Pickle soup?!? WHAAAT? Yes. Pickle soup. It has been a thing in Poland for quite some time! It is delicious, savory, and surprisingly doesn’t taste like a jar of pickles, but does have a bit of tang to it. Just try it!

As with all soups, this will taste better the next day, or after it has a chance to sit for a while. The ingredients an amounts below are a base, but add and taste and add and taste until you love it! The ABSOLUTE MOST IMPORTANT THING FOR THIS RECIPE IS YOU MUST USE GOOD PICKLES IN BRINE WITH LOTS OF GARLIC AND GOOD SEASONINGS AND NOTTTTT PICKLES IN VINEGAR!!!

Ingredients:

• 10-14 cups of water or vegetable stock
• 7-10 sour pickles (look for good quality pickles with a salt brine and lots of garlic, NOT vinegar!)
• 2 medium carrots
• 1 parsnip
• 1/2 celery root (or 2 stalks celery)
• 1 large yellow onion
• 3 red or yellow potatoes
• Fresh dill
• Flat leaf parsley
• Salt and black pepper
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 tbsp butter or oil
• 3 tbsp flour
• 1/2 cup pickle brine
• Sour cream for serving

For optional dumplings:

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. onion powder

Directions:

1. Pour water or vegetable stock (or some combination of either) in large pot on medium-high heat and add 2 bay leaves.
2. Cube potatoes into bite size pieces and add to the pot.
3. Grate carrots, parsnip and celery root on the largest holes of a box grater, or, shred in a food processor. Dice yellow onion. Add vegetables to a pan with 1 tbsp of butter or oil and a few pinches of salt on medium heat. Cook for 10 minutes.
4. Add vegetables to pot of stock and reduce to medium-low heat. Cook for 30 minutes.
5. Coarsely grate pickles and add to pot. Add pickle brine. Reduce heat to low and cook for another 15 minutes.
6. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter or oil in a separate pan over medium heat. Slowly add 3 tablespoons of flour to the butter/oil, stirring constantly. In 2-3 minutes the roux will thicken and turn golden brown. Once it has darkened slightly, add a few tablespoons of the soup liquid to the pan and stir. Then add that mixture to the soup pot. Cook for another 5 minutes.
7. Optional: To make dumplings, mix flour, water, salt, baking powder and onion powder together in a bowl. Then, drop ~1 tsp. of dough at a time directly into the soup. The dumplings will need approximately 8 minutes.
8. Add chopped fresh parsley, dill, and freshly found black pepper to the pot. Taste and adjust seasoning accordingly.

Serve with sour cream and enjoy!

Smacznego!