Solyanka (also spelled soljanka) is a Russian soup that dates back to the 15th century. The recipe has been adapted and changed over the years to accommodate what meats and vegetables are available, and like many time-tested dishes, there are several renditions.
The Many Faces of Solyanka
Solyanka is also made in three different versions: meat, fish, and vegetable (most often mushroom), with meat being the most common. Solyanka is an "everything-but-the-kitchen-sink" type of soup, but it tastes so much better than that name implies. It's often considered the ultimate hangover cure because it replaces the salts lost after a night of revelry.
What Ingredients Are In Solyanka?
This hearty, thick soup is made with salty cured meats, sausages, olives, capers, pickles, cabbage, and sometimes carrots. The broth is a combination of beef base and an herbal sachet; bay leaves, peppercorns, and allspice berries are bundled in a piece of cheesecloth and tied to the pot handle for easy retrieval.
How to Serve Solyanka
Garnish this soup with fresh dill and sour cream, and serve with whole-grain or rye bread for dunking.
"I've never tried this soup before and it totally amazed me. It's a great soup recipe for winter days. It's wonderfully aromatic and all the flavors are well balanced. This recipe makes enough for a crowd but it also freezes very well, making it perfect to pull out of the freezer and heat up any time you want. I used chopped parsley instead of the dill for garnish and it was great"- Tara Omidvar
Make a spice sachet by adding the bay leaves, peppercorns, and allspice in a square of cheesecloth. Tie with a long piece of butcher's twine.
Using the ends of the butcher's twine, tie the sachet onto the handle of alarge soup pot so that the sachet hangs into the pot.
Add the water and beef base to the soup pot and bring to a boil. Add the shredded cabbage and chopped celery and return to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the onions and carrots and sauté until translucent. Add the sausage, chicken, ham, pickles, and tomato paste. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 2 minutes. Transfer to the soup pot.
Add the stewed tomatoes, sliced olives, and capers, and bring it barely to a boil. Add the wine and simmer gently for 20 minutes.
Remove the sachet and discard. Adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper if necessary.
Ladle the soup into hot bowls and garnish with the sour cream and dill. Serve hot.
You can substitute homemade beef stock in place of the beef base if you prefer. Use 5 cups stock and reduce the water to 5 cups.
If you don't have cheesecloth, you can use other items you may have in the house such as a coffee filter, fine-mesh bag, cotton fabric, or a small piece of a clean flour sack kitchen towel.
How to Store
Refrigerate leftovers in airtight containers for up to 5 days.
The cooled soup may be ladled into airtight containers (leave a little room for the soup to expand) and frozen for up to 6 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight.
Traditional Russian Cabbage Soup (Shchi)
Nutrition Facts (per serving)
274
Calories
13g
Fat
17g
Carbs
20g
Protein
Show Full Nutrition Label
×
Nutrition Facts
Servings: 8to 10
Amount per serving
Calories
274
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 13g
16%
Saturated Fat 4g
18%
Cholesterol 65mg
22%
Sodium 2199mg
96%
Total Carbohydrate 17g
6%
Dietary Fiber 4g
13%
Total Sugars 7g
Protein 20g
Vitamin C 23mg
115%
Calcium 105mg
8%
Iron 4mg
20%
Potassium 696mg
15%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)
Recipe Tags:
Tomato
ukrainian soup
sausage
hearty soup
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For meat solyanka, ingredients like beef, veal, ham, sausages, liver, chicken breast together with pickled mushrooms or cucumbers, onions, potatoes, tomato paste, pitted olives, allspice, cardamom, bay leaf, parsley, and fresh dill are all cut fine and mixed in a pot of broth.
Solyanka, a Russian Sweet and Sour Beef Stew is a meat lover's heaven. It's made with beef, smoked kielbasa sausage, bacon, mushrooms, potatoes and more! Serve this delicious and hearty stew with our Sweet Potato and Swede (Rutabaga) Mash.
Whole milk or half-and-half also thicken up the soup. I've even made it with half the amount (1/2 cup or 120ml) heavy cream in a pinch. (Add more chicken broth if you use heavy cream; see recipe Note.) Nice and thick, without being too heavy.
Put a tablespoon of either into a small bowl and stir in 2-3 tbsp of the soup until you have a smooth mixture. Stir this back into the soup and bring it to a simmer. Cook for a few minutes to allow the starch granules to burst to thicken, and to cook out any flour flavour.
Borscht. Probably the most iconic Eastern European soup there is, famous for its bright pink colour. Historically, borscht was made by Slavic people from parsnip or hogweed. It was also the poor man's meal, and idioms tying the soup to austerity have since evolved in several different languages.
Cabbage, potatoes, and cold-tolerant greens are common in Russian and other Eastern European cuisines. Pickling cabbage (sauerkraut), cucumbers, tomatoes and other vegetables in brine is used to preserve vegetables for winter use. Pickled apples and some other fruit also used to be widely popular.
The most widespread vegetables are cabbage, potatoes, and beets. Cabbages were used in shchi (there are over 60 types of shchi), sauerkraut, stewed cabbage, borscht, and pierogies, while beets were most popular in borscht, cold soups, and vinaigrette salads.
"Ground paprika, turmeric, nutmeg, ground ginger, and other powdered spices add a touch of color and spiciness to broths," she says. As a general rule, use fresh herbs at or near the end of cooking and dried herbs and spices early on. This helps you get the flavors you're looking for in the right balance.
Whether you use a few tablespoons or a few cups, cream gives soup a silky mouthfeel and rich flavor. You can definitely add milk or other dairy as well, though it will taste gradually less creamy as you go down in percent.
You can peel, chop, then toss the potato in your soup mixture. At the end, fish out the potato and puree it in a food processor, then add it back, or lightly mash the potato while it's still in the pot. The starch gives the soup a creamy texture.
You can thicken soup by adding flour, cornstarch, or another starchy substitute. For the best results, never add flour or cornstarch directly to your soup. If you do, it will clump up on top. Instead, ladle a small amount of broth into a separate bowl and let it cool.
One of the most popular uses for coconut milk is in soups and stews, where it adds a lovely creaminess and a subtle coconut flavor. The fattiness of coconut milk works particularly well with spices and acid, which is why it's often included in traditional Thai and Indian dishes.
If I had to describe the soup with the 3 words, it would be tart, salty and well seasoned. The soup has so much going on! The sourness of the soup comes from pickled cucumbers, lemon, olives or sometimes even capers. I recommend to balanced it out with a bit of sugar or ketchup, or both.
Shurpa, made from boneless lamb and vegetables, is the most famous Uzbek soup. To cook kovurma shurpa (kaurma shurpa), the meat is pre-fried before cooking. Kuza-shurva is a soup cooked in the oven in a clay pot.
Sorpo (also called shorpo or shurpa), a flavorful broth created with leftover meat from the national dish besbarmak, is the most common soup in Kazakhstan. After a lamb has cooked, the broth is poured into large bowls and some of the chopped meat is then added.
Borscht ingredients may include beef, pork, salo (fatback), beetroots, cabbage, carrots, celeriac, onions, potatoes, mushrooms, tomato paste, parsley, chives, dill, bay leaves, allspice and black pepper.
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