← Nouns Cooking · Soup Pot

Ingredients

• 15 g dried mushrooms
• 200 ml hot water, for soaking
• 800 g Sauerkraut, with its juice
• 1.75 l Water
• 500 g smoked pork (ribs, hock or shoulder)
• 2 Bay leaves
• 1 tsp Caraway seeds
• ½ tsp Black pepper
• 80 g Prunes, halved
• 2 tbsp Vegetable oil
• 1 Onion, diced
• 3 cloves Garlic, crushed
• 2 tsp sweet paprika
• 300 g smoked paprika sausage (klobása or kielbasa), sliced
• 150 ml Sour cream
• 1 tbsp Plain (all-purpose) flour
• ½ tsp Chilli flakes (optional)
• Salt

Method

1. Soak the dried mushrooms in the hot water for 20 min, then chop them and keep the soaking liquid, leaving any grit behind.
2. Put the sauerkraut and its juice, water, smoked pork, bay leaves, caraway, pepper, prunes, mushrooms and their liquid in a large pot. Bring to a boil, then simmer, covered, for 1 hour, until the pork is tender.
3. Meanwhile heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat and cook the onion for 8 min, until golden. Take off the heat and stir in the garlic and paprika for a few seconds.
4. Lift out the pork, cut the meat into bite-size pieces and return it. Add the onion mixture, sausage and chilli and simmer for 20 min.
5. Whisk the soured cream and flour with a ladle of hot soup, stir it into the pot and simmer for 5 min, until slightly thickened. Taste for salt.
6. Serve hot with rye bread.

Tips

• Kapustnica tastes best a day or two after making; the flavours deepen as it sits.
• For a meatless Christmas Eve version, skip the pork and sausage and double the mushrooms. Cool leftovers quickly, refrigerate within 2 hours and reheat until piping hot.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Slovak Cooking Tasting Table