Cooking Recipe Krautlsuppe (Bavarian Herb Soup)
Recipe Ingredients
Directions
Serves 4.
salt and pepper bread cubes for croutons
* at least 3 of these: chervil, watercress, spinach,
sorrel (dandelion and pimpernel for brave souls)
Bitter herbs are traditionally eaten at Easter in
Christian countries as a sign of penitence. This
Bavarian soup is served on Easter Thursday, known as
Maundy Thursday. Fresh chervil, easily available in
any German market, is usually the dominating flavor.
This is a delicate fresh-tasting soup for any time of
the year.
You will need a large saucepan. Pick over and wash
the herbs, stripping the leaves from those stalks
which are too woody. Chop the rest.
Melt the butter in a deep pan and fry the onion gently
until transparent. Add the herbs and sweat them for a
moment before you pour in the water or broth. Add the
potato to the soup. Bring the soup to a boil, and then
turn down the heat. Simmer for 20 minutes. Mash the
potato in the soup to thicken it a little. Taste, and
add salt and freshly milled pepper.
Serve with bread croutons fried in butter or bacon fat
(goose fat is even better). They should be so hot
that they sizzle when they are added to the hot soup
at the table.
From: THE OLD WORLD KITCHEN - THE RICH TRADITION OF
EUROPEAN PEASANT COOKING" by Elisabeth Luard, ISBN
0-553-05219-5
Posted by: Karin Brewer, Cooking Echo, 7/92