Zupa Koperkowa

The Polish soup that is made of dill: broth, potato, soured cream, and an entire bunch stirred in off the heat

Origin: Warsaw & Kraków, Poland

From the journey of Dill.

There are not many dishes anywhere that consist of a herb, and this is one of them. Zupa koperkowa is a light chicken or vegetable broth with potato and soured cream in it, into which a very large bunch of dill is stirred at the last possible moment. There is nothing else. No other herb, no spice beyond salt and pepper, nothing to hide behind. It is a Polish domestic staple, made in early summer when the dill is at its best and cheapest, and it is the plainest possible demonstration of what the herb tastes like. It is also a good lesson in the herb's chemistry. Dill's aroma compounds are highly volatile: they leave with the steam. Add the dill five minutes before the end and the soup will taste of hot cream and potato with a faintly grassy background. Add it off the heat, at the table, and it tastes overwhelmingly of dill. The same soup, the same quantity, entirely different result, and every Polish cook knows it without being able to say why. The soured cream needs handling too. Poured cold into hot broth it curdles, so it is tempered first, which means beating a ladleful of the hot soup into the cream before the cream goes anywhere near the pan. This is the standard Polish zabielanie, whitening, and it applies to half the soups in the repertoire. It is served with a hard-boiled egg halved into the bowl or with small lane kluski, the poured egg noodles that set in threads in the hot broth, and it is a first course rather than a meal.

Ingredients

Soup

  • 1.2 litres light chicken or vegetable stock
  • 400 g waxy potatoes, peeled and cut into 1.5 cm dice
  • 1 whole carrot, finely diced
  • 1 whole small onion, finely chopped
  • 20 g butter
  • 1 tsp salt, or to taste
  • 0.5 tsp freshly ground white pepper

To Finish

  • 200 ml soured cream (śmietana 18%)
  • 1 tbsp plain flour, optional, for stability
  • 60 g fresh dill, one very large bunch, tough stalks removed and finely chopped

To Serve

  • 4 whole eggs, hard-boiled and halved, to serve

Method

  1. Melt the butter in a large pan and soften the onion and carrot over a medium heat for six to eight minutes without letting them colour.
  2. Add the stock and the potatoes, bring to a simmer, and cook for 15 to 18 minutes until the potato is tender but not falling apart.
  3. Reserve the dill stalks, tie them in a bundle, and drop them into the pan for the last ten minutes, then fish them out and discard.
  4. Season with the salt and white pepper and take the pan off the heat. Let it stop bubbling.
  5. Whisk the soured cream with the flour if using, then beat two ladlefuls of the hot soup into the cream, one at a time, before pouring the tempered mixture back into the pan.
  6. Stir in the chopped dill all at once. Do not return the pan to the heat.
  7. Taste, adjust the salt, and serve at once with half a hard-boiled egg in each bowl and bread alongside.

Notes

Sixty grams is a very large bunch, roughly three supermarket packets. Anything less and the soup is pleasant rather than remarkable, which is the commonest way this recipe disappoints. It does not reheat well and does not keep. Make what will be eaten. Lane kluski are the traditional alternative to the egg: beat one egg with two tablespoons of flour and a pinch of salt into a thin batter and pour it in a slow stream into the simmering soup before the cream goes in; it sets into fine threads within a minute. The same broth-potato-soured cream base with pickled cucumbers instead of dill makes zupa ogórkowa, the other great Polish soup of this family, and with sorrel it makes zupa szczawiowa.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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