Sauerkraut Soup (Kapustnica)
Ingredients: sauerkraut, garlic, black pepper, caraway seeds, cloves, nutmeg, bay leaves, dried mushrooms, onion, apples, pork, sausage, red pepper, paprika, sour cream
Prep Time: 1 hour
Please see the new kapustnica recipe. The new pictures are much nicer!
Kapustnica is by far my favorite Slovak dish. It is a soup made with sauerkraut, mushrooms, pork, sausages, and various spices. It’s really delicious and rightfully very popular. It’s traditionally eaten on Christmas, but you will find this soup offered in all Slovak restaurants year around. On Christmas, this soup is typically followed by fried fish with potato salad, and then by a variety of Christmas “cookies”. And finally, right after dinner is when we run to the Christmas tree to open presents.
Start by adding sauerkrat to a large pot. Add about a liter of water. I used a liter jar of sauerkraut from Whole Foods in making this recipe.
Next take two cloves of garlic and do your best to turn them into a paste. I used a food processor to chop up the garlic, and then crushed the chunks in a bowl using a spoon. Add the garlic.
Next add black pepper and caraway seeds
Then add two cloves and crushed nutmeg,
two bay leaves and dried mushrooms.
Then add an onion and two small apples. Also add pork cut into small pieces.
Add more water if needed and let cook for about 20 minutes. While the beef is cooking, take some spicy smoked sausage and cut it into pieces. Sometimes you can find smoked Hungarian sausage that is very similar to what is used in Slovakia. But, if not, then just use your favorite store-stocked brand.
Depending on the sausage you use, you may want to brown it a bit to improve the taste. Add after the soup has cooked for about 20 minutes.
Also add some crushed red pepper and paprika.
Cover and let simmer for 30 minutes.
If you like your soup light, you are done. However, this soup is typically thickened with sour cream.
Mix the thick sour cream available in US stores with about an equal amount of milk. Add a spoon of flour and mix well. Next add the mixture to the soup, and cook for about a minute. Stir as needed.
Enjoy with a slice of rye bread. For another great soup, checkout the recipe for goulash.
really? are you supposed to add sour cream at the end? I did not know that!
[...] of the more complicated recipes on our site with a Czech translation that describes how to make a Slovak Sauerkraut soup (Kapustnica). The recipe is worthy of the translation because it is quite unusual. One of its ingredients includes [...]
my mum doesnt add sour cream into it and its just as nice, maybe a bit lighter.. but english prefer it with the cream, it makes it a bit…well creamier, softer…
Hello I have a recipe for whole dried peas and sourkraut soup we serve at christmas eve dinner.
1. bag of dried peas
2c of sourkraut
1. gallon of water
1. stick of butter
1c of flour
Soak peas over night .To prepare you are going to make a spraska or rue. Melt your butter in a medium pan, Then gradually add the flour until the flour mixture is medium brown. Set aside the sapraska for now, Bring you water to a boil. Then Add your Peas and cook for one hour. You will have to add more Water due to boiling reduction. Add the kraut. The the sapraska. Salt and pepper to your taste. The sapraska Will make this a very thick soup. Some people make it very thick and serve it over mashed potatoes. Enjoy!
My grandma made yukah at christmas also. Instead of millet, she used barley. she used smoked ribs and smoked keilbasa. When i was a kid, i thought i was having a heart attack. mom asked if i ate the yukah, i said yes, she said it was heart burn.
My grandma used to make a sauerkraut soup at Christmas, it was called Yukah, and there wasn’t any apples in it. Here’s the recipe that she used.
Yukah Soup (sauerkraut soup)
1 small rack of baby back ribs cut up into pieces 2 -3 ribs each
4 links Italian sausage
4 links fresh kielbasa
4 links smoked kielbasa
(or as many as you’ll thing you’ll eat)
½ – ¾ cup millet seed (health food store)
3-4 containers of dried mushrooms (any grocery store)
1 container of chicken broth
1 large bag of sauerkraut
1 can of sauerkraut juice (or buy a can of sauerkraut and squeeze out the juice)
Rinse then soak mushrooms in boiling water for 1 hour, retain mushroom liquid, discard stems and cut up into pieces.
Put all meat into pot, just cover with ½ water & ½ chicken broth and simmer for 45min to 1 hour.
Take out meat and set aside. Rib meat should be very tender and almost falling off the bones
Add sauerkraut, mushroom liquid, and add back in water or chicken broth to make up what was lost during cooking.
Cook sauerkraut until tender, then add back in meat, and start with ½ cup Millet seed
Cook until millet seed thickens the soup and the millet seed is tender about 30 min.
If too thick add water or broth.
Use the sauerkraut juice to taste if you like a more sour soup.
Thanks for the note. Where was you grandma from? I don’t know any dish by the name Yukah, but then there is a lot of variety in Slovak cooking, especially for such a small country.
My mother makes a similar recipe, only she makes it with just pork and kielbasa (sometimes hot dogs too) and potatoes. She got it form her mother, who came from Slovakia. It is called Yukah soup, not sure if thats spelled right(seeing it different thinking back at grandmas recipe book), but its pronounced U-ah soup. its a variation of the sauerkraut soup, and im surprised to find anyone else who knows about it. I have searched forever now and I could not find any other recipes, or the proper spelling for it.
Alright, I think I’ve found the answer to this mysterious Yukah. I contacted some friends and relatives, and it turns out that jucha (pronounced yoocha, where the ch is as in Loch), is the word for sauerkraut juice. I don’t think this word is used outside of western Slovakia, at least I have never heard it. The western part of Slovakia has a pretty distinct dialect. Many words are different from what’s spoken in the eastern and central parts and many people from the rest of the country (including me) have a hard time understanding folks from the west.
We found an article (in Slovak) talking about Christmas traditions in Western Slovakia. The first few paragraphs describe this yukah soup and also it’s variant, mačanka. The article starts by stating that Christmas dinner in Western Slovakia contains dishes unknown to the rest of the country. One of these is the jucha soup, made of sauerkraut juice, black pepper, dried peas, plums or dried mushrooms. Sometimes it’s topped with melted butter. The mačanka soup is similar, but contains dried mushrooms, garlic and onion. It’s thickened with flour or sour cream. Mačanka is eaten by soaking pieces of bread in it. This is where the name comes from – máčať, from which the name is derived, means to soak.
Anyway, thanks for bringing this up. I started the website so that Americans can learn more about Slovak cuisine. Turns out, I have plenty to learn as well!!
OK, Kapustnica is something like “religion” to me. I make it a few times a year but there is no Christmas without Kapustnica.
A few differences in recipe. I start with boiling a meat, and I use at least 3 kind of pork meat. Some pork shoulder, some smoked meat (smoked hocks “nozicky” or knees “kolienka”), and some smoked ham. After about 45 min. I take meat out, and put in sauerkraut, seasonings, dried mushrooms, a few dried plumbs, onion, garlic, etc.. I cut the meat into small pieces, get rid of “skin” and use only meat.
I like a “clear soup” and add cut meat back in at the end.
I add “smoked sausage”, sliced into small pieces to each serving when on table, and I put out a bowl of sour cream on table so that everybody puts as much as they like onto their serving.
There is a variation (my mom used to do it) to use some barley to make is more “substantial” I like it more clear and that’s a way I do it.
Hi folks, I updated this recipe. Please see the new sauerkraut soup (kapustnica) recipe for better photos and to leave a comment.
Does anyone know how to make Buchta, the slovak old fashioned veal loaf for sandwiches? Thanks.
Somebody on the Facebook page suggested something called “Sekanice”. Here is the recipe. Is this what you were looking for?
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/sekanice-easter-meatloaf/detail.aspx
Tento recept je riadne hlupy.
Do kapustnice sa dava najprv maso a klobasa, ktore sa musi dlho varit. Potom sa da kapusta, huby a ochuti sa. Cesnak, nutmeg, hromada cibule a jablka tam urcite nepatria.
Hi DK, this recipe is from “Grandmother’s Recipes” (Recepty Starej Mamy). You should try it. I’ve had my share of kapustnica and this one is by far the most delicious.