alternative to meatloaf) and than I introduced bigos (an alternative to beef stew) and now I present to you PICKLE SOUP. Think posh and sassy potato soup alternative. As always, a dummy proof recipe that even a three year old toddler can follow to execute a gourmet home-made dinner in just one hour.

I give to you... Zupa Ogorkowa or Polish Dill Pickle Soup. My Polish mother can go to bed knowing her grandchildren were well fed three times this last blogging year.

The ingredients:

Four cups of chicken or vegetable stock (my mother made her own stock but HELLO you can buy organic stock at the store to save you 2 hours), as many small potatoes you can peel, one jar of dill pickles (not half sour pickles, they must be authentic dill pickles from Poland or Germany or barrel pickles... real pickles), the pickle juice left-over from jar, one cup of real sour cream and two tablespoons of flour.

Step 1:

Put. The. Pickle.  Down!  And pour the chicken/vegetable stock into a pot, place on burner and wait for a boil.

Step 2:

Take another bite of the pickle.  Peel as many potatoes as you can.  Cut them in quarters for nice size chunks.  Add them to the boiling stock.  Cover.

Step 3:

Start munching on your second pickle. And shred the remaining pickles. Some fellow Poles cut the pickles in bite-size slices. However, I was taught to half peel a pickle and shred it into delicate threads. Which makes the soup less of a pickle soup and more of a potato soup since the pickles are shredded for a nice zest and the potato chunks dominate the soup.

Step 4:

Add the shredded pickles and the pickle juice from the jar into the pot of boiling stock with potatoes.  Potatoes should be soft.  Cover.

Step 5:

Whisk one cup of sour cream with 2 tablespoons of flour. It's sooooooo much fun.  Gently add three or four or five tablespoons of boiling soup to the flour/cream mixture and make sure there are no lumps.  Slowly add said mixture to the soup, while mixing.  Cover and leave on low heat for 10 minutes.

Step 6:

Wait for soup to cool.

Step 7:

Eat.  The.  Soup.  A thick and hearty alternative to the boring potato soup.  A little bit of sour and a whole lot of gentle crunchy zest to warm up the cold winters' days.   A most perfect sassy potato soup.  Could be a vegetarian option if vegetable stock is used.  Add spices (salt/pepper/sugar to sweeten) to taste.  Garnish with parsley.

Step 8:

Wait for toddler to try.  And deem it.... Smacznego.

Trying to make Polish cuisine posh, one blog post at a time.  Yo!