I remember when I was first making pizza “from real scratch,” it would go something like this: Make the mozzarella cheese. Then use the whey to make the dough… When I had time to do it, it was very satisfying.
So it was the same with this soup, which started a month ago with: First make the sauerkraut.
Well, not exactly, but kind of. It was more like: I made all this sauerkraut, now what am I going to do with it? I looked at a few soup recipes online, but they weren’t very interesting. And, to tell you the truth, I was skeptical about sauerkraut soup. I was looking for something to really temper, if not mask, the sauerkraut. Finally, I went to the Bar Tartine cookbook and found another sumptuous soup.
Steve has been paying me high compliments on my cooking lately. About this soup, he said there was nothing better than coming inside after a long day in the cold and damp and smelling, then eating, a hot, flavorful soup. That’s what I was going for, actually.
That, and using a lot of garden ingredients. I still have a sizable pail of ancho poblano peppers on the counter. They’re shriveling, but still pretty fresh. The Bar Tartine recipes call for a lot of peppers, usually a mix of serrano and bell, and I find a bunch of poblanos fall right in the middle. This recipe was clearly going to be way too spicy for me– 4 serrano chilis AND 10 dried chipotle or arbol chiles!– so I just used six poblanos and put in a half teaspoon of cayenne pepper paste near the end, as well as really hot sausage. As it was, Steve must have gotten a chunk of cayenne or something (probably from the sausage), because he was teary from the spice (or love of soup) by the end. I didn’t find it to be too spicy at all, and what spice there was mixed wonderfully with the sourness of the sauerkraut.
In all, I got to use 8 ingredients from the garden: garlic, onion, sauerkraut/cabbage, potato, tomato, poblano chile, cayenne chile, and fennel seed, which I used instead of caraway (not a fan of caraway seed).
The added ingredients were chicken broth, dried apricots, sausage (some Hunters brats from the meat market), local mushrooms, bay leaves and paprika. I skipped the bacon (sausage and bacon?) because I never have bacon, and, as I say, some of the hot peppers. Below is my adapted recipe for the soup. I’m so glad when I find it posted somewhere online, so I feel free to share it! For the recipe as it appears in the cookbook, click here.
Sauerkraut Soup
(adapted from Bar Tartine: Techniques and Recipes)
2 quarts low-sodium chicken broth
3 cups drained sauerkraut
1 cup reserved sauerkraut brine
1 pound dry sausage with some heat, sliced into ¼-inch half moons
8 ounces button or crimini mushrooms, stemmed and halved
4-6 ancho poblano chile peppers, seeded and large dice
1-2 onions, diced
½ cup dried apricots, dried sour cherries, prunes or apple, roughly chopped
12-16 ounces russet potatoes, peeled and diced (I used more than the 8 oz called for, and will increase it next time.)
2 large tomatoes, cored and diced with their juice (or 15 oz canned tomato with juice)
12 garlic cloves, finely chopped (I just sliced mine, as it’s in the soup a while)
3 tablespoons hot paprika (mine was sweet but smoked. The recipe called for 5 Tbs and this is what gives it the red flavor. If the paprika is really fresh, it can overwhelm a soup.)
1 tablespoon caraway seeds, toasted, or fennel, hyssop, or other earthy spice you like
2 bay leaves
Salt, to taste (I used 1 Tbs hickory-smoked salt in the recipe)
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Sour cream, for garnish (Don’t skip this– it adds a lot to the soup.)
1. In a large pot over medium-high heat, combine the broth, sauerkraut and brine, sausage, mushrooms, peppers, onions, apricots and potatoes, and bring to a simmer. Cover and adjust the heat to medium low and cook until the potatoes are just tender, about 20-30 minutes.
2. Add the tomatoes, garlic, paprika, caraway/fennel seeds and bay leaves. Season with salt and continue to simmer, uncovered, until the potatoes are just about to fall apart, about 20 minutes longer. Remove and discard the bay leaves.
3. To serve, ladle the soup into individual bowls and garnish with sour cream and pepper. Make ahead: The soup can be made, covered and stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.
This is such an interesting recipe! I have been loving your posts lately, Susan! What is fascinating to me about this is that sauerkraut or pickled cabbage soups as I know them have been entirely full of East European flavors — which this includes with the sour cherries and sour cream — but I would never have imagined that a pepper with any sort of heat would work well in such a dish. I have to make a vegan-ized version of this for my family. It is soup season, after all!