Kapuśniak made with Sauerkraut

In the first year of writing this blog,  I wrote a post – Poles love to eat cabbage and now as I am writing about soups I am going to write about a Polish classic – kapuśniak – cabbage soup.

There are two types – ones made with fresh cabbage (written about in my previous post) and ones made with sauerkraut.

Now I am going to write about ones made with sauerkraut and these are certainly soups that have the sour taste loved by Poles.

As half a large jar is enough for each of the soups, I often freeze the other half of the sauerkraut to use at a later date.

 

Kapuśniak – Version 1

Ingredients

• 400g sauerkraut
• 200g smoked Polish sausage
• 1.5 – 2 litres of vegetable stock (can be from powder or cubes)
• 3-4 peppercorns
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tablespoons of plain flour
• 1 large onion
• Oil for frying (originally pork fat/lard would have been used)
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar
• **
• More sugar & lemon juice  to adjust the sourness might be needed at the end.

 

Method

• Chop the sauerkraut into shorter strands.
• Chop the sausage into small pieces.
• Into a large pot of vegetable stock add the sauerkraut, sausage, peppercorns and bay leaf
• Bring to the boil, then cover the pan and allow it to simmer until the sauerkraut is tender.
• Chop the onion into small pieces and fry up till nearly charred.
• Stir in the flour and heat till well browned.
• Add a couple of tablespoons of soup liquid and stir to get a thick roux.
• Add this onion mixture to the soup, mixing it in well.
• Add the sugar.
• Add salt and pepper if necessary.
• You might want to adjust the sourness which will depend on the sauerkraut used.
• I rarely add more lemon juice but sometimes add a bit more sugar.
• The soup is supposed to be a little sour!

 

 

 

 

 

Served here in Royal Doulton – Burgundy  -1959 to 1981

Kapuśniak – Version 2

Ingredients

• 400g sauerkraut
• 1 onion chopped
• 100g chopped smoked bacon
• 2 litres of vegetable stock
• 1 bay leaf
• 3-4 peppercorns
• 2 large potatoes
• 1/2 teaspoon of caraway seeds
• 1 – 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• **
• More sugar & lemon juice  to adjust the sourness might be needed at the end.

Method

• Chop the sauerkraut into shorter strands.
• Chop the bacon into small pieces.
• Chop the onion into small pieces
• Into a large pot of vegetable stock add the sauerkraut, sausage, peppercorns and bay leaf
• Bring to the boil, then cover the pan and allow it to simmer until the sauerkraut is tender.
• Add the caraway seeds.
• Chop the potatoes into small to medium chunks.
• Add the potatoes to the cooked sauerkraut and simmer gently till cooked.
• Add the sugar.
• Add salt and pepper if necessary.
• You might want to adjust the sourness which will depend on the sauerkraut used.
• I rarely add more lemon juice but sometimes add a bit more sugar.
• The soup is supposed to be a little sour!

 

Served here in Royal Doulton – Tapestry  -1966 to 1988