pickle soup 2.0 (!!)
a new star was born today
As you know, my dearly beloved pickle soup ranks as one of my favorite soups of all time. And with such high status, comes heightened responsibility. I mean I don’t know about you, but when I love something, I’m gonna eat it until I never want to see it again. But I simply couldn’t let that be the case this time. I needed to protect pickle soup. I needed to spice her up, give her another life.
Enter: kielbasa + cabbage.
If you’re an owner of Molly Baz’s cookbook Cook This Book, then you may have seen her K-bas & Cabbage Soup. And if you’re Eastern European like me, you might have seen this very style of soup come through your home as a kid. So when I flipped on to that page in the book about to make it, it got my wheels churning.
My russian dad used to bring this soup home from the store called solyanka. If you thought it was crazy to add pickles to soup, this soup had pickles AND olives. Along with: cabbage, cured meat, potatoes, dill, sour cream - all the usual suspects.
To me, respectfully, as a kid - that shit was not it. But alas, I’ve grown into my pickled food and interesting flavor era. And I realize now, the slightly spicy tomato base paired with briny vegetables and smoky meat was actually pretty fire. And while I’m still not fully on the olive in soup train - I picked my favorite qualities from solyanka + Molly’s recipe and combined them with our beautiful pickle soup.
What we got was just the most hearty, comforting, complex bow of soup. It undoubtedly “heavier” than the pickle soup with the addition of tomato paste and kielbasa - but that briny flavor from the pickles + sweetness of carrots still uplifts the soup in a very needed way. And now I have a new soup to hyperfixate on. Maybe you will too!
(serves about 4 people, unless you’re really really hungry and also have a really really hungry boyfriend, then it feeds 2 and leaves you feeling sad you had no leftovers lol)
pickle soup 2.0:
1 lb green cabbage, quartered, core removed, and cut into 1” strips
12 oz polska kielbasa (beef or pork works)
2 cups gold potatoes, cubed into 1/2” pieces
2 large carrots, finely grated
3 celery stalks, halved + thinly sliced
1 medium sweet onion, diced
1 leek, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 cup grated pickles (not vinegar based, my fave is bubbies)
1 bay leaf
1 heaping tbsp tomato paste
2 cups chicken broth
3 cups of water
1 cup pickle brine
large handful of dill
salt + tons of black pepper to taste
sour cream to serve
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
Heat a large dutch oven over medium heat. Add butter and garlic. Once lightly golden, add the grated pickles. Cook on medium heat until softened and slightly golden - about 5 minutes. Remove from the pot and set aside.
Cut the kielbasa link in half crosswise, then into about 1” pieces. Add 1 tbsp oil to the pot on medium high heat, and add kielbasa. Cook until browned and delicious. Sneak a few pieces just to try of course.
Turn heat down to medium and add the onions and leeks, cooking until softened, about 4 minutes. Add celery, potatoes and 1/2 the shredded carrots, sauteing for a few minutes until everything is just lightly golden. Mix in the cabbage, and cook until it’s softened. Stir frequently so nothing burns. Add the tomato paste, stirring until darkened, 2 minutes. Season with black pepper and just a 1 tsp of salt or so for now - the pickles bring a lot of the salt later.
Add the broth and water to the pot and once simmering, add the other half of the carrots. Cover the pot slightly and simmer for 20 minutes, until potatoes are fully tender and the cabbage has cooked down and is very tender, but still has a little bite.
Stir in the grated pickles and HALF of the pickle brine. Mix, tasting it - add the other half of the brine if you want more saltiness and briny flavor. I do the whole cup, but go off your taste. Stir in a large handful of chopped dill.
Serve topped with sour cream, more dill and black pepper. YUUUUUUMMAYY!
I’m making this for dinner again tonight. Let me know if you try it!
BTW!
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Have the best Sunday ever <33333 Tag me if you try this!
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xoxo, katie