The mother of all soups, classical Hungarian vegetable soup is composed of fresh vegetables and water, not from meat stock or bouillon cubes. As soon as you add those things, it ceases to be a vegetable soup. The flavouring should come entirely from slowly caramelized vegetables. Some people add cream or cheese but then again, it becomes a vegetable milk soup or a vegetable cheese soup. You can add mushrooms, cauliflower or some kind of cabbage, but traditionally, Hungarian vegetable soup did not contain broccoli or Brussels sprouts, because these were not part of the Hungarian landscape until fairly recently.
HUNGARIAN VEGETABLE SOUP
2 Tbsp vegetable oil1/2 cup diced onions
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp Hungarian paprika
1/4 tsp dried marjoram
1 tsp tomato paste
2 carrots, sliced
2 parsnips, sliced
1/3 celery root, sliced
1 kohlrabi, sliced
5 cups cold water
salt and pepper to taste
1 batch of Soup Dumplings
2 sprigs of fresh parsley, coarsely chopped
• Chop or slice the carrots, parsnip, celery root and the kohlrabi into uniform thickness.
• Dice the onion and mince the garlic.
• In a medium large Dutch pot, sauté the onions and garlic in oil on medium heat until the onions are translucent.
• Add the chopped vegetables.
• Sprinkle with salt.
• Gently sauté the vegetables for 5-6 minutes.
• Stir in the flour and cook for 30 seconds.
• Remove pot from heat and stir in the paprika marjoram and the tomato paste.
• Add the water and place pot back on the stove.
• Bring to a slow simmer, cover, and cook for ten minutes.
• Meanwhile make up the dumpling batter.
• Spoon the batter into the soup and slowly cook them in the simmering soup.
• Meanwhile chop the fresh parsley.
• Adjust the salt and season the soup with ground pepper.
• Add the freshly chopped parsley and serve.
