Ogórkowa (Polish Pickle Soup)
This creamy, savory soup is very popular in Poland, and once you try it for yourself, you'll realize why!
Ingredients
- 8 cups chicken stock (or substitute with vegetable stock)
- 4 large potatoes, peeled and diced
- 4 large carrots, scrubbed and diced
- 2 leeks (white and green parts) halved lengthwise, cleaned, and thinly sliced
- 2 yellow onions, diced
- 1 stalk celery, chopped
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 allspice, whole
- 1 qt sour dill pickles and brine
- 1 Tbsp dried marjoram
- 3 Tbsp dill, chopped
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- kosher salt, to taste
- freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Add the leeks, carrots, celery, onions and allspice to a large stock pot.
- Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 40 minutes.
- While the vegetables are simmering, removed the pickles from their container, reserving their liquid for later, and grate them. In a small saucepan, add the grated pickles in a small amount of water and simmer for 20 minutes, then drain and set aside for the soup.
- Add the garlic and potatoes to the soup and cook about 10 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.
- Remove the allspice from the soup and season with marjoram, salt and pepper.
- Add the grated pickles and reserved pickle juice to the soup.
- Just before serving, stir in the heavy cream and chopped dill. If making ahead to keep in the refrigerator or to freeze, skip this last step and wait until you are going to use the soup, and just before serving, add about 1/2 tsp freshly chopped dill and ½ Tbsp of heavy cream to each portion.