Souped-up traditions: Potato soup across European cuisines
A simple soup with potatoes and root vegetables is easy and quick to prepare. You just need to cover the vegetables with water. The taste is enhanced by sautéed onions and 3 tablespoons of butter.
Simple potato soup pleasantly warms and fills you up. It is perfect for a regular lunch, and the addition of sweet cream provides a delicate creamy finish. You can prepare the soup in both vegetarian versions or with the addition of meat, such as sausage or boiled bacon. The vegetable version also tastes great when blended into a cream soup.
Potato soup in various national cuisines
In Germany, Kartoffelsuppe is served with sausages, in Romanian cuisine, no cream is added, and in Macedonia, spicy pepper is added to the broth. Potato soup is also known in the Czech Republic as Bramboračka. There it is cooked with mushrooms.
Is potato soup thickened with roux?
You can thicken potato soup with roux. How to do it? In a pan, mix 1 tablespoon of flour with 3 tablespoons of butter. When the ingredients combine, add the broth from the soup. Mix it, then pour it into a large pot. You can add cream to the soup with roux, but it is not necessary. If you want the potato soup to be thicker, add another tablespoon of flour.
The simplest potato soup recipe with or without sausage
For traditional potato soup, you don't need broth, but aromatic spices and herbs come in handy. A few minutes before the end of cooking, add dried marjoram, and sprinkle the finished potato soup with chopped fresh herbs.
Ingredients:
- 450 grams of potatoes,
- 2 onions,
- 3 carrots,
- 1 parsley root,
- 1 litre of water,
- 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil,
- 3 tablespoons of butter,
- bay leaf, marjoram, salt, pepper, turmeric,
- 3 tablespoons of 30% cream,
- 1 tablespoon of wheat flour,
- parsley, dill,
- optional 200 grams sausage.
Instructions:
- Pour vegetable oil into a large pot and sauté finely chopped onion in it.
- Peel and dice the vegetables. Add them to the onion and cover with water.
- Add a bay leaf and simmer for about 30 minutes. Reduce the heat after it starts boiling.
- When the vegetables are soft, add butter and optionally diced sausage. Season with salt, pepper, marjoram, and turmeric. Cook for another 10 minutes.
- Finally, add cream mixed with a tablespoon of flour. Heat for 5 more minutes on low heat.
- After serving on plates, sprinkle with fresh herbs: dill and parsley.
