Lettuce Soup (Šalátová Polievka)
Ingredients: one head of iceberg lettuce, 30g of butter, 35g of flour, 0.5L of water, 0.5L of milk, sugar, vinegar, dill
Prep Time: 20 minutes
In Slovakia, we sure do eat some strange soups! There is the sauerkraut soup (kapustnica), garlic soup, and the topic of this recipe, soup made out of pretty much nothing but iceberg lettuce. Still, this is one of my favorite Slovak dishes, although I do admit it is bit of an acquired taste. You should definitely try it.
Start by preparing "zápražka" by browning 30g of flour (múka) on butter (maslo). Add 0.5L of water (voda) and bring to boil. Use a wooden spoon to break up any remaining flour chunks.
Dissolve the remaining flour in 0.5L of milk (mlieko). Add to the pot and let everything boil.
Chop up one head of iceberg lettuce (šalát) and add to the soup. Use only the outer, green leafy parts. Next season the soup with salt (sol), sugar (cukor) and vinegar (ocot). I used about one tablespoon of salt, 2 tablespoons of sugar and 5 tablespoons of vinegar. Boil the soup until the lettuce gets tender (about 5 minutes).
Finally, chop up few stems of dill (kôpor) and add to the finished soup.
And there you have it, the lettuce soup. Serve with a slice of hearty bread.
This is great looking salat soup! Very – very good looking soup – better than mine.
this is one dish that there is definitely nothing similar to in the US. I think in general I have not had a soup that had such a strong dill flavor. It was pretty good though. i wonder if you could maybe add some more things to it like some potatoes or something.
and I thought the dill was rather on the mild side. People in Slovakia sure eat a lot of dill. Sarah also got me hooked on adding dill to salads…
Unusual but tasty. It might take a few spoonfuls to grow on you, but its worth the effort. Needs a good Slovak bread to go with it…
Yes, Alex you can add anything to this soup. I am from Slovakia and I know some people make it with potatoes or some dumplings.
AHOJ JUST READ YOUR SITE “STUFF ” AND MADE THE LETTUCE SOUP…I HAVE FRIENDS IN SLOVAKIA … I VISIT THEM ON A REGULAR BASIS BOJNICE AREA…THEY SWEAR BY THIS SOUP AS IN ” VYBORNE” I MUST SAY I HAVE HAD RESERVATIONS TO TRY THIS SOUP…. VELMI DOBRE …OR ” YUMMY”
ANOTHER THOUGHT …..ANYTHING ADDED TO THIS ETHNIC DISH WILL SURELY CHANGE THE UNUSUAL SIMPLICITY OF A VERY TASTY SOUP…SURE MY FRIENDS HAVE LITTLE ” REGIONAL ADDITIONS” BUT ( IFEEL THIS A DIFFERENT SOUP THEN) ARE YOU FOLLOWING ME WITH THIS,,,????
I FEEL THE HIDDEN TASTE IS IN THE ” PURITY ” OF THE RECIPE …KEEP IT SIMPLE AND DON’T ADD TOO MANY LAYERS TO THE THING…..I WILL KEEP YOU POSTED ON SOME OF MY RECIPES FROM MY OLDER FRIENDS IN THE BOJNICE BOBOT/LEHATO AREA.. GREAT SITE JOE P.S HOW ABOUT SVILKA??? A BEET RELISH??? ANY THOUGHTS ON THIS ONE….
I am glad you liked it! It’s one of my favorites. Next you should try making kapustnica. It’s our traditional Christmas dish.
OK, here is a question. Does anybody have a good recipe na drzkovu polievku?
I don’t know how you call it in English but you of Slovak origin know what I am talking about
My grandmother made a dish of bread dough with a filling of cheese and mashed potatos.This was then rolled out in a big round,baked in the oven,and brushed with browned butter.Can anyone tell me what this is called?
This is similar to the oma’c~ka my mother made with spinach (instead of lettuce). I also make a similar soup from my mother–for which I really don’t use a recipe–that is made with the za’praz~ka base (which includes the addition of a few slices of lean bacon cut into small pieces), chicken broth (instead of water), fresh green beans, a dash of vinegar, a little chopped dill, and a good dollop of sour cream in the nearly finished soup, plus another on top of the soup as it is served.
I thought you might enjoy trying this out; it was a special treat many years ago for our family when we could pick the beans from the vegetable garden in our backyard and bring them straight to the soup pot.
Your recipes are wonderful, and I hope there is a Slovak cookbook in your future!
My gramma used to make this and passed the recipe to me. I never knew it was an actual “dish” until now!
Hi Micki, thanks for stopping by. Yup, the lettuce soup is a really popular dish in Slovakia. By the way, how did you stumble upon this recipe?
Try to have some hard-boiled egg with this soup. Gives it beautiful combination on green and yellow and tastes really nice !
My mom use to make this soup and I hate it, I called this soup Onuckova polievka
What??? This is one of my favorites!
But yes, it is definitely an acquired taste.
I’m so sorry
what kind of a lettuce are the best for this soup? (I live in Florida)
Thanks
As far as I know, it’s made exclusively with iceberg lettuce. But feel free to experiment and let me know hot it turns out.
My mother used the leaf lettuce from our garden.
Both my grandmas, my mother, and myriad aunts all made this soup. In fact, they also made pumpkin soup, stringbean soup, potato soup, cabbage soup (not kapustnica) – all of them started by making a roux. There were weekly variations. The quality of the bread served with any good Slovak soup is extremely important. Ideally, it is also home made, a large round loaf with a thick, crisp crust that you tear rather than slice.
Definitely agree with you on the bread part. That’s why I got into baking my own; it just tastes so much better than the store bought stuff. And funny thing you mention “roux”. I only learned recently that this is what zápražka is called in English (French really, I guess). For the longest time I had no idea how to translate the word. I was reading through some cookbook, and came upon a recipe which called for making roux. The description sounded exactly like what is done in Slovak cooking.
many years ago, my gramma taught me to cook some wonderful hungarian meals. of course our favorite has always been cabbage rolls but my sons love lettuce soup. the difference is, we make the white sauce and some water and TONS OF SOUR CREAM. if i have bacon i also put that in the soup. now all of my grandchildren like it also.
my aunt made this soup years ago but add polish sausage, bacon pieces, and cubed potatoes. I couldn’t get enough of this soup. she passed the reciepy to my father who use to make it really good, however he started taking alot of short cuts and totally ruined the flavor. My father has since passed away and no one else in the family knew how to make this soup. I have been looking for this reciepy for years. I actually stumbled on it totally accidentally. I am so excited to have finally found it and can’t wait to make it. thank you sooo much for sharing it, i’ll let you know how it comes out and what my family thinks of it.
I think carraway seeds would be good in this soup, my mum uses them, we are from Bratislava, living now in Australia. Kapusta is my all time loved soup. I love this site
lettuce soup my mother put some smoked meat
into the soup. it added flavour
my mother put some smoked meat into the lettuce
soup It added flavour