Simple Vegetable Sour Soup
Servings: 6 portions
Print RecipeThis vegetable soup was inspired by the traditional Romanian sour soup. You can expect a very special sour taste, lots of fresh veggies and an interesting eggy texture. De-li-cious!
Equipment
- Soup Pot (at least 3.5L)
- Small Bowl
- Soup Ladle
Ingredients
- 1 sweet potato (peeled, cubed)
- 200 g frozen green beans
- 200 g frozen green peas
- 1 stick celery (chopped)
- 1 slice fennel (chopped)
- 2 cloves garlic (chopped)
- 3-4 shallots (no skin, sliced)
- 2 tbsp risotto rice (pre-cooked)
- 2 eggs (free range)
- 1 tsp Himalayan salt
- parsley and lovage (to taste)
- 1 small lemon (juice only, or 1 small cup of “bors”)
- water
Instructions
- Prior to making this soup, you first have to pre-cook the rice. Once the rice is almost cooked, remove the excess water and let it sit on the counter. We’ll be adding cooked rice to our soup towards the end of the cooking process.
- Let’s start working on the soup ... In a large pot add together all veggies: sweet potatoes, green beans, green peas, celery, fennel, garlic cloves and shallots.
- Add enough water to cover the ingredients and a bit more. Bring to a boil and keep it there until the sweet potatoes have become tender (test them with a fork).
- Lower the cooking temperature and add in pre-cooked rice and herbs (without adding salt just yet). Gently mix to incorporate and let the soup simmer on the stovetop.
- Next, add in the sour liquid (lemon juice or traditional bors liquid). Let the soup simmer for a few minutes, until it develops that special sour taste.
- In the meantime, crack eggs into a bowl and beat using a fork or a whisk.
- Take one ladle of fresh hot soup and pour it over beaten eggs. Mix for 30 seconds to homogenize with beaten eggs.
- Pour the contents of the bowl (beaten eggs incorporated into a bit of soup) over the main soup. Use a fork to mix very fast until the eggs have dissolved into the soup, forming a specific eggy texture.
- Finish by adding salt and let the soup simmer for another 1-2 minutes, before closing down the heat.
- Remove from heat and set aside to rest for a few minutes. Let the flavors develop while you prepare the table.
- Congratulations! Your vegetable sour soup is now ready to be served.
Notes
This sour soup can be safely stored in the fridge for at least 3-4 days. The lemon juice will keep it fresh in all this time.
In the Romanian tradition, the sour taste is traditionally obtained by using a special ingredient called “bors”. “Bors” is a liquid ingredient used in the Romanian and Moldovan cuisines to make traditional sour soups. It consists of wheat or barley bran, sometimes sugar beet, fermented in water - a slightly yellowish, sour liquid, which can also be drunk as such.
For this recipe we are using freshly squeezed lemon juice as an alternative to the traditional “bors”. If you have access to “bors”, use 1 cup of “bors” instead of the juice from 1 small lemon.
When it comes to rice, I used Risotto rice but you can also successfully use Jasmin or Basmati rice. As a general rule, use the kind of rice that you feel comfortable with.