Ogórkowa (Polish Dill Pickle Soup)

Peel and finely dice the onion. Heat the oil and butter in a stockpot over medium heat and add the onions. Cook until translucent, about 4 or 5 minutes. Add water, broth, pickle juice and turn heat to high and bring to a boil.

While the liquid is heating up, peel and roughly dice potatoes, shred the pickles, peel and finely dice the carrot, finely slice the celery. Once liquid is boiling, add the vegetables, pickles, salt, and pepper. Cook until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.

While the vegetables are cooking, whisk together the sour cream and the flour in a bowl. Scoop about 1/2 cup of the liquid from the stockpot and pour it slowly into the sour cream while you whisk. Repeat this 2 more times to temper the cream so it doesn’t curdle when you add it to the soup. When the potatoes are tender, reduce heat to medium and add the sour cream mixture to the stockpot and stir until you have a nice creamy soup. Cook about 5 minutes to thicken the soup and heat it through.

Serve immediately. It is traditional to garnish with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of fresh chopped dill and serve with plenty of crusty rye bread.

Notes:

This soup can also be pureed like a potato leek soup if you prefer. To do that I would leave out the carrot and the celery. Once the potatoes are cooked through, cool the soup in small batches over an ice bath. Once cool, run each batch through the blender and return to the pot to be heated up again.

You can control how sour the soup is by adding or reducing the amount of pickle juice and pickles you add. Also, if you want to make this more of a main course, you can always add torn kale leaves and diced kielbasa during the last half of the cooking time.