“Lazy” Shchi with Porcini
Shchi is the cabbage soup at the root of East Slavic cooking, and the “lazy” version is the quick one: it starts from fresh cabbage instead of sauerkraut, so there is no acidity to fight and the vegetables are done in ten to fifteen minutes. What makes this one worth cooking is the mushrooms — about 150 g of fresh porcini, roughly 5 oz, simmered on their own and returned to the pot with their cooking liquid. That liquid carries most of the aroma; pouring it away wastes the best part.
Small things that matter
Toast the spoonful of flour in a dry pan until it smells faintly of nuts, then slake it with a ladle of hot broth in a bowl before it goes in; added dry, it lumps. Tomatoes go in last, with the mushrooms, because acid halts the softening of cabbage and potato. Parsley root is the sweet, parsnip-like taproot sold in Eastern European groceries — a small parsnip is the closest stand-in, and parsley leaves are not a substitute.
Leave out the beef and the mushroom broth carries the soup alone. Serve with smetana (full-fat sour cream, 20% or more) and dill.
Part of Ukrainian cuisine — 464 more recipes in the section.
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Ingredients
Instructions
Sort and rinse the porcini, salt them, boil, cut into strips, and return to the mushroom broth.
Add the shredded fresh cabbage to the boiling meat broth, bring back to a boil, add the sliced onion, carrot, parsley root, and potatoes, and cook for 10 to 15 minutes.
Season with the toasted flour, add salt and pepper, add the sliced tomatoes and the mushrooms with their broth, and cook until done.
When serving, add sour cream or mayonnaise and herbs to the bowl.
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