Rabbit Soup (Polievka z Králika)
Ingredients: rabbit bones, 2 carrots, parsnip, one onion, salt, pepper, parsley (for decoration)
Prep Time: one hour
One great aspect of food preparation that has been lost in the transition away from the subsistence farming to the modern supermarket model is the ability to utilize all ingredients to their fullest extent. Nowadays, each food item has a unique, particular role. We buy cream for coffee and whipped cream for hot chocolate without realizing they are just a different form of the same thing. Our ancestors knew how to stretch their food supplies. Bread gone stale? No problem, it went into making dumplings or bread puddings. And to prevent spoiling, meats were smoked and fruits dehydrated or canned for use throughout the long winter.
And I am very much guilty too. Before I got into cooking all these Slovak foods, I would occasionally buy a chicken to bake at home. I wouldn’t think twice about doing anything with the bones – they went straight into the trash can (along with the giblets)! And when I wanted a chicken noodle soup (which I love), I would just buy one of those Campbell soups in a can. Then I watched my grandma in action, and saw how she started by cooking chicken in a pot to make the soup, then took the chicken out, and turned it into the main course. So I decided to try this too, and turned the bones left over from making rabbit on mushrooms into a tasty rabbit soup. It turned out great! Here is the recipe for easy rabbit soup.
Peel two carrots, some parsnip (or parsley root if you can find it), and fry it on oil. This frying is done to induce new flavors in the food, and it’s why stews start with frying of the meat (see Maillard reaction on Wiki for more).
And then just top off with water. I also used the rabbit broth which I saved from cooking rabbit few days ago.
Then add the rabbit bones. Oh, and also add one onion. Season to taste with ground pepper and salt. Cover and cook for at least an hour until the meat starts falling off the bones. If you want, add some rajbanička (grated stiff dough) or noodles before serving. Enjoy!
Like soups? Then try pea soup, sauerkraut soup, green bean soup, and my grandma’s chicken noodle soup. Those are just some of my favorites, there is whole lot more soup recipes for you to choose from.
Thanks for the recipe! 🙂 I have a little homestead, and we ALWAYS use EVERYthing … bones included (for bone broth). If we can’t eat it, the chickens can. If they can’t, the worms can. And if they can’t, I can usually compost it. The only thing that ever gets “thrown away” is the excess fat. I render my own for cooking, but I have more than I can use, so it gets tossed out in the chicken yard, where they pick at some of it. I think I’ll work on making suet for them from some of the excess this winter. Anyway, thanks for publishing the recipe! I am always looking for more rabbit recipes, since I raise rabbits, and recipes are few and far between. I already make a sort of soup from the ribs, but I wanted a different flavor soup, so today I’m making yours. It’s well on the way, and it smells WONDERFUL. (I added minced garlic too.) Thanks again, dinner will be ready soon! Gotta use those ribs on something, there never is much meat on them anyway. 🙂
Use that excess fat that you render for soap.