Sour cabbage soup

Shchi has long been considered the main hot dish of Russian national cuisine. In the old days, soup was called almost all soup, but a little later, this name stuck only for soups with sauerkraut or fresh cabbage. Despite the local differences in the recipes of this dish and its various options, the principle of cooking has remained unchanged for a long time.

A small excursion into the history of dishes

Russian cabbage soup was popular in the families of the poor and the rich. Only ordinary people rarely had meat on the table, so they cooked from what was: they seasoned with pounded lard, and sometimes just from cabbage and onions. In general, for the long history of the soup, only one amendment was made to the principle of their preparation. In the 19th century, Russian cuisine was influenced by the French, as the nobility invited cooks from France. It was during this period that the flour dressing was removed from the soup, which was put into the dish earlier. And, of course, in modern soup recipes, a bunch of spices that were inaccessible before became much richer.

Time passed, tastes changed, but the people's love for soup has remained unchanged. To date, there are a huge number of ways to cook soup, but more on that later. And now we will consider the recipe of classic sour soup.

Spicy Sauerkraut recipe

Composition:

• meat (preferably beef on the bone) - 0.5-1 kg;
• sauerkraut - 300-500 g;
• onions - 1 pc .;
• medium sized carrots - 1 pc .;
• tomato paste - 2 tbsp. l (can be replaced with fresh tomatoes if desired);
• potatoes - 3-4 pcs .;
• celery or parsley root;
• black pepper-peas - 5-6 pcs .;
• garlic - 3-4 cloves;
• dill - 1 bunch;
• vegetable oil;
• sour cream for refueling ready meals.

With the ingredients sorted out, proceed to the preparation of our culinary masterpiece.

Cooking:

1. To start, stew meat on a bone over low heat. So that the broth was more rich, it is recommended to put the meat in the still unheated water, and leave the lid on the pan ajar. Remove the foam from the boiling liquid with a spoon or a slotted spoon and then cook the meat over low heat until it is fully cooked (about 1.5-2 hours). For the aroma, do not forget to season the broth with parsley roots.
2. While the broth is languishing, squeeze cabbage from the squeezed cabbage, squeeze the juice, put it in the pan, add tomato paste or blanched and chopped fresh tomatoes into small pieces (it will taste better), 200 ml of liquid (for example, broth), cover and stew about 40 minutes. Make the fire strong enough, and when the contents of the pan heats up well, you need to reduce it to a minimum. There is a small secret: the softer the stewed cabbage, the more delicious our soup.
3. While the cabbage is stewing, in a frying pan in a small amount of sunflower oil we ferry onions and carrots.
4. About 10-15 minutes before the end of braising the cabbage, add the browned onions and carrots to it.
   
5. We take the boiled meat out of the pan, let it cool and cut it into small pieces.
6. Strain the broth and lay back the pieces of boiled beef. Add chopped potatoes and cook for about 10 minutes.
7. Next, add the cabbage and cook until done.
8. In the ready soup recommend adding 1-2 cloves of garlic, ground with salt. When serving in a plate with cabbage soup, you must add sour cream and greens. Enjoy your meal!

By the way, when cooking cabbage soup with sauerkraut, it is necessary to very carefully salt the broth, since the cabbage itself is salty.

Cooking options soup

As mentioned above, there are a lot of cooking options for soup, their taste and aroma cannot be compared with anything.

So, cook soup with meat, fish or mushroom broth. And for the preparation of meat broth take not only beef, but also pork, poultry. For nutritious meals during fasting, sour lean soup with mushrooms is also perfect (their recipe will be interesting for vegetarians as well). Also prepare daily, rustic, white, cold soup of sturgeon, "Heroic", lazy, and others. And with sauerkraut is also a wonderful borscht. Perhaps all recipes can not be counted. After all, every housewife adds something different to the preparation of this dish.

In early spring, sorrel, spinach or even nettles are often added to the soup. Fish broth is often cooked from sauerkraut cabbage soup, and sturgeon’s head is used to cook the broth itself. In green soup put boiled eggs.

As you can see, the space for creativity at the hostesses is simply enormous, because you can always show imagination and adjust the classic set of products for yourself. A well-fed and satisfied household will be the best reward for the works!