Print recipe

Roasted red pepper and tomato soup

We usually blend the soup base until it’s quite smooth, and then add some chopped cucumber for a little texture; I love putting in bite-sized pieces of fresh mozzarella, too. Sometimes we go crazy and add little crispy-fried slices of zucchini. Put your own spin on it and add some chili or spices to suit your mood!

Ingredients

Makes a meal for two, first course for four

• 2 pounds tomatoes
• 1 head garlic
• 1 red bell pepper
• 3 Tbs balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
• ½ tsp salt
• pepper to taste

To serve (optional)

• chopped cucumber
• fresh mozzarella
  • Cut off the base of the garlic.
  • Put the vegetables and the garlic into a roasting pan and broil on high heat (450° F/230° C), turning the pepper and tomatoes every 5 minutes. The skin will begin to blacken.
  • When the tomatoes are soft, remove them from the roasting pan and remove and discard their skins.
  • When bell pepper is charred on all sides, remove the pan from the oven. Cover the pepper with a paper towel and let it sit for 2 minutes. While the pepper is cooling, peel the garlic.
  • Slip the skin off the pepper and discard; roughly chop the flesh.
  • Core the tomatoes and put the tomatoes, pepper and garlic into a food processor (you could also use an immersion blender). Process them for 30 seconds; the mixture will still be a little chunky.
  • Add the salt, pepper, vinegar and olive oil. Process for 30 more seconds or until smooth.
  • Cover and refrigerate the soup for at least 2 hours.
  • For serving, add diced cucumber and chunks of mozzarella for a more substantial soup.

Method

One of the first questions I get when I introduce my wife is “Where did you two meet?”. I don’t know why, is an American-Slovak-Hungarian combo that weird? So make it even more weird — I say “in Kosovo”.  That always takes the conversation away from us and transforms it to a discussion about Kosovo. Yes it is true, we met in the Balkans and we worked together and we fell in love with each other, then got married, had kids and started this blog.  Maybe when someone asks me how I met my wife, I should say “while we were eating Shopska salad”. Is this true? Most likely yes, because being in the Balkans was all about eating a lot of Shopska salad.

The Shopska mountains are a range in Bulgaria, and so maybe the dish originates there, but every restaurant south of Hungary seems to have its version of this summer staple. For Katy especially, Shopska was often the only thing on the menu she would eat, being vegetarian. So much that after we came home, we decided never again! But it seems we have developed some weird addiction to it and when the tomato season comes, we always find ourselves making a nice cold Shopska salad.  You should make it too!

You might thing that this sounds like Greek salad. No, it is not Greek salad and tastes different. It is similar, but if you will insist that it is Greek salad, I will have to poke you with a FORK! The lack of olives and olive oil makes the salad lighter and is fresher. Also the cheese should coat the tomatoes and the onions making the salad creamy.

A disclaimer: I love Greek salad and I love its depth and lack of creaminess. With this paragraph I just wanted to point out the differences between Greek Salad and Shopska salad. Sometimes you have the mood for different tastes. I love Greece. Please do not impale me! Thank you.

Print recipe

Shopska Salad

This is a very simple recipe with limited ingredients. It is important that you use the best ripe tomatoes you can get. Depending how salty your feta is, you might add a little bit of salt. The ratio of tomatoes to cucumbers should be something like 2:1. Feel free to alternate if you like cucumbers more. “White cheese” in the Balkans varies a lot.  Some is hard and crumbly, some is softer and more creamy. If you see “Bulgarian Feta” which is harder but not too soft, try it.
Ingredients

• 1 medium cucumber
• 3 medium tomatoes
• 12 oz/340 g Bulgarian feta cheese
• ½ small onion

Method

• Dice the cucumber and chop the tomatoes into ½ – 1 inch bits. Dice the onion.
• Add the ingredients into a bowl.
• Take 1/3 of the feta and grate it over the vegetables. Chop the rest into ½-inch cubes and sprinkle over the vegetables.
• Toss all the ingredients together, and chill.
• Usually Shopska is enjoyed as a side dish.

We planted peas among our roses to improve the soil, and we actually are getting a nice little crop of fresh peas right now! The kids love to spot the chubby pods that are ready to pick, and they’re still at the age when shelling peas is more fun than work. This recipe is most delicious with the freshest peas you can find, but of course sometimes those will be ones from the freezer.

Print recipe

The Best Summer Pea Soup

This is a very simple family recipe. You will be rewarded with an amazing soup. On hot days you can serve it cold from the fridge.

Ingredients

Makes soup for 4+.

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1tsp salt
• 2 large carrots
• 1 parsnip
• 2 young onions
• 2 celery stalks
• 3 stalks parsley
• 2½ cups peas (frozen or fresh)
• 7 cups water

Method

• Peel the carrot and parsnip and cut them into circles. Chop the celery stalks the similar way.
• Put the oil in a big pot and warm it over medium heat. Add the carrots, parsnip, celery. Saute them for 5 minutes then add the sugar and the onions (don’t chop them). Caramelize the sugar.
• When you see that the sugar is turning golden, add the peas and the salt and saute for another 5 minutes. Then you add the water and the parsley.
• Let it simmer until the root vegetables are nice and soft.
• Enjoy!

Today, warm up with one of the most famous soups in Hungary -  bean soup a la Jokai. Jokai Mór was a writer who was born in Komarno (my town). According to my dad, the inspiration for the main character of his famous novel Aranyember (The Man with the Golden Touch) is related to our family. Also, while he was living in Budapest, he was living in the second district where he had a small vineyard. Katy and I also lived in the second district and I also have a vineyard (not in the second district though)! It is fate! This recipe must be published on Emperors Crumbs!

If they tell you that the soup was named after Jokai because he invented it, that’s a lie. If they tell you that the soup has his name because he liked it, they are wrong, but close. A famous Hungarian food historian Draveczky Balázs said that Jokai’s favorite soup was bean soup cooked with smoked pork trotters. There were no vegetables, smoked knuckle or sausage in that version. According to Draveczky, those were later additions.

I have developed a vegetarian version for Katy. I was amazed with the results – I must admit I liked Katy’s a lot.

Print recipe

Bean Soup a la Jokai

Perfect hearty, winter soup. Thick, spicy with full flavor. A must for the chilly winter days. Depending on your beans, you might need to adjust the amount of water. If you want to keep the health beneficial properties of the beans you should use the water you soak the beans in. Unfortunately, the health beneficial properties also seems to include gas. So, it’s up to you; if you want to reduce the beans’ gas producing quality, boil the beans for 2 minutes, discard the water and wash the beans.

Ingredients

Makes soup for 6 portions

• 1 onion
• 1 green pepper
• 1 tomato
• 1 carrot
• 1 parsley root
• 1 celery root
• 8 ounc beans
• 10 ounce smoked meat (e.g. knucke)
• 5 ounce Hungarian sausage
• 1tbsp flour
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 bay leaf (turkish)
• 10 cups of water
• chopped parsley – optional
• salt

Method

• Soak the beans overnight. Hungarian smoked meat tents to be too salty. If that’s the case, soak the meat too.
• Chop, chop, dice, dice all the vegetables.
• In a big pot on a low fire saute diced onion. Dice the pepper and add it. Cut the roots into circles and add them. Once the onion is translucent or getting brown add the chopped tomato.
• Cut the smoked meat into 1/2 inch cubes. Add the smoked meat and the beans, stir and add the water.
• Cook on a low fire until the beans are getting soft. Anything between 50 min and 2 hours.
• In a big pot on a low fire saute diced onion. Dice the pepper and add it. Cut the roots into circles and add them. Once the onion is translucent or getting brown add the chopped tomato.
• Add a 1 or 2 table spoons of flour to the sausage fat and fry it for 1min. Add the mixture to the soup.
• Let it boil through (1min). Try it and if necessary season it.Because of the smoked meat and the sausage the soup will not need salt.
• Serve the soup with a big spoon of sour cream and chopped parsley.

Print recipe

Bean Soup a la Jokai

This is the vegetarian version of the soup. Instead of smoked meat I used smoked tofu, and I was surprised about the results. I might have liked it better then the meaty version.

Ingredients

Makes soup for 6 portions

• 1 onion
• 1 green pepper
• 1 tomato
• 1 carrot
• 1 parsley root
• 1 celery root
• 8 ounce beans
• 8 ounce smoked tofu
• 3/4tsp salt
• 1 and 1/2 tbs vegetable oil
• 1tsp red paprika
• 1/2tsp pepper
• 1tbsp flour
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 bay leaf (turkish)
• 10 cups of water
• chopped parsley – optional
• salt

Method

• Soak the beans overnight.
• Chop, chop, dice, dice.
• In a big pot on a low fire saute diced onion. Dice the pepper and add it. Cut the roots into circles and add them. Once the onion is translucent or getting brown add the chopped tomato.
• Add the beans, stear and add the water and salt.
• Cook on a low fire until the beans are getting soft. Anything between 50min and 2 hours.
• In a separate small pot heat up the vegetable oil, add the pepper, and the flour. Fry for cca 1min add the paprika stear and add it to the soup. If necessary you can ad some of the soup liquid to get out the paste from the small pot.
• Let it boil through (1min). Try it and if necessary season it.
• Serve the soup with a big spoon of sour cream and chopped parsley.

Katy asked me to come up with a recipe for the day after Thanksgiving, something light, something to soothe a possibly upset stomach. My thoughts went to the time just after our son was born and he was not really happy about it. People told us, “he is colicky, make some caraway soup for your wife.” I always liked this soup and when my mum showed me how to do it I was shocked. It costs maybe a dollar to make it, and it is pretty good. I do not know if it really helps treat colic. It did not help us, but neither did gripe water or other medicines. But this soup is probably something new, and it really does help your digestion. Enjoy.

Print recipe

Caraway Soup

There are slight variations to this soup. One of them to cook in some potatoes, another is to add garlicky croutons on the top of the soup. For extra fancy soup you can use chicken or vegetable stock instead of water. Experiment and make your own version.

Ingredients

• 2 tsp caraway seeds
• 1 tbs vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1tbs flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 cups water
• 1-2 eggs

Method

• Crush the caraway seeds with a mortar and pestle. You don’t have to pulverize them, just crush them in order to help them release the essential oils.
• Heat the oil and toast the caraway seeds for approximately 3-5 minutes over low heat until you smell their aroma.
• Add the flour and let it brown a bit. Add the paprika and the water.
• Cook for 25 minutes.
• If you are picky about biting on seeds, it is time to strain the soup. If you are not picky skip this step.
• Beat an egg or two eggs for extra yumminess and pour them into the simmering soup. Stir gently and cook for another 3 minutes.
• Nothing left but to enjoy.

With this recipe I plan to save the world from the economic crisis. Not because it is cheap to make, but because the tradition says that if you eat this soup on New Year’s Eve, the lentils represent coins. Your wealth next year depends on how many lentils you will eat. You guessed right, we eat tons of this soup. We try our best to eat many, many coins in order to pay for our dreams or blog hosting costs.

Before New Year’s Eve, we have this soup as a Christmas dish.  Most families in Central Europe have fish soup, but our and other cool families prefer this amazing lentil soup. Since Katy joined the family, we also have this soup many times during the year. My mum makes it the best, but I have gotten good at it too. And I even developed a vegetarian version especially for Katy.  Here I mention both, the classic with sausage, and the vegetarian version. Enjoy and get rich!

Print recipe

Lentil Soup – classic version

The only meat in this soup is a Hungarian-style smoked paprika sausage (not hot). Gyulai kolbasz or Debreceni kolbasz are ok. Do not skimp on the quality, since you need just a little bit of it. Please do not use fancy vinegars. The rule here is cheap white vinegar. You can use any mushrooms, no need for anything exotic, but for the most authentic results you can use dried European wild mushrooms. The more varieties, the better the soup. Instead of sour cream you can use cream or 1/2 cream and 1/2 sour cream. For a fancy occasion I go for cream, when I am making it just for us, I use sour cream.

Ingredients

Makes 4 portions

• 1 cup dried lentils
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp sugar – optional but good
• 7 cups water
• 1 Turkish bay leaf or 1/2 Californian one
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms or handful of dried ones
• 2 tbs white vinegar or 3 tsp of lemon juice
• 1 cup sour cream or cream
• 1 cup or more sliced Hungarian style sausage
• 2ts flour

Method

• Wash the lentils, put them into a pot together with water, 3 cloves of crushed garlic (just hit it hard once with your palm), bay leaf, salt, sausage and mushrooms.
• Cook on low heat. When lentils get soft (40min to 1 hour). Add the sour cream/cream. In order to prevent curdling, put the sour cream into a bigger bowl and gradually add some of the hot soup, maybe a quarter-cup at a time to bring up the sour cream’s temperature. Then add the mixture back into the soup and bring it to a boil. (boil it for 2min)
• Now soup is almost ready. Let it cool a bit (like 5-10 min) and then add the vinegar and sugar.
• Depending on your taste, add more salt,vinegar or sugar.
• You can serve it with more sour cream and parsley.

Print recipe

Lentil Soup – vegetarian version

This is a vegetarian version of the amazing lentil soup. The quasi roux is for imitating the spiciness of the sausage. You could try adding a little Spanish smoked paprika (pimentón) for even more sausaginess. As above, use cream, sour cream, or a mixture according to your taste.

Ingredients

Makes 4 portions

• 1 cup dried lentils
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 7 cups of water
• 1 tsp sugar -optional but good
• 1 Turkish bay leaf or 1/2 Californian one
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms or hand full of dried ones
• 2 tbs white vinegar or 3 tsp of lemon juice
• 1 cup sour cream
• For the roux
• 1.5 tbs of vegetable oil
• 2tsp flour
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 tsp black pepper

Method

• Wash the lentils, put them into a pot together with water, 1 clove of crushed garlic (just hit it hard once with your palm), bay leaf, salt, and mushrooms.
• Cook over low heat. When the lentils are slowly getting soft (cca 30min) make the roux. In a separate pan add oil, and start to fry smashed garlic and the black pepper. Add flour and when the flour is a bit brown, add the paprika, stir and add it to the soup. The process has to happen fast, because you do not want to burn the garlic or the paprika.
• Continue simmering over low heat. When lentils get soft (40min to 1hour). Add the sour cream/cream. In order to prevent curdling, put the sour cream into a bigger bowl and gradually add some of the hot soup, maybe a quarter-cup at a time to bring up the cream’s temperature. Then add the mixture back into the soup and bring it to a boil. (boil it for 2min)
• Now soup is almost ready. Let it cool a bit (like 5-10 min) and then add the vinegar and the sugar.
• Depending on your taste add more salt,vinegar or sugar.
• You can serve it with more sour cream and parsley.