Easter Soup

Easter is right around the corner, dears. If all you are doing to prepare is searching the supermarket fliers to get the best price on two dozen eggs for coloring, well, then - it's time for you to get busy.

Have you ever heard of Easter Soup? Hearing about it may be quite enough- the Soup Lady is afraid that someone may try to serve it to her within the next few weeks. Here are three versions of Easter Soup. Try to remain brave.

The first recipe is the one that I know from my childhood. Thank goodness most of the old ladies who insisted on serving this as an Easter tradition have gone to a better place. Although the Soup Lady is quite sure that heaven awaits when she shuffles off this mortal coil, it would be a bad surprise if the old ladies are there waiting with pots of Easter soup.

As usual with Polish cooking, this recipe was born of poverty and hunger. The soup started by saving the water that the keilbasa was boiled in and ended by floating the leftover hardboiled eggs around in it. Very economical and the mama got extra points for pulling off that "something special for the holiday" bit.

Polish Easter Soup
Boil up one ring of fresh keilbasa. Take the keilbasa out of the pot but save the water, (about 6- 8 cups). Add 6 peeled and cubed potatoes and the whey from 1 quart of buttermilk (Make the whey by heating up the buttermilk until a cheesey layer forms. Skim off the cheesey part and what you have left is the whey. This must have worked it's way into the recipe as a leftover from something, too. What purpose it serves in this recipe is unclear.) Cut the keilabsa into slices and add it back to the pot along with 2 cups of cubed cooked ham. Bring to a boil.

Reduce heat and stir in 3 tablespoons of white horseradish. Thicken the broth with 2 tablespoons of flour that has been mixed with water. Add slowly to the soup and stir. Temper one cup of sour cream in a mixing bowl by slowly adding the hot broth and stirring continuously. Add this back into the soup pot and add salt and pepper to taste. This part is trickier than it seems because it means you have to acutally taste it at this point.

Five minutes before you are ready to serve, add about 8 hard-boiled eggs to the soup pot. They can be whole or sliced - doesn't make any difference at this point.

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Greek Easter Soup
The Greeks are definately testing out the Resurrection thing here, meaning you'll probably die on the spot if someone tries to make you eat this. I'm only printing this here in the interest of fair and blanced cultural reporting. I do not recommend it. Once again, it springs from using the leftovers of other parts of the meal, in this case, a lamb. Let's see if you can read past the second line:

The liver, lungs, heart and intestines of a young lamb (intestines are optional) but that is what thickens the broth
Lamb's feet
1 cup spring onions, finely chopped
1 cup dill, chopped
3-4 lemons
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 eggs
¼ teaspoon oregano
½ teaspoon fresh thyme, or ¼ teaspoon dried
1 cup dry white wine
To prepare organs, blanch them in boiling water for about 3 minutes. Remove from boiling water, let the meat cool and cut into very small pieces.
In a large pot, add the extra virgin olive oil. Sauté the lamb's feet for 3 minutes. Add the small organ pieces and continue to sauté for another 3 to 4 minutes. Add 7 cups of water, cover pot and cook at low temperature for about one hour. Add the onions and dill to the pot. Cover and simmer for another 30 minutes until the liquid is reduced to about 5 cups. Turn off the heat and let rest for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, beat the eggs lightly in a bowl. Add the lemon juice a little at a time, beating continuously. While beating, pour in some of the warm broth from the pot. Add the egg-lemon mixture into the soup, and stir lightly. Turn the stove on to medium-heat and bring soup to a simmer without letting it boil. Taste for salt, pepper and lemon. Serve immediately then keel over. recipe from starchefs.com

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Neapolitan Easter Soup
The Italians get into the act by adding their own outsider meat (pig's tail) and throwing in a salami. Make this one if the keilbasa water in the Polish version is not greasy enough for you.

3/4 pound breast of veal
1 pound beef shank
3/4 pound pig's tails (substitute lean pork if you prefer)
3/4 pound sausage
1/2 pound salami
Fresh parsley and thyme
Marjoram
A little bit of rosemary
1 teaspoon tomato paste
1 medium-sized onion
1.5 quarts water
5 pounds cardoons stripped of their fibrous threads, or 5 pounds leafy vegetables (savoy cabbage, lettuce, beet greens etc.)
1/2 cup dry white wine
Salt (to be added at the end)
Pepper or hot pepper to taste
On Easter Eve make broth using the meat and the herbs; begin with cold water to cover and place the herbs in a gauze pouch so you can remove them easily when the broth is done (an hour or somewhat more simmering; taste the liquid and correct seasoning). Remove and discard the herbs. Remove the meat from the broth, pluck it from the bones, and set it in a bowl, with enough broth to cover.
The next day skim the fat from the bowl and the soup pot and stir in the wine. Scrub chop and boil the greens until almost done, drain them well, and finish cooking them in the broth with the meats, seasoning to taste. Serve with slices of toasted bread. recipe from italianfood.about.com

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Mercifully, the Soup Lady is done talking about Easter Soup.

Comments

[Philip]

Ohmigod!

[jadedju]

I see why you felt the responsibility to print this, but, well, I'm not feeling too fond of Easter right now.

[Toxiclabrat]

Mix a Peep in them and ya really got a tastey treat!!

[lee]

that's just gross. Where's the chocolate? Easter is about the chocolate damn it.

[Jim]

Your Polish Easter soup is a little different than mine! Mine is a white borscht but no whey added! Email me if you want the real recipe!

[Janina]

There is also a version in which you boil a smoked or salted ham to remove some of the salt. Then boil the kielbasa. Take two tablespoons of flour and thin it with some of the stock from the pot. Add pepper to taste. Cook for several minutes till the broth is white and blended. Take ham chunks, kielbasa slices, sliced hardboiled eggs, farmers cheese, and the rye from the Easter table and add them all to the bowl you are using. Add broth and serve. We add horseradish for a kick, but it is optional. Sounds gross (looks gross if you ask my husband), but it is very filling and delicious!

[John]

Easter Soup at my house growing up consisted of a veal shank boiled with pickling spices, then the soup was skimmed thru cheesecloth - leaving a tasty broth to which was added some sour cream a bit at a time & a small bit of white vinegar. When served hot, we used to cut up kielbasa, ham & hard-boiled eggs. Yum. My Dad liked to add horseradish.

[Barb]

Has anyone ever used picle juice with half and half cream instead of buttermilk? Does anyone use a cheese crumbled in the soup?

[Heather]

yikes!

[scott]

Glad it sounds awful to you. I look forward to it every year, so there will be more for me.

[scott]

White Easter Soup has been part of my family's tradition forever. I am still making it as part of the Easter celebration. My dad's grandmother was from Poland. They would eat this soup after going to the early mass on Easter Sunday. It is incredibly filling and my family jokes that it is eaten once a year because it takes that long to digest. Old traditions die hard. The joy of a holiday is often in the remembering the loved ones we shared them with. My family's recipe matches Janina's except that sour cream is used as the thickening agent instead of the flour and we do not add farmer's cheese.

[MB]

Yes oh yes, white Easter soup. My grandmother also from Poland (now long deceased) however my mother and her 3 sisters all in their 80 still to this day make this version. We have used the term "Glop" as not one sister even know's the real name for this soup.

Agree very filling and hearty, love what my mother does with it, one hot horseradish or fresh grated and one regular of course "Gold's" horseradish.

Their version does not include the rye or oat nor the hard boiled eggs. The process uses milk, horsedish, whole egg (not cooked), then add the Kielbsa and Ham. It develops this slight curled effect and from we were told it was to remind us of the sour wine that was forced to Jesus on the Cross that he dined to remind us of his suffering.

Anyone out there that has that same story please add.

[Angelena]

I just came across this website and all the comments about Easter soup. I personally grew up loving easter soup. I still make it when I can...but the recipe handed down in my family is different than what I have seen so far on the internet. Our recipe consists of boiling fresh polish sausage with smoked polish sausage, smoked ham, smoked bacon, and smoked pork butt. You do this the night before Easter. You take the meats out, and put the broth somewhere cold so that the fat rises to the top. The next day, you remove the solid fats and discard. Then you reheat and add half and half and vinegar to the broth to taste. Then in a bowl you add a piece of each of the meats, hard boiled eggs from the Easter egg hunt, rye bread, fresh and prepared (jarred) horseradish. Then you spoon the broth over it. It's delicious!!! Where we live now, I have to smoke the meats myself as the stores here do not sell them. But it is my favorite holiday due to this soup and I look forward to it every year!!!

[Glenn Harris]

I just hit this page after looking up St. Patricks Day leftovers for cabbage soup.

I love to cook and try new things. However I thnk I will pass on Easter Soup this year. I will remember it and when I get brave enough maybe give it a whirl.

[Kelsie]

I actually love Easter soup. But my family's recipe is a bit different than the ones listed here. I'm not sure of the exact recipe but I do know it involved me doing a lot of egg peeling the night before. It is mainly kielbasa, ham, and eggs topped with farmer's cheese, horseradish, and/or extra eggs. When I was little I would pick out the meat and just eat the eggs, lol, but now I eat it all, though I still tend to pick around to get lots of eggs. It just wouldn't not be Easter without Easter soup.

The Greek Easter soup sounds disgusting, but then again I'm sure lots of people would find my family's Easter soup gross.

[Chuck Ronevich]

My mother made Easter soup every year and everyone loved it. Many of the relatives always came to visit just to get some Easter Soup.
My mother started out making the liquid which consisted of 1/2 of the water that was left over from boiling the ham. The other half of the liquid consisted of the whey from making cottage cheese. The rest of the ingredients were sliced keilbasi, pieces of ham, sliced boiled eggs, horseradish to suit, salt and pepper. If a bit more tartness was desired she would add a small amount of white vinegar.

My mother quit making the soup a few years before she died because she could no longer find any "whole, unpasteurized milk around anymore to make the cottage cheese/whey.

Some years later I decided to try doing a "makeover" of the recipe. I now make the liquid by starting out with chicken boullion and adding approximately the same amount of "non fat plain yogurt". The soup tastes exactly as mom made it. She would be proud of me!

Chuck 1/04/08

[IonaTrailer]

In my country we eat Easter soup all time. we take whatever meat is available, a cat or dog, a squirrel my father shoot, pig snout left over from butcher pig, or chicken part. Mix with onion and water, throw in nettles from near the outhouse, sometimes my sister get lucky and get some cabbage from factory. If meat no good, then throw in horseradish. Tastes better after glass or two of vodkla.

[IonaTrailer]

In my country we eat Easter soup all time. we take whatever meat is available, a cat or dog, a squirrel my father shoot, pig snout left over from butcher pig, or chicken part. Mix with onion and water, throw in nettles from near the outhouse, sometimes my sister get lucky and get some cabbage from factory. If meat no good, then throw in horseradish. Tastes better after glass or two of vodka.

[IonaTrailer]

In my country we eat Easter soup all time. we take whatever meat is available, a cat or dog, a squirrel my father shoot, pig snout left over from butcher pig, or chicken part. Mix with onion and water, throw in nettles from near the outhouse, sometimes my sister get lucky and get some cabbage from factory. If meat no good, then throw in horseradish. Tastes better after glass or two of vodka.