Pickle Soup (Ogórkowa Zupa) Recipe (2024)

Wonderful soup, if you squeeze most of the juice from your grated pickles before measuring into the 1 packed cup. Use the juice - mine had almost 1/2 cup - before you use the brine from the jar! Without doing this your soup will be too sour as the brine measurements will be off b/c the pickles themselves hold so much of it inside. I have been looking for a great Polish pickle soup recipe since I left NYC. Thank you!

for those who are having a difficult time finding pickles fermented without vinegar, just look for Bubbies Pickles in your grocery store. They are lacto-fermented - no vinegar, as the case for most kosher pickles. Our neighborhood made pickles yearly and not one drop of vinegar was ever used - it would have been a shanda toi, toi, toi.

I am concerned about the brother being fairly flavorless. I wonder if the sister might have been tastier.

As for the pickles - I found pickles that come in a can from Israel - they are the best, taste delicious in this soup, and you can find them at any basic supermarket. I’m from Poland so I know what I’m talking about. Also - if you really want to make it the way we do- you’d start with some pork ribs (for example) and boil them to create your own stock, then add the root veggies, and then the pickles and pickle juice at the end (i don’t cook the pickles - I dump them directly into the soup).

My Polish husband loves pickle soup. He loves this recipe, but was disappointed the russet potato disintegrated.Now it's my turn... he's got a cold and this is what will make him feel better. I used one russet potato, as it will break down and add to the creaminess. I used 3 yellow potatoes, to keep their structure. We used a jar of my husband's home-made sour pickles and all the brine. Topped with a pile of fresh dill. PERFECT!!!

Hello! Grazia is right, this soup is traditionally made with pickles that have been fermented without vinegar. If it's available to you, I would recommend seeking out a store with Polish products and opting for a brand like Polonaise, Krakus or Lowell. Again, just be sure to look for cucumbers in brine, or pickles that don't have vinegar in the ingredients list. Hope that helps!

I tried making my own fermented dill pickles (without vinegar) until I found Bubbies Pickles (mentioned by another commenter) at WHOLE FOODS. They were much tastier than my home made ones. I keep the bottle in the fridge and when I take a pickle out I add a pickling cucumber which is ready in a week, so one bottle should last a long time. If need be I top the brine up with distilled water and a bit of kosher or sea salt.

Just wanted to say "thanks" for including a Polish soup. Us Poles are soup people. My grandmothers made an abundant variety of soups, and I seldom see a Polish - or Eastern European - influence in your recipes. So thank you.

Trader Joe’s now has brine fermented pickles (no vinegar) that make great pickle soup.

This is a winner! The only substitution was celery finely diced because I couldn’t get celery root and 1 cup of pickle brine , we used to eat this soup at the Kiev restaurant in the East Village that is sadly long gone and it was a favorite on Sundays with Challah.

I make lacto fermented pickles which are the easiest thing ever, and not daunting at all once you've tried it; literally anyone with a jar, some water, some salt and a vegetable can do it. Anyway, when I put pickles or pickle juice in soups I always do it at the end and wouldn't boil it because that will kill off all the wonderful probiotics. So I wanted to throw that out there into the soup!

This was pretty delicious, but making it again I would probably leave the celery root out. I don't care for the flavor of the celery root and I didn't love when I got bites of it as I find it bitter tasting (prefer the potato taste). This makes a ton of soup so you may want to half the recipe if not making for a big group of people. Definitely squeeze out the juice from the grated pickles before cooking as someone else suggested (I ended up with 1 cup of brine just from squeezing).

This soup is wonderful. Wanted to find a reason to shop at the Ukrainian markets in NE Philly and the search for cucumbers in brine was a great excursion. Really enjoyed the fried in garlic butter treatment on the shredded pickles.

This was incredible! I ended up popping some cumin seeds in the butter/gherkin pan which added another layer of flavour. Also a Parmesan rind and thyme in the main broth.So tasty!!

I've been making this for years. Use the best kosher pickles as the garlic really enhances the soup. And add 1 Tbsp flour to the sour cream and combine before adding to the soup.

I made my own lemon-dill chicken sausage (also added salt, red pepper, fennel seed, oregano and rosemary to the sausage) to add some protein to the soup. I used lacto-fermented pickles, but for the brine, I used half the brine from the vinegar-free pickles and half the brine from vinegar Pickles (I used grillo's) because I had that vinegar brine on hand and I wanted it to be extra sour. It turned out perfectly! This might be my new favorite soup!

Started by sauteeing some vegetarian kielbasa and a half onion before pouring in the veggies (minus celery root) and turkey stock. Added about a 1/2 cup of vinegar-style brine to the mix (the pickles and initial cup were homemade fermented ones, basically chopped up the whole pint). Turned out great! Will make again.

I've made this both with brine pickles and vinegar pickles and gotta say that I preferred the vinegar pickles.... I really like sour flavours and the brine pickles just didn't have enough tang for me. Otherwise followed the recipe exactly (ok I added white pepper at the end and topped with MORE sour cream). A really comforting and delicious soup I've made over and over again.

This was so delicious! I used the recommended cucumbers in brine and used the brine from that jar, but also added some of the vinegary brine from another jar of pickles I had to taste at the end. What can I say, I love a salty, sour, tangy soup! I also used Greek yogurt instead of sour cream which worked great. My food processor was a big help with the grating. The finished product was also quite pretty with all the little specks of color from the pickles, carrots, and dill. Will make again!

Brine makes a deeply rich broth. Delicious.

Didn’t realize the “Russian style” pickles in brine I found also included hot peppers until I was well into this recipe. I was afraid they’d make the soup too spicy, but it wasn’t overpowering. We liked the heat.

Used the suggestions for the rind of parm and dried thyme in the pot, some cumin in the pan with the pickles, as well as added tiny amount of vinegar and 1/2 stick unsalted butter at the end. My daughter, who was craving the pickle soup made by the Polish restaurant in Greenpoint, thanked me for making it. She said it was very good but that it tasted "more like vegetable soup and not as pickle-flavored. Any more suggestions would be much appreciated, thanks.

I went to make this and opened the jar of refrigerated pickles and they were very fizzy. I wasn't sure what this meant, so had to abort, unfortunately...

Wow - this soup tastes amazing! It’s a forgiving soup - we used a flavorful mystery stock we had in the freezer (possibly from making beans?), and added kiełbasa, which will cook through as the soup is made if you add it with the vegetables. I used about 2 cups of grated pickle (7 Bubies pickles), and don’t recommend going lower.

Happy tears over this recipe - the first Polish dish I've cooked from scratch (besides beet salad).Fun weirdness aside (I've never grated & sautee pickles, used more than one cup of pickle juice in the soup), it is easy as heck to make. The flavors are at once bold-acious and subtle, and the warmth spreads to the tips of one's fingers and toes. I was happy to see the description mention all the different versions, as there are several I can already imagine.A winner recipe!

Delicious! We only had vinegar pickles, so we were careful to squeeze out the extra liquid and not to add too much brine. Didn't have a parsnip and don't like celery, so we didn't add those. The kids loved it. Looking forward to getting Polish pickles and making this again.

Take the time to find Polish pickles if you can for this recipe. It makes a difference. This soup is good, and hearty and easy, but even if you're a pickle lover, it's a challenge. We thought it was a bit too funky and salty, even with the carbs tempering the brine.

This soup is an amazing hearty Fall treat! Made it just like the recipe said, shared it with friends and neighbors and everyone was giving it great reviews. Such a different flavor from our common onion/chicken/noodle and rice soups. And, you get the benefits of Vitamin C, magnesium, fermentation and great tasting comfort food. I had to hunt for both in November in a major us city, but I think both the dill and celery root are essential. Thanks, NYT Cooking!

Delicious. Used Bubbies pickles and worked magically. Halved the recipe and still ended up with a lot of soup.

Excellent made with home fermented dill pickles. It's a great use of these once they have lost their snap and gone mushy. For those who have been saying the soup lacks flavor, be sure you have added enough salt, and used a flavorful stock.