Polish dill soup: a light stock, potatoes, sour cream and two bunches of dill
The soup remembered from childhood and rarely found in restaurants: a light chicken and root-vegetable stock, diced potatoes, a pale roux, sour cream and two full bunches of fresh dill thrown in at the very end, off the heat. Boiled dill quickly loses its scent; dill added to soup with the heat off smells through the whole dinner.
Your own work in that: 10 min.
- Stock 40 min
- Potatoes cooking 15 min
- Roux, sour cream, dill 10 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneMake a light stock
Cover the chicken, vegetables, onion, bay leaf, allspice and salt with water, bring to the boil, skim and simmer 40 minutes. Lift out the meat and vegetables: slice the carrot and set aside, pick the meat off the bones. Strain the stock. Vegetarian version: root-vegetable stock alone, 30 minutes, and one more tablespoon of butter.
Ingredients: 2 pcs chicken legs or wings · 1500 ml water · 2 pcs carrots · 1 pcs parsley root · 1 pcs onion · 1 pcs bay leaf · 3 pcs allspice berries · 1½ tsp salt
TipDill soup should be light and pale. A heavy, fatty broth drowns the dill; hence legs, not a whole chicken, and only 40 minutes.
A light stock, forty minutes, strainedCook the potatoes in the stock
Cut the potatoes into 1.5 cm dice, add to the stock with the reserved carrot and cook 15 minutes, until tender. Add the chicken meat.
Ingredients: 400 g potatoes · 30 g butter · 1 tbsp plain flour · 150 g sour cream, 18 % · 2 bunches dill · ½ pcs lemon, juice · ½ tsp black pepper · 100 g rice or egg noodles
1.5 cm dice, a quarter of an hourMake a pale roux
Melt the butter in a small pan, add the flour and stir 1 minute, until it foams but doesn't brown. Add a ladle of soup, whisk smooth and pour into the pot. Cook 3 minutes.
TipA pale roux gives the soup a lightly creamy body without heaviness. A browned one would smell nutty and cover the dill.
Butter, flour, a minute, a ladle of soupFinish with sour cream
Temper the sour cream with a few spoons of hot soup, pour into the pot, bring to the boil once and switch off the heat. Season with pepper, salt and lemon juice; dill soup likes a clear acidity.
Tempered, boiled once, heat offDill off the heat
Chop the dill finely, without the thick stalks, and add to the soup with the heat off. Stir, cover and wait 3 minutes. Boiled dill turns grey and loses its scent; added off the heat it stays green and smells like the garden.
TipTwo bunches is not excessive: dill isn't a garnish here, it is the main ingredient. Too little dill and you get an ordinary potato soup.
Two bunches, fine, into the soup with the heat offServe
Into bowls over rice or noodles cooked separately, with a spoon of sour cream and a pinch of dill on top. Reheat without boiling, only until hot; on the second day add fresh dill.
Rice at the bottom, dill on top
Before you start
With drop dumplings
A thin batter of an egg, 3 tablespoons of flour and 2 of water poured in a thin stream into the boiling soup before the sour cream: drop dumplings, like grandmother's.
With new potatoes
In June, small new potatoes whole, in scrubbed skins, and dill: the simplest summer version.
Without sour cream
100 ml milk and a tablespoon of butter instead of sour cream, the roux unchanged: lighter, for children and for those who don't like sourness.
