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+ servings
Barszcz bialy in a white plate.
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5 from 1 vote

White Borscht (Barszcz Biały - Polish Easter Soup)

Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time25 minutes
Total Time45 minutes
Servings: 6 servings
Author: Aleksandra

Ingredients

  • 6 cups chicken broth 1400ml
  • 12 oz (340g) Polish white sausage (biała kiełbasa) preferably uncooked, see notes for alternatives
  • 1 tablespoon frying oil
  • 5 oz (140g) smoked bacon, optional, in a block or thick-cut
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 2 teaspoons marjoram
  • 1 lb (450g) potatoes, optional
  • 1 - 1 1/2 cups sour wheat starter or to taste, see notes for alternatives
  • 1/3 cup heavy cream 30-36%, 80ml
  • 1/2 teaspoon prepared horseradish in a jar or to taste
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 6 hard-boiled eggs to serve

Instructions

  • Cook the white sausage: Bring the broth to a boil, when hot add the raw white sausages and simmer over very low heat for 15-20 minutes. The broth should not cook rapidly, it should just gently simmer.
  • Chop the smoked bacon into 1/2-inch (1 cm) cubes, press the garlic through a garlic press. Peel the potatoes and cut them into small cubes.
  • When the sausage is cooked, take it out of the water and cut into slices.
  • Add potatoes to the broth and cook for 7-10 minutes or until the potatoes are soft.
  • Heat the oil in a large frying pan. When hot, add the sausage slices and bacon. Cook for a couple of minutes over medium-high heat, until they are browned on all sides. Add the garlic and marjoram and cook for 30 seconds.
  • Add some hot broth to the pan then scrape with a spatula all the brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Add the content of the pan to the pot with broth.
  • Add the sour wheat starter - stir the flour with the liquid and add it to the soup. Make sure to add the starter gradually – trying the soup while you add it, to make sure it’s not too sour for you.
  • Add the heavy cream and horseradish. Warm up the soup until very warm (I'm trying not to boil it only to preserve the health benefits of the wheat starter).
  • Season the soup with salt and pepper. Serve with hard-boiled eggs.
  • Enjoy!

Notes

  • Browning cooked sausage is optional, most of the traditional recipes for barszcz bialy call only for cooking the sausage, then slicing it and adding to the soup. I personally like the sausage browned - it adds an extra layer of flavor.
  • You can use raw white sausage or cooked white sausage. Raw sausage has a better flavor.
  • If you're using already cooked sausage, you don't have to cook it in the broth, just brown it in a pan.
  • If you don't have access to Polish white sausage you can just use any smoked Polish-style sausage. You don't have to cook it, just slice it and brown it in a pan.
  • The smoked bacon is used to add some smokey flavor to the soup. If you're using broth made from smoked pork ribs or if you're using smoked Polish sausage instead of white sausage, you can omit it.
  • Instead of chicken broth, you can use vegetable broth or pork broth made from vegetables and smoked pork ribs.
  • The recipe for the sour wheat starter is here in the recipe for zurek (sour rye soup) which is very similar to the barszcz bialy soup. Substitute rye flour for whole wheat flour and prepare it as written. Sour rye starter is used to make sour rye soup (zurek) and the sour wheat starter is used to make barszcz bialy soup. The preparation of the sour starter is the same, just the type of flour is different. Please make sure to use whole wheat flour and not regular all-purpose flour.
  • If you don't want to make the homemade sour wheat starter and you can't buy store-bought sour wheat starter, you can substitute it with sour cream and flour. Omit the heavy cream in the recipe, whisk 1 cup of cold sour cream with 1/4 cup of flour until smooth, add a couple of tablespoons of warm soup and whisk until combined. Add to the soup. Bring the soup to a boil and cook for 1-2 minutes.
  • Potatoes are not very traditional in this soup but I personally always add them. Calories = 1 serving (1/6 of the recipe).
  • This is only an estimate!

Nutrition

Calories: 518kcal