Polish Soups: Most Popular Soups from Poland

One of the traditional meat soups in Polish cuisine is rosol. Cooks add various types of meat to make the soup, but the most common is chicken rosol, called rosol z kury. Other options include turkey, beef, or veal. Most people do not make the soup with pork because it makes the thin broth cloudy. The chosen meat is usually cooked on the bone in water along with various vegetables and noodles. Try our rosol recipe here.

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Not all the best Polish soups are eaten hot, and the cold varieties are a great choice for the warmer months when you crave something refreshing. Chlodnik is the term used for cold Polish soups, and chlodnik litewski is the beetroot version of the dish. It is like borscht, a cold beetroot soup originating from Ukraine. The Polish version involves simmering the beets and then blending them with radishes and cucumber. They also add milk products, such as sour cream, sour milk, kefir, or yoghurt. Image credit: Liz West via Flickr https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

A distinctive characteristic of zurek is its sour taste from the sour rye starter, made from the fermentation of rye flour. The soup contains both meat and vegetables. Common meats are bacon, ham, or sausages, while vegetables usually include mushrooms and potatoes. There are regional variations of the dish, with some families serving the soup in hollowed-out bread and others adding halved hard-boiled eggs. Read our zurek recipe here.

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Like many cuisines, Poland has its own version of mushroom soup. It is one of the most traditional soups in Polish cuisine. Although there are many recipes for this mushroom soup, it usually consists of sliced or diced mushrooms, cream, butter, and stock. According to Polish Foodies, some people drive to local forests to buy or forage wild mushrooms to make the soup. Some variations also include kluski noodles. Read our zupa grzybowa recipe here.

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Not to everybody’s tastes, flaki is a traditional Polish tripe soup. Some people love tripe, and other people hate it, but it is a cheap ingredient with a distinct flavour. Traditionally, flaki is served as part of Polish wedding celebrations and usually comes with a bread roll on the side. Some people add bacon or meatballs to the tripe soup and season it with nutmeg, ginger, and pepper. Try our flaki recipe here.

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In many ways, zupa pomidorowa is like the Italian minestrone soup. It has a base of tomatoes with vegetable or meat broth and contains pasta, herbs, and spices. However, the Polish eat this soup with kluski, which is a name used to refer to both Polish dumplings with no filling and traditional Polish noodles for soup. It is usually served as an appetizer but is just as delicious for lunch.

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A popular Polish soup is krupnik, which is a light soup made with chicken or pork, barley, and stock. There are also vegetarian versions of the soup, using various vegetables instead of meat. It is sometimes eaten as a side dish, and many families serve the soup to sick family members or women who have just given birth. Kluski Polish dumplings are a fantastic accompaniment to this soup. You can read our krupnik recipe here.

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When thinking of Polish cuisine, many people think of ingredients such as cabbage and potatoes. Therefore, it is unsurprising that one of the most famous Polish soups contains both of these ingredients. Kapusniak is a soup made using potatoes, sauerkraut, and root vegetables. There are many other European soups made with sauerkraut, but the addition of marjoram and cumin makes this Polish soup unique. Often, pork ribs or bacon are added to give a deeper flavour, and people often serve kapusniak with rye bread.

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The Polish version of pea soup is called Grochowka, and it is one of the best Polish soups. It is made from yellow or green split peas with root vegetables, potatoes, marjoram, and smoked meats. Grochowka is a creamy and hearty soup that people usually serve with slices of rye bread. The soup is associated with the Polish army, so it is sometimes called army pea soup or grochowka wojskowa.

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Although it is a common soup in Polish cuisine, pickled cucumber soup is something that many may view as an unusual dish, and it is an acquired taste. A meat broth is added to pickled cucumbers, root vegetables, diced potatoes, and various herbs and spices. You can then add Sour cream and flour as thickeners. People serve Zupa Ogorkowa hot with rye bread, although you can serve it with the bread of your choice. You can read our zupa ogorkowa recipe here.

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Polish cuisine widely uses vegetables, as they are cheap, hearty, and readily available. Therefore, there are many variations of vegetable soups. One of the most popular soups in Polish cuisine is zupa jarzynowa. It contains potatoes, cauliflower, carrots, and peas, although some people omit one of these ingredients and add different vegetables. Although it is usually a vegetarian dish with vegetable broth, some people prefer meat broth for added flavour. Most people use cream as a thickener for the soup and season it with dill. Image credit: MOs810, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Most people associate borscht with beetroot, but there are other variations of the dish, including white borscht. It uses fermented wheat flour as its base and is like zupa zurek but with a less sour taste. The main ingredient is potato; other ingredients commonly include celery, carrots, and parsley. Sometimes, people add hard-boiled eggs, herbs, ham, or sliced sausage as garnishes. Polish people often eat this soup at Easter and call it barszcz bialy na zakwasie. Image credit: Oliwier Brzezinski, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons