Kapusniak – Ukrainian Sauerkraut Soup with Smoked Pork
My mother used to make kapusniak quite often – sauerkraut soup on meat or chicken broth, with a little millet or rice added. Back then it was an affordable everyday soup. My grandmother in the village fermented cabbage in large batches, so there was never a shortage of it. Besides, the soup is simple and fairly quick to make, with nothing exotic in it.
Hot soups with sauerkraut exist in almost every European cuisine. More often than not, these recipes are traditional for many holidays and even classic for their region. Here, kapusniak is made with cabbage squeezed out of its brine and braised before it goes into the soup. In the rest of Europe it's the other way around – cabbage brine is often added, which makes the dish more sour. Further east, a similar sauerkraut soup is known as shchi.
Soups like this turn out great without meat too – they can be made on vegetable or mushroom stock. That makes them ideal for vegetarians and for religious fasting periods. Though I don't quite get the latter, since the soup has to be finished with sour cream. And honestly, on meat broth it's far tastier. The finished soup is often even dressed with salo pounded with garlic – that's the height of the craft.
The tastiest sauerkraut soup is made on broth from lightly smoked pork. Frying the vegetables and the sauerkraut gives the dish its special flavor. All the ingredients go into the pot one after another, each after its own preparation. The vegetables are fried as for any hearty soup base. The sauerkraut is braised and added when the soup is almost ready.
We ferment white cabbage in jars ourselves, trying to keep it crunchy and not too sour. At markets, cabbage is often fermented with apples, cranberries and other additions. I don't like that, but I'm all for carrots in the sauerkraut.
The best choice for the meat broth is polendvytsia. It's a lightly smoked and cured beef or pork loin cut from a particular part of the carcass. It's seasoned with fragrant spices and garlic, and before smoking the meat is stuffed into a casing or wrapped and tied tightly. It's cured that way too. On its own the meat makes a superb snack, and it gives an excellent, aromatic broth.
Ingredients
2 servings
- Sauerkraut 0.5 kg
- Smoked pork 250 g
- Carrot 1
- Potatoes 1
- Onion 1
- Butter 1 tbsp
- Garlic, pork salo optional
- Salt, black pepper, flour to taste
- Parsley, dill, sour cream for serving
Step-by-step recipe
- Before you start cooking the kapusniak, get all the ingredients ready. Set aside the sauerkraut and squeeze it lightly. We don't use the brine in this recipe. If the cabbage is cut into coarse, thick strips, chop it a bit with a knife. Peel the vegetables. Slice the onion into thin strips and grate the carrot. Peel the potatoes and cut them into cubes.
- Pour 6 cups of water into a pot and put it on the heat. For a rich broth I used smoked pork neck. It's easy to buy, so there's no need to hunt for special meat. By the way, I think smoked pork ribs, as for pea soup, would also give a good result. Cut the meat into large pieces – 2-3 per serving – and put them in the water. Simmer the broth gently for 1 hour. Then transfer the meat to a plate and cover it. Keep the broth on the lowest heat.
- Ideally, the vegetables and sauerkraut should be ready by the time the broth is done. Melt 1 tbsp of butter in a frying pan. Fry the onion strips in it until soft and lightly golden. Add the grated carrot and fry everything together over low heat, stirring often. When the onion and fat turn a pleasant orange from the carrot, add 1 level tbsp of wheat flour.
- Stir the flour and fried vegetables thoroughly so no lumps form. Add 1-2 ladles of meat broth. Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, for 10 mins. You'll get a slightly thick flour-and-vegetable base. You can pour it into a bowl for the time being.
- Transfer the sauerkraut to a clean frying pan. Add a ladle of broth and braise the cabbage, covered, for 15 mins. If you like, you can add cabbage brine instead of broth, but then the kapusniak will be more sour. If the broth is done by the time the dressings are ready, you can finish the soup.
- Add the flour-and-vegetable base and the braised sauerkraut to the boiling broth. Add the cubed potatoes. Season the soup with pepper to taste and salt it very carefully. Salt may well be unnecessary, since smoked meat and sauerkraut are salted during preparation. At this stage a little grain is often added – millet, rice or buckwheat. Simmer the soup over low heat for 20-25 mins, until the potatoes are cooked.
- Right before the end of cooking, the soup is traditionally dressed with salo pounded with garlic. I don't do that, but when serving I add 1 tbsp of diced salo, fried until crisp, to each bowl. As for garlic, if you like, simply serve it on the side. Ladle the finished kapusniak into bowls. Put pieces of the boiled meat and the cracklings into the soup. Finely chop the herbs and add them to the bowl or serve them on a separate saucer. Be sure to add sour cream – it's one of the key ingredients.
- Serve the soup while it's hot. It's almost as popular as red borscht. Crumbly buckwheat is often served on the side with soups like this. Besides the meat, you can add fried wild mushrooms to the soup – they improve the flavor. If you decide to make the broth with regular meat, it's better to take beef brisket and add a little ground coriander to the broth.
| Yield: | 2 servings |
| Calories: | 85 |
| Prep: | 1 h |
| Cooking: | 30 mins |
| Ready in: | 1 h 30 mins |
| Category: | Soups |
| Cuisine: | Ukrainian cuisine |
| Rating: |
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4.8
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