German national cuisine has many delicious recipes that can please any gourmet with its taste. One of them is Eintopf soup, considered a very hearty and aromatic dish. In Germany, there is no single original recipe for it, since it can often be prepared from different types of meat: chicken, beef or smoked meats with the addition of vegetables. It can be a great everyday option for both the first and second courses - to choose from. This article will present recipes for the German Eintopf soup with a photo that can be easily prepared at home.
A bit about the history of soup
The history of the Eintopf dish is not known for certain, but it is believed that it was invented in a peasant environment. Initially, it was thought of as a soup that could tasty and satisfying feed the whole family after a hard working day. The very translation of the word means "one pot", since it was assumed that the hostess should put practically all the products that she had at hand at that time in one container, and then cook them.
In some ways, Eintopf’s recipe really justifies such a legend, since it can include a wide variety of ingredients: legumes, such as beans, peas or lentils, various vegetables (carrots, rutabaga, potatoes, cabbage), meat, and even often pasta. In addition to this, some housewives even cook it with fish and mushrooms, so you can always experiment with different variations of the ingredients to try new flavor combinations.
Cooking soup
Now, according to Eintopf’s recipe, soup is prepared not only in their homeland in Germany, but also in other European countries. It has become popular in France, Belgium, Spain, because it allows you to create an amazing dish from the simplest ingredients that will simply amaze you with its taste and aroma. Moreover, it will not be difficult to cook it at home, because finding the right ingredients is quite simple, and Aintopf’s recipe is straightforward.
Classic recipe
The ingredients of the German Eintopf in its classic variation should be as follows:
- 500 grams of beef or pork;
- 300 grams of chicken;
- 300 grams of carrots;
- 500 grams of potatoes;
- 250 grams of beans;
- 250 grams of peas;
- 1 onion;
- 50 ml of vegetable oil;
- water;
- salt, pepper and a couple of cloves of garlic.
Once all the ingredients are purchased, you can begin to prepare a national German dish.
Step-by-step instruction
To properly prepare the classic Eintopf recipe, you will need to adhere to the following steps:
- The first step is to prepare the meat. It must be washed, dried, and then cut into large pieces. Then they take a pan with a thick bottom, pour 100 ml of water and vegetable oil into it. Chopped meat is laid on top.
- You need to put the pan on the fire and simmer for about a quarter of an hour. While the meat is being prepared, you should start preparing the next component of the soup - vegetables. They also need to be cleaned, and then coarsely chopped. You should not worry about the size of the cubes - Eintopf was originally a village soup, and therefore it was prepared in haste and the hostesses simply didn’t grind it when cutting food.
- As soon as the time has come for stewing meat, put the vegetables in a saucepan and then season everything. From above it is necessary to pour hot water - it is necessary to make sure that the vegetables are completely covered with liquid. It should also be remembered that this soup should be quite spicy, and therefore should not be greedy with seasonings. You also need to lay out legumes that have previously been soaked.
Once all the ingredients are in the pan, mix everything and close the lid. The soup will cook for about 45 minutes over low heat. Once it is cooked, it needs to be mixed again and set to infuse for another 10 minutes. After this, Eintopf can be served.
Eintopf in Swabian
If you are tired of borsch and cabbage soup, then the alternative may be Eintopf in Swabian, which is prepared with the addition of cabbage. To prepare it, you need to take:
- 500 grams of white cabbage;
- 750 grams of potatoes;
- 300 grams of fresh mushrooms;
- 4 German sausages;
- 50 grams of bacon;
- 500 ml of broth;
- 30 grams of flour;
- salt and red pepper.
Cooking secrets
When cooking Eintopf soup in Swabian, the following procedure should be followed:
- First of all, you need to take a small head of cabbage, and then disassemble it all into leaves. Each of them needs to be thoroughly washed and dried, and then put in a pan. From above, pour a small amount of water, and then put it on the cooking stove for 15 minutes.
- While boiling cabbage, you need to start preparing potatoes and mushrooms. They need to be cleaned and then finely chopped. Then everything goes to the pan to the boiled cabbage.
- Then you need to prepare the sauce, which will give the soup a special taste. To do this, you need to thoroughly heat the pan, and then fry the flour on it until a pleasant golden color. Gradually, you need to add the broth to it, boiling everything to the desired consistency. You need to season everything and then pour the sauce to vegetables and mushrooms.
- Now it is worth paying attention to the sausages. They must first be boiled, and then fried in fat until a pleasant golden crust forms on them. They do not directly go to the soup, they need to be put in a bowl one at a time before serving, and then pour the soups themselves. Top can be decorated with parsley or dill.
Eintopf in a slow cooker
Now you can cook this delicious soup even in a slow cooker. If there is no desire to cook on the stove. To do this, you need to take 250 grams of lamb, beef and chicken meat, a couple of multi-glasses of beans, 2 potatoes, carrots, onions, 2 celery stalks. Beans must be soaked for the whole night, and processed meat immediately before cooking.
Now you need to cut the carrots into small cubes, like onions. Oil is poured into the multicooker bowl, and then vegetables are fried on it. After 5 minutes, add finely chopped celery celery to them and cook for another 5 minutes. The meat is cut into portions and laid on top of vegetables. Beans and chopped potatoes go to the very top.
All seasoned well with herbs, salt and pepper, and then poured with water. Set the "Soup" mode for 40 minutes. As soon as time is up, you need to let the soup stand for another 10 minutes, and only then open and serve.
Submission Rules
If you look at the photo of Eintopf soup, you can see that not only does it need to be cooked correctly, it needs to be served to the table in a special way to reveal all the tastes and aromas. Usually it is decorated with rye crackers and finely chopped greens on top, and if necessary, sour cream is also added to make the taste more delicate.
The ideal drink for such a dish would be ordinary foamy beer. By the way, some housewives add it to the soup even as they cook, because this way it becomes even more fragrant.
Conclusion
Everyone who has already tried to cook Eintopf soup, consider this dish to be an ideal option to feed the family on a winter day. Cooking it is simple, and all the ingredients will be inexpensive. With all this, the taste will be amazing. In addition, with a simple replacement of the ingredients, it will be possible to obtain new flavor combinations, and there it will already be decided which option will be the best. Now there are a large number of connoisseurs of the national recipe, so when traveling in Germany, you must definitely try its classic version in one of the pubs with a mug of foam.