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. Additionally, you should adjust seasoning based on your preferences and feel free to add more liquid to soups as you go along! The ingredients an amounts below are a base, but add and taste and add and taste until you love it!

Ingredients:

• 10-14 cups of water or chicken or vegetable stock
• 7-10 sour pickles (look for good quality pickles with a salt brine and lots of garlic, NOT vinegar!)
• 2 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
• 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, chicken 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.
4. Dice yellow onion.
5. Add vegetables to a pan with 1 tbsp of butter and a few pinches of salt on medium heat. After cooking for about 10 minutes, add to pot of stock and reduce to medium-heat. Cook for 30-40 minutes.
6. Coarsely pulse or grate pickles and add to pot. Add pickle brine. Reduce heat to medium, cook for another 15 minutes.
7. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a separate pan over medium heat. Slowly add 3 tablespoons of flour to the butter, stirring constantly. Within 2 to 4 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 10 minutes.
8. Optional: add dumplings and/or shredded chicken. 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.
9. Add chopped fresh parsley, dill, and freshly found black pepper to the pot. Cook for another 5-10 minutes.
10. Taste and adjust seasoning accordingly.

Serve with sour cream and enjoy!

Smacznego!