What Russian doesn’t know the hit of Soviet eateries - soup hodgepodge? This soup is so popular that it is still cooked not only at home, but also in luxurious restaurants. The only difference is that at home you can taste hodgepodge soup with sausage, but in prestigious establishments with smoked meats stuffed with olives and other delights that only improve the already excellent taste of a well-known dish.
The hodgepodge saga
Many housewives are well aware that the most delicious, most satisfying, perhaps not the most wholesome, dishes are those that are prepared from improvised ingredients that do not require special skills and special education. This is exactly what everyone’s favorite soup is, the preparation of which there is a huge amount.
Someone does not like to bother very much and makes a simple "villager" of ordinary sausage. And someone prefers to make a real culinary masterpiece, prepared according to the classic recipe, from a simple dish. In any case, soup hodgepodge seems simple only at first glance.
Nobody can learn how to cook it in 10 minutes. After all, only the right combination of ingredients and their precisely selected amount make it possible to prepare a truly delicious dinner. Nevertheless, there is a fairly simple recipe for soup-hodgepodge, from which you can begin to get acquainted with the various variations of the preparation of the dish.
Essential Ingredients for a Simple Recipe
So, in order to cook a hodgepodge soup for 4 people, you will need the following products:
- 4 medium sized potatoes.
- Onions (1 small onion is enough).
- Fresh carrots.
- Pickled cucumbers (2 pieces will be enough).
- 3 slices of fresh lemon.
- "Hunting" sausages (can be replaced with any other smoked sausages ) - about 200 grams.
- Cooked sausage (it is better to take from pork) - literally 150 grams.
- Smoked brisket (300 grams).
- Sunflower oil for frying.
- Tomato paste or sauce (2 tablespoons is enough).
- Water and spices (minimum set).
Preparing hodgepodge soup is very simple. But this does not mean that the process of its preparation can be neglected. Still, this is an original Russian dish. This fact suggests that this recipe should receive maximum attention.
Step by step recipe
Solyanka soup is a hearty and delicious dish that will certainly be appreciated by the male part of the family. Most often, this soup is cooked in the cold season. It's time to get acquainted with a step-by-step recipe for cooking:
- First of all, you need to peel and cut the potatoes into small cubes. Pour water into the pan and place on the stove.
- While the water boils, you can cut the sausage and brisket into thin strips, fry in a pan, in a small amount of oil.
- As soon as the water and potatoes boil, you can add the fried sausage and brisket to the pan.
- Now you need to quickly chop onions, pickled cucumbers and carrots, lightly fry with the addition of meat broth, add tomato paste or sauce and send to a saucepan with soup. Along with this, you can pour 0.5 liters of cucumber pickle into the pan.
- To salt or not to salt soup? The recipe involves adding a small amount of spices, but this is not necessary.
- It remains only to boil the soup, dip in it a slice of lemon and a few olives.
Hot treats can be served at the table. Do not forget to put next to sour cream and sprigs of fresh parsley.
Solyanka team
This cooking option is suitable for real men who cannot be fooled by ordinary boiled sausage. Only ribs! Only whole pieces of meat!
From words to action. What does it take to make a real “man’s soup”? Required Products:
- Water (2-3 liters).
- Beef or pork on the bone (a little more than 0.5 kg).
- Smoked ribs (enough 300 grams).
- A slice of ham or smoked sausages (literally 150-200 grams).
- Olives or olives (100 grams).
- Capers (150 grams will be enough), but they can be excluded from the recipe.
- Pickled or pickled cucumbers (4 medium-sized pieces).
- Allspice (several peas).
- Two small onions.
- Bay leaf.
- Tomato sauce or ketchup.
- The same amount of vegetable oil.
- Butter.
- Fresh lemon.
- Fresh parsley.
- A pinch of ground black pepper.
- Sour cream for dressing.
This is a classic version of cooking soup-solyanka. The recipe is not as complicated as it might seem at first glance. It is important to observe the proportions and sequence of preparation.
How to cook?
First of all, you need to put in a deep pan beef or pork on the bone, smoked ribs. The meat components must be poured with water and put on the stove, brought to a boil, then remove the foam and put one peeled onion in the pan. Leave everything on low heat, let cook for two hours. For 15-20 minutes before the end of this time, 2-3 bay leaves and a pair of allspice peas should be lowered there .
After that, you need to extract all the meat from the pan, transfer it to a clean dish. Bulbs and spices can be thrown away. The broth needs to be filtered. Cool boiled meat, separate from the bone and cut into thin strips.
Then you also need to chop pickled cucumbers, season them with a small amount of meat broth and simmer in a pan, then transfer to a saucepan with soup.
The second onion should be peeled and cut into small slices, fry in a pan until golden brown, pepper, add two tablespoons of tomato paste or ketchup, and then also sent to the soup-hodgepodge. The recipe involves adding salt, but pickled cucumbers more than compensate for its absence.
Now it remains only to put the boiled meat in the pan along with the rest of the ingredients, add the olives cut into rings, mix everything thoroughly and cook for 10-15 minutes. Now you need to add the capers and let the soup brew. Before serving, you need to put in each plate a spoonful of sour cream, a slice of lemon and a sprig of fresh parsley.
How to cook a hodgepodge in a slow cooker?
In fact, this cooking method does not differ from the classic recipe. Solyanka soup in a slow cooker is cooked in about the same way as in a conventional pan. The ingredients necessary for cooking can be taken from any recipe described above. It remains only to deal with the cooking algorithm:
- First of all, you need to peel and chop all the ingredients.
- After that, set the device to the "Frying" mode and send vegetables and meat ingredients there. Fry for 10 minutes until golden brown.
- Now you should change the cooking mode, that is, set "Cooking", add water or already prepared meat broth.
- Add the rest of the ingredients (pickled cucumbers, potatoes and spices).
- Close the lid tightly and turn on the multicooker by setting the timer.
- As soon as the signal sounds, you need to disconnect the multicooker from the network. Carefully open the container so as not to burn your hands with a strong jet of hot steam.
The classic soup is ready. It remains only to pour it on plates and season with sour cream, as well as add a slice of fresh lemon and a sprig of parsley.
Little tricks
Each mistress has her own secrets of cooking delicious hodgepodge. It's time to get acquainted with the most common of them:
- Brine from cucumbers, capers and olives should not be poured. A liquid can replace salt and other spices. The main thing is not to overdo it. Enough 0.5 liters of brine for 2 liters of meat broth.
- Typically, a slice of fresh lemon is added directly to the plate before serving. However, no one forbids putting a slice in the cooking process - it will give the dish tartness and piquancy.
- The optimal set of spices for the classic recipe for hodgepodge soup: ground black pepper, suneli hops, bay leaf and dried dill. Nothing more is needed. Traditional dishes of Russian cuisine do not require a large number of spices. Salt can be replaced with brine.
- Tomato paste or ketchup is an optional ingredient that can be replaced with ordinary tomatoes.
- In a bite with a hodgepodge, a slice of rye, slightly dried bread is the best option.
Of course, serving the hodgepodge to the table, one should not forget about sour cream, without which it is impossible to eat soup.
Meat hodgepodge with mushrooms
To prepare this dish you will need the following products:
- water (2 and a half liters);
- beef or pork on the bone (a little more than 500 grams);
- onion;
- allspice and bay leaf;
- smoked chicken meat (literally 200-300 grams);
- salami (150-200 grams);
- tomato ketchup or pasta (two tablespoons);
- pickles (2-3 pieces);
- olives or olives (10 pieces are enough);
- fresh champignon mushrooms (5-6 pieces);
- vegetable oil, sour cream and fresh lemon.
How to cook mushroom soup-hodgepodge? The photo eloquently indicates how thick this dish can be.
Step-by-step recipe for a pickled meat hodgepodge with mushrooms
First you need to cook the broth. To do this, put in a pan all meat ingredients, one peeled onion, bay leaf and several peas of allspice. After boiling, leave the pot over medium heat for another one and a half to two hours. Now you need to extract the meat, cool it and cut into thin strips.
The broth should be filtered, throw out all the spices from it. Boiled onion can be discarded, but fresh cut into quarters and fry in a small amount of butter until an appetizing crust is formed. Then add 2 tablespoons of tomato paste or ketchup, mix everything thoroughly and send to a saucepan with a hodgepodge, where all the smoked meats and boiled meat have been located for a long time. By the way, solyanka soup with sausage is not the cheapest dish. Therefore, many recommend cooking it after any holidays, when there are many products left in the refrigerator.
Cucumber also needs to be cut into strips and fry in a pan, adding a small amount of broth. Now you can do mushrooms: mushrooms need to be washed, peeled, cut into thin slices and fry. Then send them to the pan. It is enough to cut the olives into thin rings and add to the rest of the ingredients.
Solyanka soup with sausage, the preparation of which requires time and patience, is almost ready. It remains only to bring the broth with all the ingredients to a boil, hold on the stove for another 20 minutes and turn off the heat.
Fish hodgepodge
This is an incredibly tasty and healthy dish that fully complies with all the characteristics of a classic meat hodgepodge: incredible aroma, saturation and satiety, aesthetic appearance and excellent taste. Those who love fish dishes will certainly appreciate this recipe with a photo. Solyanka soup is prepared from the following ingredients:
- Salmon fillet (500 grams).
- Canned olives or olives (1 can).
- Salmon belly (300 grams).
- 3 medium potatoes.
- Pickled (not pickled) cucumbers - 3-4 pieces are enough.
- Bulb.
- Fresh lemon.
- Tomato paste (can be replaced with ketchup).
- Allspice (a few peas).
- Water and spices.
The recipe for the classic soup "Meat hodgepodge" is identical to the method of cooking the same dish. The difference is only in the main ingredient. However, it is worth introducing a step-by-step recipe.
How to cook fish hodgepodge?
Put fish trimmings in a pan and pour them with water (2.5 or 3 liters), bring to a boil, add bay leaf and allspice. Bring the broth to readiness, remove the pan from the heat, cool slightly and strain the broth.
Cut pickles into a thin strip, and potatoes into medium-sized cubes. You also need to chop onions. Fish fillet must be chopped. The lemon will suffer the same fate - it is advisable to cut it into small slices, while removing the bones.
Fry onions and cucumbers in a pan, add 2 tablespoons of tomato paste, hold on the fire for a little longer and send to a pan with fish broth. Now, in a bowl with soup, you should send potatoes and fried vegetables, bring everything to a boil, put pieces of salmon and boil the soup again.
At the end of cooking, it remains to add olives or olives, close the pan tightly and allow the soup to infuse. Fish hodgepodge is also served with a slice of lemon and fresh herbs.