Hungarian Garlic Soup

Known as Foghagymás Leves, this recipe is an old favorite of mine because it’s warm and flavorful, and most of all because it reminds me of my grandmother. Like much of home cooking, I am not sure you could ever order this in a Hungarian restaurant, so here is the recipe for you to enjoy.

                                                      Ingredients

2 whole heads of garlic

1 large onion

¼ cup of olive oil

1 Tbsp flour

1 Tbsp paprika

1 gallon of Swanson’s chicken stock or broth

½ package of linguine

Start by peeling the garlic – it needs to be fresh garlic or the taste will not come through. Once peeled, mince them finely and set them aside.

Next, make the “rántás” – the basis for all Hungarian stews and savory soups.  Rántás” is finely minced onion, slowly sautéed on a low flame with 3 – 4 tbsp of olive oil. The French and foodies know this as "roux." 

Once the onions are ready, raise the flame, sprinkle in the paprika and mix it up so that the paprika gets toasted to bring out the flavor. Then, sprinkle in the flour (hand sifting with a wire mesh strainer works great) and mix it very well with the spatula. It comes out better if you first mix the flour into a runny paste with a little water and a hand blender and then pour that mixture into the sauteed onions and paprika to finish the rántás. The correct consistency of rántás is thick and pasty, and it should be reddish-orange in color.

At that point, add the minced garlic and lower the flame, stirring occasionally as it cooks slowly for about 10 – 15 minutes.  Once the garlic is soft and transparent, then add in the chicken broth and bring it to a boil.

Once boiling, break the linguine into thirds (so each piece is about 2 inches long) and add them to the pot. Lower the flame and cover the pot – let it slowly boil for 10 minutes or so until the linguine is cooked through. The finished soup has a bisque-like pinkish color.

Serve hot to warm up even the coldest nights.  Jó étvágyat!  Enjoy!

Lauren’s Potato-Leek Soup à la Julia

This soup is a perennial favorite with the kids, and it's very good to make on a rainy or cold day because it's so rich. There's enough substance in the bowl, so it's a meal by itself. If you'd like to pair it with other foods as a first course, try using smaller bowls, or simply serve it in smaller portions. At our house, this soup is usually the main event, so we've never actually paired this with other foods.

Ingredients
5 medium potatoes (appx. 4 cups diced)
2-3 large leeks (ends up appx. 4 cups diced)
3-4 cups of milk
1 cup of “Light” sour cream
1 package of pre-cooked bacon (15 slices)
1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
2 teaspoons of salt (or to taste)
1 teaspoon ground pepper (or to taste)

Start by filling a large pot ½ full with water and getting it to boil. While that is heating, start prepping the ingredients. There is a specific way to prepare the leeks à la Julia and it's the only part of the recipe you should follow to a T. Like much of life, everything else is quite negotiable.

Leeks
Cut off the tops of the leeks right below where they start to fan out in its stalk-like leaves. Be sure to leave the roots on the leeks until after you wash them. What will be left is primarily the white part of the leek, along with some of the tender light-green part. Cut them in quarters, but not all the way down to the roots so they stay together while you fan them out to wash out the dirt. Do not skip this step because the dirt is a guarantee, but trust me – it is worth this little bit of extra work. No need to dry the leeks, so just chop off the roots at this point. Slice the quarters into half-inch pieces and drop them into the boiling water.

Potatoes
These are certainly much easier than the leeks, but still some work to peel them. Once peeled, chop and dice into 1-inch chunks and boil them with the leeks until the potatoes break apart with a fork (like making mashed potatoes). It usually takes them about 10-12 minutes to reach that point.

Here is where Lauren departs from Julia’s original recipe. Julia drains the leeks and potatoes and keeps the liquid and adds it back in to make the soup. Lauren simply drains them, puts them in a blender in batches with sour cream and milk and purees it until a rich, creamy consistency. Then pour each batch into the original pan until all of the leeks and potatoes have been pureed. Generally, it takes 2-3 batches with our standard-issue 6-cup blender.

Once the pureed soup is back on the stove, stir occasionally as it warms up and add salt & pepper to taste.

Serve it in bowls and crumple the bacon bits onto the soup, finishing with some shredded cheddar on top. Serve with warm bread and your favorite beverage.


Give this one a try and let me know what you think, especially if you think of a new way to prepare or serve it.

Bon appétit!