Buy all ingredients right below the recipe
INGREDIENTS
- 2 tablespoons of lard
- a pinch of crushed caraway seeds
- 1 tablespoon of sweet paprika
- a pinch of hot paprika
- 60 g of plain flour
- 1.2 l of chicken broth
- 500 g of white sauerkraut
- 2 bay leaves
- 350 g peeled potatoes
- 200 g cooked smoked meat
- salt
- pepper
- 60 g of granulated sugar
- 4–6 tablespoons of sour cream
- 260 g of onion
INSTRUCTIONS
- 1Heat the lard in a pot, add finely chopped onion and let it become slightly translucent. Add crushed caraway seeds, paprika, plain flour and sauté for 1 minute. Pour in the broth and mix.
- 2Squeeze the sauerkraut and set the brine aside. Coarsely chop the sauerkraut and add it to the broth along with a third of the sour brine. Add bay leaves, potatoes cut into 1 cm cubes, and simmer on low heat for 15 minutes. Add smoked meat cut into cubes the same size as the potatoes and cook for another 5 minutes. Remove the bay leaves and season the soup with salt, pepper, and if necessary, sugar and sauerkraut brine. Serve with a spoonful of sour cream.
Tip
Preferably use meat from ribs. Alternatively, you can use smoked pork shoulder or meat from smoked knuckle.
If the smoked meat needs to be boiled to soften, cook it separately in water, not in the soup – it would have too much of a "smoked" taste.
Crushed caraway seeds are better than whole ones, they give the soup a more pronounced flavor. The same goes for pepper. Always sprinkle caraway seeds at the beginning, into the hot fat, as this is the only way to fully develop their aroma.
Instead of smoked meat, you can add sausage (such as paprika or Ostrava sausage) to the soup, cut into pieces and fried in a pan.
Roman Vaněk
Tip: For an especially delicate flavor, you can finish the sauce with a drop of lemon juice. Homemade spaetzle or wide noodles, which perfectly soak up the creamy sauce, are an excellent side dish.