Pickle Soup (Ogórkowa Zupa)

Wonderful soup, if you squeeze most of the juice from your grated pickles before measuring into the 1 packed cup. Use the juice - mine had almost 1/2 cup - before you use the brine from the jar! Without doing this your soup will be too sour as the brine measurements will be off b/c the pickles themselves hold so much of it inside. I have been looking for a great Polish pickle soup recipe since I left NYC. Thank you!

for those who are having a difficult time finding pickles fermented without vinegar, just look for Bubbies Pickles in your grocery store. They are lacto-fermented - no vinegar, as the case for most kosher pickles. Our neighborhood made pickles yearly and not one drop of vinegar was ever used - it would have been a shanda toi, toi, toi.

I am concerned about the brother being fairly flavorless. I wonder if the sister might have been tastier.

As for the pickles - I found pickles that come in a can from Israel - they are the best, taste delicious in this soup, and you can find them at any basic supermarket. I’m from Poland so I know what I’m talking about. Also - if you really want to make it the way we do- you’d start with some pork ribs (for example) and boil them to create your own stock, then add the root veggies, and then the pickles and pickle juice at the end (i don’t cook the pickles - I dump them directly into the soup).

My Polish husband loves pickle soup. He loves this recipe, but was disappointed the russet potato disintegrated.Now it's my turn... he's got a cold and this is what will make him feel better. I used one russet potato, as it will break down and add to the creaminess. I used 3 yellow potatoes, to keep their structure. We used a jar of my husband's home-made sour pickles and all the brine. Topped with a pile of fresh dill. PERFECT!!!

Hello! Grazia is right, this soup is traditionally made with pickles that have been fermented without vinegar. If it's available to you, I would recommend seeking out a store with Polish products and opting for a brand like Polonaise, Krakus or Lowell. Again, just be sure to look for cucumbers in brine, or pickles that don't have vinegar in the ingredients list. Hope that helps!

I tried making my own fermented dill pickles (without vinegar) until I found Bubbies Pickles (mentioned by another commenter) at WHOLE FOODS. They were much tastier than my home made ones. I keep the bottle in the fridge and when I take a pickle out I add a pickling cucumber which is ready in a week, so one bottle should last a long time. If need be I top the brine up with distilled water and a bit of kosher or sea salt.

Just wanted to say "thanks" for including a Polish soup. Us Poles are soup people. My grandmothers made an abundant variety of soups, and I seldom see a Polish - or Eastern European - influence in your recipes. So thank you.

Trader Joe’s now has brine fermented pickles (no vinegar) that make great pickle soup.

This is a winner! The only substitution was celery finely diced because I couldn’t get celery root and 1 cup of pickle brine , we used to eat this soup at the Kiev restaurant in the East Village that is sadly long gone and it was a favorite on Sundays with Challah.

I make lacto fermented pickles which are the easiest thing ever, and not daunting at all once you've tried it; literally anyone with a jar, some water, some salt and a vegetable can do it. Anyway, when I put pickles or pickle juice in soups I always do it at the end and wouldn't boil it because that will kill off all the wonderful probiotics. So I wanted to throw that out there into the soup!

This was pretty delicious, but making it again I would probably leave the celery root out. I don't care for the flavor of the celery root and I didn't love when I got bites of it as I find it bitter tasting (prefer the potato taste). This makes a ton of soup so you may want to half the recipe if not making for a big group of people. Definitely squeeze out the juice from the grated pickles before cooking as someone else suggested (I ended up with 1 cup of brine just from squeezing).

This soup is wonderful. Wanted to find a reason to shop at the Ukrainian markets in NE Philly and the search for cucumbers in brine was a great excursion. Really enjoyed the fried in garlic butter treatment on the shredded pickles.

This was incredible! I ended up popping some cumin seeds in the butter/gherkin pan which added another layer of flavour. Also a Parmesan rind and thyme in the main broth. So tasty!!

I've been making this for years. Use the best kosher pickles as the garlic really enhances the soup. And add 1 Tbsp flour to the sour cream and combine before adding to the soup.