This recipe for Kapuśniak Sauerkraut Soup comes from Nela’s Cookbook. As I’ve said before, soups are very popular in Poland, and this one caught my eye because I’ve never thrown a slab of ribs into a soup pot before.
It worked out well. Polish sauerkraut or kapusta kiszona is naturally fermented, soured by bacteria in the air.
If you’re using American sauerkraut which has been soured with vinegar, you’ll want to drain and rinse the kraut. If you’re using a naturally fermented sauerkraut, there’s no need to rinse, just drain and use.
My friend, Sally, tells me her Czech grandmother used to make this soup; the difference being that grandma used a ham bone rather than a rack of ribs. Many other readers have mentioned that their family made this with pork neck bones. Both variations make sense. Soup is often using up what you have on hand, stretching it to make a meal. To use a rack of ribs is a sign of abundance, not your typical soup-making philosophy.
Smacznego!
Lois
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Kapuśniak Sauerkraut Soup
- Category: Soup
- Cuisine: Polish
Description
A traditional soup of preserved cabbage (sauerkraut), mushrooms, and rib meat!
Ingredients
- 1 pound sauerkraut
- 4 cups beef broth or 4 cups water and 2 Knorr beef bullion cubes
- 2 pounds pork spareribs
- 2 bay leaves
- 8 peppercorns
- 2 medium carrots, diced
- 2 ounces dried mushrooms (optional)
- 2 tablespoons sugar
Instructions
- Rinse and drain the sauerkraut
- In a large pot, add the broth, spareribs, bay leaves, peppercorns, carrots, and dried mushrooms (fresh chanterelles were in the market so I sliced 2 cups and used them instead. I think this was also easier than retrieving the dried, cooked mushrooms for slicing)
- Cook, uncovered, for 1 1/2 hours
- Remove the mushrooms and cut them into strips. Return them to the pot and add 4 more cups of water
- Melt sugar over medium heat until it colors and caramelizes. Add the sauerkraut and the caramelized sugar to the pot, cover and cook for 30 minutes
- Remove the ribs from the pot, pull the meat off the bones and slice into bite-sized strips; return to soup.
- It’s ready to serve
Next time: Roladka Drobiowa (Polish Chicken Roulade)
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| chanterelles |
An accountant by trade and a food blogger since 2009, Lois Britton fell in love with Polish cuisine during the years she lived in Poznań, Poland. As the creator of PolishHousewife.com, she loves connecting readers with traditional Polish recipes. Lois has a graduate certificate in Food Writing and Photography from the University of South Florida. She is the author of The Polish Housewife Cookbook, available on Amazon and on her website.
ButterYum
I’ve heard of cabbage soup, but never sauerkraut soup – very interesting. I love sauerkraut!!
🙂
ButterYum
lisa maxwell
its to die for
polishhousewife
Thanks, Lisa!
Lois B
ButterYum – I enjoyed the cabbage soup diet because the soup was so good.
Les secrets d'Elise et Marek, deux cultures, deux cuisines.
This soup is delicious! 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
walt jend
I make kapusniak soups with potatoes, onions fresh cabbage cut fine, sauerkraut,
Pork steak, carrots and water. Simmer for a good hour and a half.
polishhousewife
Walt, Sounds good; thanks for sharing!
Cheryl
My Grandmother used to make it similar to yours but with pork neck bones or spareribs. She used oatmeal as a thickener.
polishhousewife
A lot of people have been mentioning pork neck bones to me, Cheryl. I guess using a rack of ribs is a sign of our modern prosperity! Thanks for your comment. 🙂
Marta
Love sauerkraut soup 🙂 I’ve never had sugar added to kapuśniak. I’ve checked my mom’s old cookbooks – no sugar either. All have potatoes instead of mushrooms – that makes the soup very delicious and not sour at all. But be careful to cook the potatoes in the broth before adding sauerkraut – they won’t boil in sour soup.
polishhousewife
Thanks for the tip, Marta. I noticed that Nela used a bit of sugar in a lot of her recipes.
Julie Kenkel
My mom made a dish like this, but it was not a soup. It was sauerkraut atop mashed potatoes and the spare ribs were on the side. This soup will bring back memories for sure!
polishhousewife
Ed’s mom used to serve sauerkraut with kielbasa and noodles. My own family wasn’t so keen on sauerkraut. I should probably say my siblings and weren’t keen sauerkraut!
Bonnie C Pastrana
My gram taught me to make this as a kid. one of my favorite s. we would rinse the sauerkraut and then add sugar to it and mix it up and add fennel seeds to it. we also used neckbones.
Elizabeth Beaudoin
Just made the kabusniak but eliminated the sugar as my mom never added that…..it was delicious. The same recipe that I grew up with. Thanks Lois. Enjoy this blog so much.
Elizabeth Beaudoin
Made a mistake in my comment should be kapusniak. Can I blame it on my ole eyes……
polishhousewife
Let’s blame it on the keyboard! Thanks, Elizabeth. I’m so glad you enjoyed the soup!
Elizabeth Beaudoin
Thanks Lois…..you are too kind. I will be making one of your soups today. It is minus 25… yup with a wind chill that makes it feel like minus 38. Yesterday we had rain and plus 4 (all in Celsius) today it is a skating rink. I love winter soups but winter well— enough here in Ottawa.
polishhousewife
Yikes! You must be so ready for spring. Be careful! ❤️
Jeanne
Just like my Busi made it. I make it too. Love it with some dark pumpernickel bread and butter. Fantastic at this time of year.
Vicky
The sauerkraut soup in Poland is or at least used to be called “the hangover soup”. you make it on the New Year’s day to cure all the drinking you did on Sylwester ( New Year’s Eve Party). The recipe is a bit unusual, i have never heard about adding sugar!!!
Happy New Year, everyone..
polishhousewife
I have several Polish recipes that call for a spoon or two of sugar in something savory. Especially in something very tart.
Mom-mom
I had a friend that made “kapusta” on New Years Day but Sorry to say I never paid attention to the ingredients . She would cut a cut a pork loin into chunks ,add water & sauerkraut to a pot with water and I think a whole onion (she needed the onion for flavor ) salt & pepper …..after the pork cooked she removed it and cut the chunks into smaller pieces . This stayed & cooked in low the whole day . We ate this all day watching old movies ! If anyone can help me with this “version” please reach out to me…..thanks !
Sandra stobierski
My babchia use to make it something like this but added lots of garlic onion and sometimes diced tomatoes we love it sour so no rinceing
Karen Dunn
My mom made a version using pork butt, fresh cabbage, stewed timatoes, rice and water with 7-8 Tablespoons of vinegar. Delicious with pumpernickel bread any time of year. I use picnic ribs and cook slow, skimming off the foam from the meat cooking.
Gerri
I am definitely going to try this version…my mom would burn flour in lard which we had to stir to perfection…
LInda
My mother-in-law made a sauerkraut soup that was terrific. It was very similar to this but didn’t use meat. It had potatoes too. I’m going to try to make this recipe for my husband though. I think he’ll like it.
Tammy
My mom made this regularly. She was Croation and my dad was Ukrainian. They me near Pittsburgh when my dad came to the US. I never knew this was a Polish dish. We used to nake our own saurkraut and boy was that delicious!!!
She would use ham hocks for the meat. Funny that she used to put hot dogs in it too. No kidding. also, she would put barley and I think some potatoes too. No sugar, peppercorn or mushrooms. Mt dad could make this soup too. Good stuff! I cook part time a an assisted living facility and make a cabbage soup, just a version of what I grew up loving.
polishhousewife
So many yummy versions out there; thanks for sharing your memories, Tammy.
pat mesic
My Croatian husband made a similar version of this, but he used white beans instead of potatoes. We also made our own sauerkraut.
Barbara
My grandmother always made this. She used cabbage as well as sauerkraut and a can of tomatoes. Actually just made a pot and yum yum yum!!
Shelly Wade
My maternal grandmother was Polish and would make sauerkraut soup after New Year’s using leftover pork & sauerkraut, ham, and kielbasa. I remember it also had mushrooms and little square noodles. I don’t remember if there was anything else like maybe potatoes. Recently my husband & I ate out and they had sauerkraut soup on the menu. It was like ham potpie with added sauerkraut and kielbasa. It was really tasty.
polishhousewife
Both versions sound delicous!
Barbara Rose
We use kielbasa and use shredded cabbage in place of sauerkraut. In addition, we do not use mushrooms. It is a clean out the cabinet type of recipe. A bit of rice, a few pieces of broken spaghetti, a noodle or two snd a bit of tomato paste.
kg
We make a similar recipe with sauerkraut and/or cabbage that my father-in-law calls Kapusta. It uses pork neck bones, just water (broth is made when cooking the neckbones), onion, whole tomatoes, browned flour, salt and pepper. (Flour is browned dry in a pan until it’s a light brown color and added at the end to thicken the soup. Use a metal utensil to stir when browning the flour. Plastic ones melt.) Never thought of adding mushrooms. That sounds good. We also ferment our own sauerkraut, just 1/2 to 1 of head cabbage and salt, small batches so it’s always fresh.