There’s a place in town that serves pickle soup. Blind Bob’s, if you’re curious and in the Dayton area. Great place to get a drink and a bite of bar food, although I haven’t been in since before the pandemic, and there’s a more vegan/vegetarian friendly option on the same street. No shade to Blind Bob’s, and anyway, this isn’t about local dining. It’s about pickle soup.
I’d never had this dish before I encountered it at Blind Bob’s over a decade ago. I’m a lifelong lover of all things potato, and at first glance, I thought this was basically potato soup with shredded pickle added. But no. Potatoes are the stage. Pickle is the star of this show.
Now, I didn’t know until recently that zupa ogórkowa is a Polish dish, nor that there is a similar Russian soup called rassolnik (also popular in Ukraine and Belarus). This, really, is neither of those. This is a distillation of several different recipes I looked at in an attempt to make a vegan version of a local favorite. That being said, this is a vegan recipe of simple substitutions, using plant-based versions of dairy products and stocks. You could easily do the exact same thing with butter and chicken stock. Also, because I did not follow one specific recipe, this might be a little chaotic. But this is what I did.
Ingredients
3 or 4 medium carrots
3 large potatoes
1/2 ounce fresh dill
margarine or your favorite cooking oil
white flour
1 jar of pickles, including the brine (whole, spears, chips, whatever you’ve got)
4 cups of whatever you use instead of chicken stock (vegetable stock is fine, but if you can find a chickenesque stock or bouillon, you’ll get a better result)
1 cup sour cream (Kite Hill makes an excellent plant-based sour cream, but there are a number of brands that should work just fine)
salt and pepper to taste
Method
Usually, when I make potato soup, I start by sautéing some leeks, or at least some diced onions. Most of the recipes I looked at didn’t include leeks or onions (though interestingly, the one in From a Polish Country House Kitchen does). While I remained skeptical, I omitted the alliums, including the minced garlic I add to almost everything.
Melt a few tablespoons of margarine in a large pot, or use whatever cooking oil you prefer.
Slice or dice your carrots and sauté them over medium heat while you peel and dice the potatoes. Add the potatoes to the pot and sauté them with the carrots for about five minutes, or until they just start to cook. You can also skip the sautéing and go straight to the next step, but it helps develop a little flavor and jumpstart the cooking.
Make sure there is enough margarine, butter, or oil to generously coat all of the veggies in the pot. They shouldn’t be swimming, but you want them to be nice and glossy. Sprinkle in enough flour soak up the oil (the amount will vary depending on the size of your vegetables and the amount of oil, but I used about 1/4 cup), stirring well to form a roux that will coat the carrots and potatoes. At this point, you can either add the stock straight away, or cook the roux-coated veggies for a few minutes until the flour develops a nice golden color. This will develop a better flavor, but the flour will lose a little of its thickening power the more you toast it.
Because I don’t measure the flour, I like to add the stock about a cup at a time, stirring to incorporate everything until it thickens up, then adding more stock, until it’s about the consistency I want it to be. Keep in mind that you’ll be adding a significant amount of brine from the pickle jar, so try to keep it on the thick side. Now, you could add the brine at this point, but acid has the effect of keeping the potatoes firm as they simmer, so you’d be adding to your cooking time. After you add the stock, bring it to a boil and then turn it down to a good simmer, stirring often to keep it from sticking.
Chop, dice, or shred the pickles and add them to the soup. Yeah, probably the whole jar. Use your judgement.
Chop the fresh dill and add it all, unless you want to save a little bit for garnish.
Once the potatoes and carrots are as tender as you’d like them to be, start adding the pickle brine. Do this maybe 1/2 cup at a time, but you’re going to need at least half the jar. Add a bit, taste the soup, keep going until you get the good good pickle flavor you want.
Once the veggies are tender and the soup has the flavor you desire, you’re ready to turn off the heat and add the sour cream. If you’re using non-non-dairy sour cream (that is to say, sour cream), it’s a good idea to temper it in a bowl with a little bit of the hot soup before adding it to the pot. Otherwise, you could experience some curdling.
We ate this with sourdough, but this is a soup that screams for a good rye.
