Ciorbă de perișoare
A Romanian home soup with two non-negotiable elements. The first is acidity — traditionally borș, a fermented bran infusion — because a ciorbă without sourness is simply soup and has no right to the name. The second is lovage, added by the handful off the heat; for many Romanians its smell is the smell of this soup. A third point is technical: the rice in the meatballs goes in raw and cooks only in the soup.
Your own work in that: 10 min.
- Vegetables 20 min
- Meatballs 20 min
- Simmering 25 min
- Souring 10 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneSoften the diced vegetables
Cook the onion, carrot, pepper, celeriac and parsley root in the oil for 8 minutes, until soft but not browned. Dice the vegetables small and evenly — in a ciorbă they are eaten with a meatball in a single spoonful.
Ingredients: 1 pcs onion · 2 pcs carrots · 1 pcs pepper · 150 g celeriac · 1 pcs parsley root · 3 tbsp oil · 2000 ml water · 2 tbsp tomato purée
Add the purée and cover with water
Stir in the tomato purée, fry a minute until it darkens, then add the water and bring to the boil. Frying the purée removes its raw metallic taste — tipped straight into water it leaves that taste through the whole soup.
Ingredients: 1 pcs onion · 2 pcs carrots · 1 pcs pepper · 150 g celeriac · 1 pcs parsley root · 3 tbsp oil · 2000 ml water · 2 tbsp tomato purée
Mix the meatballs with raw rice
Mix the mince with the raw rice, egg, grated onion, parsley, salt and pepper. The rice goes in raw: it swells in the soup and opens the meatballs from within, keeping them tender rather than dense.
Ingredients: 400 g minced pork · 60 g rice · 1 pcs egg · 1 pcs onion · 3 tbsp parsley · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
Shape small balls with wet hands
Shape walnut-sized meatballs with wet hands. Small — because they must cook through in the time the rice inside needs. Large ones stay raw in the middle or cook so long that the vegetables collapse.
Ingredients: 400 g minced pork · 60 g rice · 1 pcs egg · 1 pcs onion · 3 tbsp parsley · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
Walnut-sized — bigger and the rice inside stays hard.Drop them into boiling soup
Drop the meatballs in one at a time into boiling soup and do not stir for the first 5 minutes. They must set on the surface before you move them — stirred at once they break up and cloud the whole pot.
Ingredients: 400 g minced pork · 60 g rice · 1 pcs egg · 1 pcs onion · 3 tbsp parsley · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
Simmer 25 minutes
Cook 25 minutes over low heat, until the rice inside is soft. Cut one in half to check — the grains should be fully cooked, with no hard centre.
Ingredients: 400 g minced pork · 60 g rice · 1 pcs egg · 1 pcs onion · 3 tbsp parsley · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
Sour it only at the end
Take off the heat and add the lemon juice or warmed borș, tasting after each addition. Acid added early slows the softening of the vegetables and of the rice in the meatballs, and long boiling dulls it — added at the end it stays bright and fresh.
Ingredients: 2 pcs lemons · 1 bunch lovage · 150 ml soured cream · 1 pcs hot chilli
Acid at the very end — that is when it tastes freshest.Add the lovage off the heat
Scatter a whole handful of chopped lovage into the soup off the heat and cover for 5 minutes. Boiled lovage quickly loses its aroma. Serve with a spoon of soured cream and a hot chilli on the side.
Ingredients: 2 pcs lemons · 1 bunch lovage · 150 ml soured cream · 1 pcs hot chilli
A handful of lovage off the heat — boiled, it quickly loses its aroma.
Before you start
Borș, the Romanian souring liquid
A true ciorbă is soured with borș — an infusion of wheat bran fermented for several days, close to Polish żur but milder. If you have it, use about 0.5–1 litre of warmed borș instead of the lemon juice, added gradually, to taste. Lemon juice is the common substitute; sauerkraut brine and vinegar also work, each differently.
Lovage cannot be replaced
Lovage tastes like a very intense celery leaf and it is what gives ciorbă its identity. Dried is noticeably weaker — add it during cooking rather than at the end, as it needs to soak to release its aroma.
Three days, but cream apart
Ciorbă keeps up to three days in the fridge and tastes even better on the second. Add the cream in the bowl, not the pot — heated with the soup it splits into flecks and the whole turns unappetisingly grainy.
