hello this is chef john from food wishes comm with Hungarian potato and sausage
sooo that's right when the going gets tough the tough makes soup and while
pretty much all soups would be considered comfort food with only a few
exceptions sorry gazpacho there are certain recipes that comfort the body
mind and soul and even a more profound way and this amazingly delicious and
hearty soup is in that class so with that let's go ahead get started by
adding a nice big hunk of butter to this soup pot placed over medium heat and yes
olive oil would work if you want to make this animal free and then once that
melts we'll go ahead Brown up some Hungarian sausage which we've sliced
into rounds or if we can't find Hungarian sausage a sausage we can find
from a country as close to Hungary as possible which for me was Poland so I'm
using some beautifully smoky pork Polish sausage but really for a soup like this
pretty much any sausage will work so that will be up to you
I mean you are after all the goose Gossage of how to use sausage and what
we'll do is cook this stirring for a few minutes or until it's lightly browned
and if you want you could just stir this and not worry if each side is getting a
perfect browning but if you're really into it and that kind of stuff bothers
you you could take the time to flip these pieces over individually which I
did to a few until I lost interest and decided that was not a big deal but
anyway like I said we'll go ahead and cook that stirring until lightly browned
at which point we will remove tool Bowl with a slotted spoon leaving behind
what's basically a sausage infused butter and by the way protip if you know
you're gonna remove sausage from a pot with a slotted spoon just start with a
slotted spoon and use that to stir it while it cooks see because now I have to
wash two spoons which is unfortunate but anyway we'll go ahead and remove that
and reserve it until needed at which point we will toss a diced onion into
that gloriously flavored fat along with a nice big pinch of salt and we will
cook those stirring still on medium heat until they just start to turn
translucent and even though it kind of looks like it we're not really browning
these see what's happened is the salt is drama moisture out of the onion which is
deglaze those caramelized meat juices from the bottom of the pan giving it
this fairly well browned appearance so I'm just pointing that out so you don't
think you have to cook these for a long time until they get browned
and then what we'll do once our onions do turn translucent and start to soften
is stir in a couple tablespoons of flour which by the way is a little bit unusual
for a potato soup okay generally we'll just mash or crush
or puree some of the potatoes in when it's done and use that to thicken it but
this time we're not going to all right we're gonna leave our potato cubes
intact and rely on this a little bit of flour to help give the soup its body so
we'll go ahead and cook that flour stirring for about two or three minutes
at which point we will add some minced garlic and a nice big spoon of Hungarian
paprika or any paprika all right I think everyone would agree that Spanish
paprika would work just as well but regardless once that's in there we'll go
ahead and cook that stirring for just about one minute all right just
basically to take the ride off the garlic and we don't want to go too long
because if we happen to burn that paprika we will ruin the soup so like I
said just about a minute or so should be perfect and then once that set we can go
ahead and pour in our chicken broth and give that all a nice stir well at the
same time raising our heat to high and we're doing that of course because we
want this to come up to a simmer and while that happens because this does
have flour in it we do want to give it the occasional stir to make sure none of
that is sticking to the bottom and forming lumps which it most likely will
not be but do it anyway all right half the fun to make it a
homemade soup it's turned in once in a while and then what we'll do once this
does come to a simmer is toss in the secret ingredients a couple cups of
chopped green cabbage and if you can try to get all of it in the pot and we will
stir that in and let it cook for about two minutes or until it just loses its
stiffness and by the way even if you don't think you like cabbage be sure to
add it to this all right when you simmer cabbage in a soup like this it gets
beautifully sweet and really helps elevate all the other ingredients so
that's what I did and a few minutes later my pot looked like this and at
this point we can add a couple large russet potatoes that we peeled and cut
into cubes and please know you can cut your potatoes into any size you want but
there are two things you should consider all right number one the pieces should
be small enough to fit on a soup spoon and then also they should all be about
the same size and that's just so they all get soft and tender in about the
same amount of time so we will stir those in and then wait for this come
back to a simmer and while we're waiting for that we can add the rest of our
seasonings which will be some fresh the ground black pepper some cayenne + 1
bay leaf + if you think it needs it and I did another splash of broth or water
and obviously that will depend on how thick you want your soup and you can if
you want just add it later once you see how things are going since that is just
you cooking but I felt like I needed another little splash so I added it now
and then what we'll do once all those tough decisions have been made and our
soups come back to a simmer is we will give that a stir and then lower our heat
to medium low and we'll let that simmer for about 30 minutes stirring
occasionally or until our potatoes are very very soft and tender and if you're
not sure go ahead and try to smash one against the side of the pot and if it
easily matches you're done but if it doesn't you're not so let it cook and
that's it once our taters are tender we'll go ahead and stir our sausage back
in and then once that's been accomplished we will add the other
secret ingredient and that would be a couple tablespoons of white distilled
vinegar which is generally what we add when we want to increase the acidity of
a dish without adding any additional flavors but having said that some apple
cider vinegar would work or maybe a white wine vinegar but no matter what
you use once that stirred in we will simply let this simmer for another 10
minutes and that's it our Hungarian potato and sausage soup is done as soon
as we check her for salt alright I know we put some in earlier Bob potatoes
soups are famous for needing more salt so I gave mine a taste and it did so I
stirred in a little more and of course that will depend on how salty your
sausage is which is why we don't add a lot earlier but once it's done you
always want to taste and adjust and we'll give it one last taste to make
sure and as soon as you love it we can go ahead and turn off the heat and grab
a ladle and serve this up and as you can see even though we didn't mash or puree
any of the potatoes in that little bit of flour actually thicken this up
beautifully and of course some of the smaller pieces of potato will fall apart
and add a little bit of additional starchiness to this but the vast
majority of those potato cubes are intact and at this point we can go ahead
and serve it up and then to finish this properly we have two
we must garnish the top with some sour cream and not just a little all right
I'm gonna go ahead and put on - nice dollops okay if you're not slightly
embarrassed by what you're putting on it's probably not
enough and then for a final touch we can do some sliced green onions or chives or
parsley or dill they all would be fine and then I finished up with one last
shake of cayenne and that's it I'm gonna go ahead and grab a spoon and dig in and
above and beyond being an incredibly Hardy and comforting this is just an
incredibly delicious and flavorful soup okay we have the obvious savoriness from
our sausage but also we have that earthy sweetness from the onions and the
cabbage balanced perfectly and elevated by that little splash of vinegar and the
sour cream and of course making all this possible are soft and tender potatoes so
I really do absolutely love everything about this and probably the only way
this gets any better would be eating this with a nice big hunk of crusty
buttered bread so if you're on one of these new trendy high carb diets give
that a try otherwise feel free to enjoy this as is and I think you'll agree it's
one of the best soups you've had in a long time so for all those reasons and
more I really do hope you give this a try soon so please follow the links
below for the ingredient amongst a principle written recipe and much more
info as usual and as always enjoy
you