ou might know this Sour Rye Soup under the name zurek, zur, or Polish easter soup. You can probably guess by that last name that it is often eaten in Poland during easter. Each region and family has it’s own recipe. I’m a big fan of this soup and like to make it with celeriac to make it a complete meal with enough vegetables.
Zakwas; the base of the soup.
n important ingredient in this Sour rye soup is the “zakwas”. Without it it’s not zurek soup. The zakwas is fermented rye flour, wheat flour, oats or bread in water. They are mixed and put in a jar on the windowstill for a few days. I have not dared yet to make it myself. That is because it can go wrong. The wrong molds and bad bacteria can grow if you are not sure what you are doing. That is why I buy it. If I learn how to make it in the future I will post it here.
You can buy the zakwas in a plastic or glass bottle in Polish stores or on amazon. Pay attention; you only want the zakwas. They also sell the whole Sour rye soup in bottles and that is not what you are looking for. Dried bags of the soup is also not what you are looking for. Zakwas looks like this:
You can see the fermented flour on the bottom of the flask. They all often say “zurek” so you really have to check if it has this fermented residue layer.
Other ingredients or replacements.
e sure to choose potatoes that stay firm after being cooked. Next to celeriac other root vegetables like parsley root, turnip, carrot, parsnips and salsify also go really well in this Sour rye soup. Instead of canned mushrooms you can also use fresh or dried mushrooms. Instead of smallage you can use parsley.
The sausage is prefferably a white Polish kielbasa or German weißwurst. I do not always find these where I live and often use a generic low-spiced pork sausage. You can use any sausage as long as it is not heavily spiced or spiced with paprika, chili or kurkuma. You can use smoked sausages but omit the bacon when you do.
This Sour Rye Soup can be frozen. It is better to freeze them without the cooked eggs though; eggs can become rubbery when frozen. You can keep the soup for 2 days in the fridge, 3 days when you ommit the sourcream.
Sour Rye Soup with Celeriac
6
servings40
minutes807
kcalIngredients
1 1 Celeriac
50 gram 1 3/4 oz Smallage
500 ml 17 fl oz Zakwas
1500 ml 50 2/3 fl oz Water
2 2 Broth cubes, chicken or beef.
150 gram 5 2/7 oz Bacon pieces
1 can 1 can Mushrooms
6 6 Eggs (cooked)
500 gram 17 2/3 oz Sausage
1 1 Onion
2 cloves 2 cloves Garlic
6 6 Potatoes (medium to large)
125 gram 4 2/5 oz Sour cream
1 tbs 1 tbsp Butter or Oil
Salt & Pepper to taste. Lemon optional.
Directions
- If necessary; bake the bacon pieces crispy and brown and cook the eggs. For the bacon you can use the same pan as the soup.
- Peel the potatoes and celeriac and cut them in chunks. Dice the onion. Chop the smallage and garlic in small pieces. Cut the sausage in pieces to your liking.
- Bake the onion, garlic and bacon in the butter or oil until the onion aren’t raw anymore.
- Add the water, broth cubes, the potato and the celeriac. Cook this until they both are done.
- Add the sausage, mushrooms, smallage and zakwas. Cook until the sausage is done.
- Add salt to taste. Depending on what kind of sausage you use it can differ quite a lot how much you need. You can choose to add the sour cream here, or add it while serving. Without sour cream the soup stays 1 day longer okay in the fridge.
- Serve with cooked egg halves, black or white pepper, the sour cream if not added yet and a optional lemon slice to drizzle lemon juice in the soup to make it more sour.
Nutrition Facts
- Calories: 807kcal
- Fat: 54g
- Carbohydrates: 48g
- Protein: 34g
