The Christmas dispute in my house was always around the first dish - THE SOUP!
To decide what soup to serve for Christmas Eve and which one for Christmas Day, the women of the family- 3 generations - my grandma, grand aunt, my mom and myself discussed for days what to do. We sometimes end up with two soups- Barszcz and Dried Mushroom Soup.
Traditionally during Polish Christmas Eve there is no meat served. With that said there are 12 dishes that are so amazing that it is hard to stand up from the table- maybe that is why we start eating when the first star shows up.
This amazing, earthy and healthy soup is vegetarian made on homemade veggie stock. But it can easily be made into a vegan version, buy using olive oil instead of butter.
TIME
Ready in 8-9 h - that included soaking the dried mushroom overnight
Cooking:
Vegetable stock 2h
The soup 1h
INGREDIENTS
The Vegetable Stock
3 big Carrots
1/2 Celery root or 2 purple turnip
3-4 Celery stick
1/2 Cabbage
1 Parsley
3 Garlic cloves
1 Onion
2 tbsp Butter - if you want to keep it vegan add 2 tbsp of olive oil
1 big tbsp of salt and 1tsp of black pepper
10 cups of water
The Mushroom Soup
70 g - 3 oz. Dried mushrooms (can be boletes, porcini mushrooms, chanterelles)- soak them in water overnight, do not strain them - the water will be used in the soup
1 big garlic cloves
parsley
Poured Noodles
1 1/2 tbsp of Brown rice flour (or regular flour)
1 Eggs
STEP BY STEP
The night before soaked the dried mushroom in water in a small sauce pot
VEGETABLE STOCK
Wash and peel the root vegetables. Take the top leaf of the cabbage, and peel garlic and onion and cut into half. Put them in a big pot and add the water.
Add salt and pepper and butter.
Leave it to simmer for 2h. It should cook slowly and feel up your house with a beautiful vegetable smell. After 2h taste it, add salt and pepper to your taste, with a fork poke a carrot if it goes in softly, turn it off.
Take out all the vegetables, and put the carrots aside.
SOUP and NOODLES
Simmer the soaked mushroom in the water that they were soaking for 20-25 min. until they are soft. Let them cool down, take the mushroom out and slice them into small pieces. DO NOT THROW AWAY THE WATER!
Mix together the stock and the mushrooms (the water and the mushroom), it will have a dark brown color. Bring it to boil, and then let simmer for 20 min.
Mix the egg and the flour into a paste. With a spoon pour the noodles into the soup. Add the 1 chopped garlic clove.
Slice the carrots and chop the parsley - those are the garnish for the soup- however do not put them into the whole soup, garnish every plate separately.
TIPS
Dried mushrooms can be expensive, but it is important not to save on the amount of mushroom.
If you do not like the poured noodles you can keep it clean or add small star-shaped pasta - Stelle.
