DDR-Style Solyanka
Solyanka soup recipe was given to me by one of my best friends, who grow up in DDR – Stefanie. I love everything that is tart and rich, so I fell in love with it immediately. Stefanie explained that her mother would cook this dish when she didn’t have a lot of time, but still wanted to prepare something home-made.
Traditional Meat Solyanka Soup
Solyanka soup belongs to the most popular dishes of former East Germany and it has Russian origins. At the beginning the soup was very plain, prepared with fish broth. To make the soup more filly people started adding more components to it, and therefore the soup became richer in ingredients and taste.
If I had to describe the soup with the 3 words, it would be tart, salty and well seasoned. The soup has so much going on! The sourness of the soup comes from pickled cucumbers, lemon, olives or sometimes even capers. I recommend to balanced it out with a bit of sugar or ketchup, or both. The soup is topped with some sour cream, which accomplishes the dish perfectly!
You can find Solyanka on the menus and grocery store shelves (in the can) in East Germany. Here is Frankfurt it is a bit harder to find, but in my small kitchen, I can cook anything I want, as soon as I find the right ingredients. Not only I am fond of the soup, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel has also a good taste;)
And remember: you can heat up Solyanka several times and it will only get better. You can keep it in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Why I love it so much?
– it’s tart!
– one-pot dish = less dishwashing!
More German Recipes:
German Curry Wurst Recipe
More One-Pot Recipes:
Traditional Polish Cabbage Stew Recipe
Polish Bean Soup Recipe
More Easy Recipes:
Swabian Potato Salad
German Poor Knights
Solyanka Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp oil sunflower
- 2 onions
- 1 red pepper
- 200 g gammon (7 ounces)
- 200 g Jagdwurst (7 ounces), or any Wurst
- 300 g pickles (10,5 ounces)
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 can tomatoes
- 50 g tomato puree (1,7 ounces)
- 800 ml vegetable broth (3,3 cup)
- 100 ml water from pickles (0,5)
- 1 tbsp paprika powder
- salt
- 2 tbsp mustard
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 100 g sour cream
- white bread
Instructions
Take a large pot and preheat the oil on medium heat.
Dice the onions and pepper. Add them to the pot. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and stir.
Cut gammon and sausage into 1 cm (0,4 inch) cubes. Add them to the pot and stir.
Cut the pickles into 1 cm (0,4 inch) pieces. Add to the pot and stir.
Add crushed garlic, tomatoes from the can, tomato puree, broth, water from the pickles and paprika powder. Let it cook for 30-40 minutes.
Season with salt, mustard and sugar.
Serve hot with one teaspoon of sour cream on the top and bread on the side.
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