Gulyas Soup

There are some confusion about gulyas soup.  What people usually refer to as gulyas is usually a stew with little juice.  Well, that is NOT gulyas, that is either paprikash or porkolt.  They are both made with lots of paprika and the ingredients are only onion, paprika and salt, meat or poultry and maybe a little tomato and capsicum (pepper) when available. 

Gulyas (soup) on the other hand is, well, actually a soup. 

It does start out as if it was going to be made into a beef stew (porkolt or paprikash).  But then, when it is about half cooked, soup vegetables, potato and other seasonings are added along with a jug of water. 

It is similar to many of those rich oriental soups with vegetables, meat and pasta, except the taste is different.   It’s more “paprikashy” with an added flavour of bay leaf.

We had this yesterday, so I made a few pictures and now here is the recipe.  The meat and potato can be more or less, depending on taste, the important thing to keep in mind I think is that we are making a soup.  

The paprika is not the chili pepper but sweet paprika, I think the Spanish make it, too.  I put in a teaspoon of hot paprika, too, but it’s not important if one doesn’t like it hot.

Traditionally this soup is made with rendered fat (pork or poultry), but good quality oil is fine of course.  I used duck fat this time.  With fat it really is the quality what counts health wise (and other wise) and not the type, but that’s another story.

Gulyas soup usually comes with some pasta cooked in it; because of the way that pasta is made I call it ‘pinched pasta’.  Also, it is often served with a slice of sourdough or ciabatta-type bread.

Gulyas soup

Ingredients:

2 tbsp good quality oil or other fat

1 medium onion, chopped

1 tbsp sweet Hungarian paprika or similar

little hot paprika or chili to taste (optional)

3-400 g beef chuck

salt to taste

1.5 litre of water (or more)

2-3 bay leaves

1 tsp caraway seeds (whole or ground)

2 large carrots

1 parsnip (Hamburg parsley root if available)

4-500 g potato

½ sweet capsicum (optional)

1 medium tomato (optional)

½ Celeriac or 1 celery stick with leaves

1 bunch of parsley

small handful of pasta (recipe in next post)

 Directions:

Chop the onion and fry in the fat for a couple of minutes.  

Dice the meat into about 2cm cubes (or 3/4 inch). 

Add the sweet paprika and stir it around for a second or two.

Add the meat quickly (you don't want to burn the paprika) and stir it around to brown the outside, not for long, maybe around 3 minutes.

Now add the water and the salt.  You don't need to add all the water now, you can top it up later.
Also add the bay leaves and the caraway seed.

Cover and cook for about 45 minutes or until half cooked.

In the meantime wash the vegetables.
Cut the potato into 2cm (3/4 inch) cubes,
slice the carrot and parsnip (or small cubes of celeriac if using),

tie the parsley and celery.  You can slice the celery stick if you like it.

Add all the veggies to the soup, together with the capsicum and tomato if using.

This is a good time to check for saltiness and adjust if needed.  If too salty, don't worry the potato will soak up some of it.

Cook the soup for another 40 minutes.

Add the pasta and cook for another 5 minutes or if using commercial pasta, then according to instructions.

When it's all done, fish out the tied greens, the capsicum, the tomato and the bay leaves.  Discard.

Serve the soup hot.  Some people like to eat some bread with the soup, so offer fresh sourdough or ciabatta.

Good appetite!