Mushroom Soup (Hubová Polievka)
Ingredients: 1oz dried mushrooms (or 8oz fresh ones), 5 cups water, 3 large potatoes, 4 slices thick smoked bacon, 2 tablespoons flour, 2 tablespoons sour cream, salt
Prep Time: 30 minutes
My friends Chris and Patricia came for a weekend visit during my 2010 trip to Slovakia. They live in or near Munich. I took them on a short country tour: Bratislava (the capital), Bojnice (fairytale castle and a spa) and Banská Bystrica (my beautiful hometown). And of course, the tour involved much sampling of Slovak food. Chris very much enjoyed the Slovak cuisine, but Patricia was little less impressed. See, Patricia is vegetarian and as it appears, in Slovakia, bacon is considered to be a vegetable.
In keeping with this tradition, in this recipe I show you how to prepare a really easy, tasty and quick “vegetarian” soup. It’s made of mushrooms, potatoes, and of course, bacon.
Ingredients for Slovak mushroom soup
Start by putting salted water (in a pot, of course!) on the stove. Then peel potatoes (zemiaky), rinse them off and cut into cubes. Add these into the pot. Also, rinse off the dried mushrooms (sušené huby or hríby) and add to the pot. The rinse is just in case – I actually found a twig of sorts in the finished soup.
While the potatoes are cooking, start preparing bacon bits (škvarky). Cut the bacon (slanina) slices into small pieces and fry them. It helps to drain the fat, this seems to decrease the time needed for the fat to melt away. At the end, drain off most of the fat (tuk) and add about two spoonfuls of flour (múka). Brown this mixture and add to the pot once the potatoes and mushrooms are soft.
Then add two spoonfuls of sour cream (kyslá smotana). Let everything go through boil and you are done. Very easy! Serve with good bread. The bread in the photo is my home-baked rye bread.
This was one of my favorites growing up. I’d make it in a flash, but my family’s vegetarian, too. Maybe I can make a whole lot for myself.
I think my family’s was from your hometown, the Bella’s, ring a bell?
Whoops, I meant my other half of the family, the Hinlicky’s.
Hey Lubos, you did not take them to my beautiful hometown of Zvolen?! They missed a lot! 🙂
Just teasing you.
We used to do mushroom soup a lot, back home we used to do it from fresh mushrooms, “dubaky” were the best. Many of my family members were vivid mushroom pickers, not me, I did not know a difference and would probably picked a poisoned one. Of course after all mushrooms “came home” they were dried in an oven, stored and used later on.
I love mushrooms, taste of it in anything, egg omelet, “kapustnica”, beef with mushroom, anything with mushrooms … 🙂
All these soups look so delicious. I think I still have some dried mushrooms I brought from Slovakia last time(Is it even legal?).
I remember going to woods with my dad and picking mushrooms, we always left very early in the morning(too many mushroom pickers on weekends. It was a lot of fun trying not to cross military areas(we used to go to Zahorie).
Heidi, I am sure you can try to make this soup without bacon. It’s not going to be the same, but I think it can be still tasty.I would saute onions first, then adding mushrooms and potatoes and for some flavor mabe some vegetable stock?
Lucia,
potešila som sa, že je tu niekto zo Západného Slovenska. Už som mala pocit, že všetci americkí Slováci sú z Východu. Máte pravdu, Záhorie je hubársky raj. Mali ste povolenie pre vstup do vojenského priestoru?
Joys,
don’t know if that counts but last 13 years before we left for the US (1965-78), I lived in Bratislava. My sister still lives there. Maybe that makes me at lest partially being from Zapadneho Slovenska.
Yes! I am coming back in three weeks, flying to Bratislava, looking forward to it 🙂
You can get non meat flavored bacon bits from spiceexpress.net, they also have great prices on all spices!
We made this recipe last week and it was so good! I can’t wait to make it again! 🙂 Dakujem!
I made a variation on this soup this past weekend for a St. Nicholas dinner at the Slovak embassy here in D.C. This new version was the “Christmas mushroom soup”, and it’s a combination of couple different recipes found online. You should try it, it turned out great.
You will need onions, potato (not a lot), prunes, dried mushrooms (I used forest mix, portabella, and shitaake), heavy cream, sour cream, flour and oil.
Put the mushrooms in a water bath. Some people say to use hot water, some to use cold. I don’t really know which one works better. I used warm water.
Dice the onions and brown them on oil. Add water and the mushrooms. Season with salt, black pepper, and a small amount of red pepper. Also add one clove garlic if you like. Cut the prunes into thin strips and add to the soup. Peel the potato and cube into small pieces. Add in as well. Cook for about 20 minutes (my batch was few gallons so it took longer). Roughly speaking, there was half the amount of mushrooms in potato and also in prunes, and enough water to make the soup quite watery.
Thin sour cream with regular cream and also whisk in flour. This flour is supposed to keep the cream from coagulating. Yet in this soup, this cream still turned into chunks. The same thing happened when my mom made a separate batch. There is usually little bit of coagulation, but this time we ended up with very large chunks. Perhaps it had to do with the mushrooms or the prunes reacting in some interesting way with the cream.
Regardless, the chunks can be easily taken care off by squishing them on the side of the pan. You can also strain out some smaller ones with a small strainer. The soup will end up looking very much like shown here: http://receptar.zena.atlas.sk/vianocna-hribova-polievka/polievky/650.html. Except that this one was little more red due to the hot pepper.
Try whisking the flour into the cream first. If you see little lumps strain them out. Then add the sour cream to the flour and cream mixture. I always add flour TO the liquid, never liquid to flour. It tends to clump and lump that way.
The soup sounds very good.
Stay with this guys, you’re hepinlg a lot of people.
Hi Lubos,
When I was growing up in western Pennsylvania we had a traditional Slovak Christmas meal. I remember going to the mushroom farm with my Dad and Grandpap. I presume it was for the same soup. However, I think they made a vegetarian version (just brown the flour in butter, no bacon) since we ate at my maternal Grandparents house on Christmas Eve and, of course, there is no meat on Christmas Eve in Catholic households. Another twist is I think we kids didn’t like mushrooms. So I think they made 2 versions and this second version (pea and potato soup) is the one that survived in our family. My cousin still has the traditional mushroom soup.
Do you have another pea and potato soup recipe or am I right that they “catered” to us kids?
Thanks,
John
My family has a mushroom soup for Christmas eve that is fairly specific to my family and the area I grew up in Cleveland, OH. I’ve seen a only one instance of the recipe outside of that area. We call the soup Uha, but I’ve seen it caller marchanka (or something very close to that). Our soup is made with water, sauerkraut juice, garlic, fresh mushrooms and dried cepes mushrooms from Europe. The soup is thickened with a zapraska. It’s then served with little square egg noodles.
Wouldn’t be Christmas without it. I am the only family member (besides my Mom) who knows how to make this.
Have you ever heard of it? And do you know where we got the name “Uha” from? The only thing I’ve ever found about it is that it is a generic name for chowder in Russian.
Yup, it’s actually “jucha” and it’s something that totally surprised me first time I heard that name. Turns out its an eastern-Slovak term. You can read more about this here http://www.slovakcooking.com/2009/recipes/kapustnica/#comment-194. Jucha is the name for sauerkraut juice in that part of the world…
The same is true with machanka. Both are soups that are more popular in the eastern part of Slovakia. Which part of Slovakia did you family come from?
Gee, I just realized that you answered my Uha question! I must have forgotten to respond! Thanks so much for the correction of the spelling. I see Jucha recipes all over the internet now. My family always spelled it “uha”. I had no idea.
Both sides of my family are of Slovak ancestry. My grandparents came over in the early 1900’s. My foodways come from my Mom’s side, which was from eastern Slovakia, which fits with the origin of the soup. I don’t recall the specific areas, but I’ll have to ask my family. Can’t wait to tell my Mom what the real name is. 🙂
I’m from Cleve. too St Benedict’s area your soup sounds more like the soup I grew up with. We didn’t use garlic-gram said was too “strong” for the soup and fought with the doumplings I have no idea of how she made the tiny doumplings which were not halushky more like little bread balls with a filling tiny like a thumb nail
This soup was ok. The bacon grease added alot of bacony taste. Do you know of other alternative. I remember my mother making this soup and it was one of my favorites.
you don’t need to use bacon at all. You can use just a butter, or olive oil, and skip a bacon. It just as good though less filling
Reads well but not what I grew up with will look for and post.(I turned soup into mushroom pate in wholewheat puff pastery as an hor’ dourve. Ours had no meat was for Christmas eve with dumplings with honey and walnuts on top to cut the sour of the sourkrout juice in the soup. Too much as a kid love it now.
Hi George, try this one: http://www.slovakcooking.com/2010/recipes/potato-soup-zemiakova-polievka/ That is the more soupy version.
My grandmother made a delicious aspic dish with pork knuckles, garlicy … phonetically pronounced “shtudena” … do you or anyone else recognize this dish? … AND may possibly have a recipe for it … is it a Slovak, Polish Or Hungarian dish ? Thanx much.
Studennina – Also called Huspenina, or Sulc – “Jellied Pigs Feet”
5 lbs fresh Pigs feet
15-25 Cloves garlic, peeled
2-3 onions
Salt & Pepper
5 lbs pigs feet cleaned & cut into 1/4’s. Put into large pot cover with water add 15-25 cloves Garlic, 2-3 chopped onions, Salt & pepper. Cook on med heat for 3-4 hours stirring often. Let cool, skim off visible fat/grease, pour into containers* set in very cold porch or refrigerator. Let jell overnight, rinse off fat that hardens at the top under warm water or scrape with a spoon. Eat cold served with paprika & or vinegar on top and sliced raw onions.
*The new large square glad containers are perfect for this, lids fit tight and can be frozen too.
This was my Father favorite dish.
I haven’t had pigs feet for ages. The stores in my area don’t sell them.
We also make mushroom soup for Christmas but we make it with kobassa (not sure how to spell it) or dobrecinka (again not sure of the spelling). We use bacon fat with flour to thicken and then go on a diet till next Christmas.
My moms mushroom soup for Christmas,
In a large soup pot add four quarts of water. 24 ounces of sliced white mushrooms or 2.lbs of wild mushrooms. /Four large white potatoes. cook until potatoes are done. Then make a rue. You may use one stick of butter and one and a half cups of flour . In a sauce pan Melt butter stir in flour and brown to your choice.. Add salt and pepper and the rue to your soup. The soup will thicken. Serve and enjoy.
Lubos, you recipes are SO good and accurate ! I have been using your recipes and they are exactly tasting as in CR and SR. The problem in USA is having the type/quality of ingredients used to make “genuine” foods. One of the biggest differences is the quality of cabbage (Zeli, Kapusta). I make my own kysele zeli/kvasene kapusta using the recipe of Stara Matka, and it is very good, but it is just not the same as I get in CR/SR.
ALE, please keep adding to your website. Je VYBORNE !
We make similar, no bacon, we use sliced smoked kielbasa and sliced hard boiled eggs. Also about one cup of half and half (lessen the water by a cup) and 6-7 tablespoons sour cream.
Christmas Eve—first course.
Buy bag of dried cranberry beans in dollar store and soak over night—discard any bad beans—cook in large soup pot with water. Cook until almost tender—they will cook some more with additional ingredients
Rinse a large can of sauerkraut and add to soup pot. Do not use juice.
Cut up dried mushrooms and rinse to remove dirt,etc. While beans are cooking, cook cut up dried mushrooms in medium pot of boiling water and drain. You will do this three times because the water will be black and will lighten up with each boil. I use two pots of boiling water to speed up process. Add cooked and drained dried mushrooms to your soup pot of sauerkraut and beans. Add salt and pepper to taste. Fry chopped onion in butter until translucent. Using slotted spoon scoop out onions to soup mixture. Make your rue/zapraska in butter from onions and add to soup pot to thicken broth. Our family likes a real thick broth—not thin like a normal broth. Before I forget you can buy dried mushrooms at the Italian store since my grandfather and dad passed away and no one goes picking them—it was my job to clean them and string them!
Let everything heat up and enjoy with homemade buttered bread. Don’t forget to eat your oplatkey with honey first and make your Christmas greeting/prayer.
5 cups of water? That’s very little.. how many servings is this recipe for?
We always had mushroom (sour)soup on Christmas Eve, but never with bacon. We didn’t have meat on Christmas eve.