Embark on a culinary journey with Chef John as he unveils the secrets to crafting Polish Potato Soup. In this video, experience the rich flavors and comforting warmth of a traditional Polish dish. Chef John's expert guidance ensures you master the art of creating this hearty soup, featuring tender potatoes, savory broth, and a medley of aromatic ingredients. Watch now to bring the taste of Poland to your kitchen, and savor the soul-nourishing goodness of Chef John's Polish Potato Soup!
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00 Hello, this is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with Polish Potato Soup.
00:08 That's right, soup is the ultimate comfort food.
00:11 And this amazing Polish Potato Soup is one of the most comforting.
00:15 And eating a bowl of this always makes things seem better.
00:18 But the true comfort, the real relaxation, that comes from the process of making the
00:22 soup, which I'm about to show you right now.
00:26 And to get started, we'll take a few minutes and cut up some veggies and a little bit of
00:30 Polish sausage.
00:31 And what we're going to need is some carrots that we'll cut in half and then split lengthwise
00:36 in half again.
00:38 And then we'll turn those and cut across into like half inch pieces.
00:42 And then we'll basically do the same thing to the celery.
00:45 And the reason we cut the rib in half before we slice it is because it's twice as fast
00:49 to cut both halves at once than it is to cut the whole thing from one end to the other.
00:54 And then we'll also need some onion, which we will peel and cut in half.
00:59 And then we'll find the root end.
01:01 And then we'll make some cuts straight down through the opposite end.
01:04 And then simply turn it and slice across those cuts.
01:07 And by the way, we're making soup, so precise cuts are not a big deal.
01:12 Just get things close.
01:13 That's all we ever ask.
01:15 And then last but not least, we'll take a small piece of Polish kielbasa sausage and
01:20 we'll cut that in quarters.
01:22 And then we'll turn it and slice it about every quarter inch.
01:25 And by the way, in the spirit of full disclosure, I only showed cutting half the vegetables
01:30 just to show you how to do it.
01:32 And you'll see the amounts in the written recipe, but it's going to be a whole onion,
01:36 two ribs of celery, plus two or three carrots depending on the size.
01:41 And then what we'll do once we have our Polish sausage sliced up is transfer that into our
01:44 soup pot, which we placed over medium heat after adding in a couple tablespoons of olive
01:49 oil.
01:50 And what we'll do is cook that sausage stirring for a couple minutes, basically until it starts
01:54 sizzling in that oil.
01:56 We don't really need to or want to brown it.
01:59 We're just trying to flavor the oil before we add our vegetables.
02:02 So once that sausage has sizzled for a couple minutes, we'll go ahead and add our carrot,
02:07 celery, and onions.
02:08 And we will cook that stirring for about five minutes or so, or until those pieces of onions
02:13 go from bright white to sort of translucent and our veggies start to soften and sweeten
02:18 up.
02:19 At which point it's time to add some, but not all of our potatoes, which if we're good
02:24 at time management, we will be slicing while our veggies are cooking.
02:28 And what I'm going to use is about two and a half pounds of Yukon gold potatoes, although
02:32 russet will also work.
02:35 And what we'll do after peeling them is cut them in quarters and then slice across every
02:39 quarter inch or so.
02:41 And you don't have to, but for best results, I'm going to slice two of my six potatoes
02:46 and then transfer those into some water and into the fridge.
02:50 So I can add those into the soup later.
02:53 And I'm going to explain why as we move forward.
02:56 But anyway, I'm going to reserve this half pound and then slice the other two pounds
02:59 exactly the same way.
03:01 And we'll transfer those into our sauteed vegetable and sausage mixture.
03:05 And we will give those a quick stir so we can coat them with that extremely flavorful
03:09 oil, which may or may not do anything, but it feels right and it's part of the ritual.
03:16 And then once our potatoes are in, we can transfer in some chicken broth or I guess
03:20 a roasted vegetable broth if you're going vegetarian.
03:23 And if you are, you can sub mushrooms for the sausage, which I've done and it's incredibly
03:28 delicious.
03:30 And then I also like to add a little splash of water as well as a generous pinch of salt,
03:36 some freshly ground black pepper, as well as a shaker to a cayenne.
03:41 And then we'll follow that with a bunch of ingredients that make a potato soup, a Polish
03:45 potato soup, and that would be some quartered and sliced up dill pickles.
03:49 Whoops, one tried to escape.
03:52 As well as a nice big splash of that pickle juice from the jar, which is wonderfully acidic
03:57 and briny.
03:59 And then speaking of dill pickles, we will also stir in a whole bunch of freshly chopped
04:03 dill.
04:04 And at this point we'll want to raise our heat to high since we want this to come up
04:07 to a simmer.
04:09 And while we're waiting, we'll add the last ingredient we need at this stage, which is
04:13 about a third of a cup of sour cream.
04:16 And please note, when you stir that in, depending on the brand you used, you might see some
04:21 tiny particles of sour cream float to the surface.
04:24 But don't worry, that's totally normal and very common.
04:27 And I promise you by the time our soup is done, that will have disappeared.
04:31 And that's it.
04:32 We'll simply wait for everything to come to a simmer, at which point we'll back our heat
04:36 down to medium low.
04:37 And we will simmer this, stirring occasionally, for about 45 minutes, at which point it's
04:42 probably going to look like this.
04:44 And because of the fresh dill and those dill pickles we put in, the fat that floats to
04:48 the top is going to be a very unique, some might say odd, chartreuse color.
04:54 But don't worry, the final soup is going to be gorgeous.
04:56 Oh, and one quick reminder, we only put two pounds of our potatoes in, and we still have
05:01 that half a pound we sliced and reserved in the fridge, which as you'll see, we're going
05:05 to add soon.
05:06 But before we do, I like to take a potato masher and I like to go around smashing and
05:11 mashing for about 30 seconds, just to break up those cooked potatoes a little bit and
05:15 release some additional starch.
05:18 And by the way, you can do the exact same thing by just stirring this a lot as it simmers.
05:22 But the point is, we want to break up those cooked potatoes pretty well at this point,
05:26 since that's basically what's going to thicken the soup.
05:29 And that's it.
05:30 After a brief mashing, our soup's going to come back to a simmer, at which point we'll
05:33 drain and add our reserved sliced potatoes, which again for me was about a half pound
05:38 of my two and a half pounds total.
05:40 And we'll stir those in.
05:42 And then we'll let this continue to simmer, stirring occasionally for another 40 to 45
05:47 minutes, or until those potatoes we just added are very tender and our soup is looking exactly
05:52 how we want it to look.
05:54 So let me grab a ladle so we can see what's going on.
05:58 And by adding those potatoes halfway through the cooking, we're going to have the best
06:01 of both worlds.
06:03 We're going to have a potato soup where the potatoes have fallen apart and have thickened
06:07 everything up beautifully, but then we're also going to have these beautiful intact
06:11 pieces of potato, so that we're not eating a soup that has the same texture all the way
06:15 through.
06:16 And we're definitely going to want to grab a spoon and give things a taste, to make sure
06:20 like I said those potatoes are perfectly tender, as well as we want to check for seasoning.
06:25 And a potato soup almost always needs another pinch of salt.
06:28 There's only two ways to screw up a potato soup.
06:31 One is not enough salt, and one is undercooked potatoes.
06:34 So we really need to check for both.
06:37 So I toss that in, as well as I like to finish up with some more fresh dill.
06:42 And once all that's been stirred in, we will give it a final taste for seasoning.
06:47 And if it tastes right, and mine did, we'll go ahead and ladle that into a nice warm bowl,
06:52 which is hopefully located next to some buttered bread.
06:56 And by the way I use goat butter, which is super white, which explains the brighter than
07:00 usual appearance of the bread.
07:02 But anyway I think you're going to want some bread alongside.
07:06 And then to finish this, I'm going to go with a dollop of sour cream, which we will top
07:10 with a sprinkling of freshly picked dill.
07:13 And that's it, our Polish potato soup is ready to enjoy.
07:18 And that my friends, is a truly remarkable bowl of potato soup.
07:22 I mean I'm fine with a basic regular plain potato soup, but when you add in the flavor
07:26 of that kielbasa sausage, and the mysterious magic that dill pickles and pickle juice provide,
07:33 plus the creamy tanginess from the sour cream, when you add all those things in, you produce
07:38 something that's so much more flavorful and interesting, and as I promised, beautiful
07:42 to look at.
07:44 And I know it was an extra step to save part of our potatoes and add them halfway through,
07:49 but texturally speaking, I think the payoff is totally worth it.
07:53 Usually potato soups are one texture or another.
07:56 There's the style where all the potatoes pretty much fall apart, and then there are the brothier
08:00 versions of potato soup, where all the potatoes are in chunks.
08:04 Well here, thanks to one easy extra step, we actually get to enjoy both textures.
08:08 So I've made my case, the rest is up to you.
08:12 I mean you are after all a grand poohbah of how to make your zupa, but as long as you're
08:16 not going to forget to put them in, I highly recommend you do it like I did.
08:21 And as I mentioned in the intro, eating a bowl of soup like this is extremely comforting,
08:26 but for me the true relaxation is the actual process making the soup, and the meditation
08:32 of cutting those vegetables, and then being able to watch that soup simmer.
08:36 All right, all that stuff's going to quiet your mind and refresh your soul.
08:40 All right, don't think of cooking something like this as work, or a task, or a chore.
08:45 Think of it as a fun, relaxing activity.
08:48 But no matter how you think of this, it really is an incredibly delicious, satisfying, and
08:53 hearty soup, which is why I really do hope you give it a try soon.
08:58 So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much
09:03 more info as usual.
09:05 And as always, enjoy.
09:08 [music]
09:15 [music]
09:18 [music]
09:19 [music]
09:19 [music]
09:20 [music]
09:20 [music]
09:21 [music]
09:21 [music]
09:22 [music]
09:22 [music]
09:23 [music]
09:23 [music]
09:24 [music]
09:24 [BLANK_AUDIO]