Monday, November 10, 2008

My roots are showing
--Sauerkraut Soup





Sauerkraut Soup

Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook Copyright 2000

1 lb. smoked Polish sausage, cut into ½-inch pieces
5 medium potatoes, cubed I only added 2 or 3
2 large onions, chopped I added half of a very large onion
2 large carrots, cut into ¼-inch slices I added 3 or 4 carrots
42-45 oz. can chicken broth
32-oz. can or bag sauerkraut, rinsed and drained
6-oz. can tomato paste

1. Combine all ingredients in large slow cooker. Stir to combine.
2. Cover. Cook on High 2 hours, and then on Low 6-8 hours.
3. Serve with rye bread.
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Both my mother's and father's families come from Poland and my husband's family comes from Russia or close to it so dishes like this are a natural fit for us. We grew up eating this sort of thing.

This makes a lot of soup! Well, I would say it's almost a stew. It's very thick. It filled my crockpot practically to the top, and I held back a bit on the potatoes and onion since I was concerned about not having enough room (and I knew I would be freezing some of it so I didn't want to add a lot of potatoes which don't freeze in soup very well).

I thought this came out perfectly. The kielbasi was extremely tender. The potatoes were just right - not mushy, not hard. I did rinse the sauerkraut briefly but the soup still had a lot of zip. It seemed almost medicinal since we're all fighting coughs and colds here.

I may not have had time to make any major changes around here but I have a few extra days off this week and I did a lot of cooking yesterday so I'm feeling a bit revived anyway.

Question of the Day: Do you like sauerkraut? How often do you eat it?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love using Polish sausage in soup, because it adds so much flavor so quickly.
As for sauerkraut, I don't use it as often as I could, mostly because I use fresh veggies in almost every meal. But there is a traditional Alsatian dish using sauerkraut and sausages that I love, but I forget the name.

Jennifer said...

I'm not a sauerkraut fan. I don't hate it, I just don't love it. (But I don't eat any ground meat, and sauerkraut is often with sausages, so that probably explains it.)

Heather said...

I don't think that I have every had sauerkraut.

Anonymous said...

We have it occasionally. I don't like it too sour, so I rinse it very well. In a skillet, I have the sauerkraut, onions, and caraway seeds with cut sausage on top. When it cooks, the sausage juices flavor the sauerkraut...good! Also like it on hot dogs. I always thought it was funny...my German/Czech father disliked sauerkraut and my Irish mother loved it. Go figure.

Jan

ThursdayNext said...

Giggling at your title! :)
I love sauerkraut on my hotdogs!

Anonymous said...

Both my husband and I love sauerkraut. Kraut dogs are what I usually get at baseball games (or the local Costco). This soup sounds like something we would both love!

Wanda said...

No, I am not fond on saurkraut and we 'never' have it. I did go through a phase, where I acquired a recipe - which I can't even remember now...maybe it was Jan's - when I made some kind of saurkraut dish a few times. It was good, and had no sour taste at all.

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

That soup looks extremely good and really comforting! I love sauerkraut.

Cheers,

Rosa

Laura's mom said...

Thanks Paula. I made this today and my 4 year old wanted to eat it instead of ice cream cake. I used turkey kielbasa and it is yummy, yummy.
Helen

Anonymous said...

I love it! The very small town i live in has a fall festival for it. Over 250,000 people come to eat..pizza, sundaes, donuts, cabbage rolls and fudge...all are made with sauerkraut!