Sauerkraut Soup Recipe – Slovak Kapustnica

I often joke that I’m fully Dutch all year round, except around the holidays. The end of December is when I go full Czechoslovak, upholding all the family traditions I was brought up with. The Christmas cookies are laid out on a platter, Three Nuts for Cinderella comes on the TV, the straw ornaments are in the tree, and sauerkraut soup is back on the menu. This soup, called kapustnica, is traditionally eaten on Christmas and/or New Year’s Eve in Slovakia, although I do believe every family has its own slightly different recipe for it.

I’ve mentioned sauerkraut soup in my videos a few times before, so today I’d like to share the recipe with you, as my mom taught me. This year I actually started working on it a few weeks in advance as I really wanted to use homemade sauerkraut. I started the fermentation process a month in advance and am glad to report my kraut and my soup turned out amazing.

This recipe (as any good one, IMO) shouldn’t be taken too strictly. How much you use of every ingredient is up to your personal preference, as well as the acidity of your sauerkraut. Especially if you’re using homemade sauerkraut, the level of acidity can vary a lot from batch to batch. A more acidic kraut calls for more prunes to offset it, and a very mild kraut might be overwhelmed by too much garlic. Experiment around!

Ingredients

500 g sauerkraut
1.5 l water
2 onions
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp flour
2 tsp paprika
2 bay leaves
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp cumin
6 dried prunes
vegan smoked sausage

Serves 4

Instructions

Start by boiling 1.5 liters of water.

Finely dice the onions. Add 2 tbsp of an oil of choice to a large pan, I like to use IKEA butter flavoured rapeseed oil for this recipe. Sautee the onion until it turns golden.

When the onion is done, add the flour, and keep stirring really well. The oil and flour should form a thick paste. As soon as the flour paste starts to change colour, take the pan off the heat. Add the paprika powder, and stir together well.

Add the boiling water, and stir until the paste has completely dissolved. Put the pan back on the heat and bring the soup base to a boil.

Add the sauerkraut with its liquid. Add the bay leaves, minced garlic, cumin, and diced prunes. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, or until the sauerkraut has softened.

Right before serving, remove the bay leaves. Cut your vegan smoked sausage into thick slices and add to the soup. If you don’t have access to any, smoked tofu would work great as well.

As I mentioned above, this soup is traditionally eaten on Christmas and New Year’s Eve. My family makes it only on those days, to make sure it stays special. However, sauerkraut soup is a wonderful winter dish packed with nutrients and warm, wintery flavour so it’s definitely not too late to try it out.

I like to serve the sauerkraut soup with thick slices of freshly baked dark bread and vegan butter. My mom serves it as an entree to much more elaborate meals. However you choose to serve it, I hope you enjoy!