Dark Mushroom Soup

• I have recently returned from a trip to the Netherlands to visit my old school friend.
• We were invited out to dinner and had a lovely meal, which gave me several ideas for new recipes.
• Our host had cooked venison and had used venison stock to make a soup.
• Now I am unlikely to get any venison in the near future so I decided to used beef stock (from a cube) to make this soup.
• Whilst eating this soup I thought it had ingredients, which could easily be a soup that would be very popular in Poland.
• These were: fresh mushrooms, sauerkraut and smoked bacon. 
• I did not have any flat leaved parsley on the day I made this or I would have used it to garnish the soup.

Ingredients

• 200g mushrooms – white or brown caps.
• 1 large onion 
• 3-4 rashers of smoked bacon
• 100 – 150g sauerkraut 
• 1½ litres of beef stock (can be from cubes or concentrate)
• Sauerkraut liquor – to taste 
• Salt & pepper to taste.
• *
• Flat leaved parsley to serve
  

  Method

• Chop the onion into small chunks.
• Slice the mushroom caps into thin slices.
• Add the onion and mushrooms to the stock.
• Bring to the boil and then let it simmer with a lid on the pan.
• Simmer for around 30 minutes.
• Cut the bacon into thin long pieces.
• Drain sauerkraut and chop it into smaller strands.
• Add the bacon and sauerkraut and let these simmer for another 30 minutes.
• *
• Adjust the sourness with sauerkraut liquor to taste.
• Season to taste.
• *
• Serve with flat leaved parsley if available.