Russian Sauerkraut Soup (Schi)
Sauerkraut soup, also called sour schi, is a traditional russian main first course dish for several hundreds year.
Original recipes for schi (there are more that one: sour schi, grey schi, green schi) usually include some kind meat, some kind cabbage, carrots, potatoes and spices. Sour schi are prepared with sauerkraut or mix of sauerkraut and fresh cabbage.
I do cook schi with just sauerkraut and I prefer pork broth for sauerkraut schi, however you may use beef for it if you don’t like pork.
Ingredients:
- 2 lb of pork meat (with or without bones), better in a whole piece
- 24 oz jar of sauerkraut
- 2-3 potatoes
- 2 carrots
- 1 parsley root or parsnip
- 2 onions
- Sunflower oil
- Several bay leaves to taste
- Whole allspice and black peppercorns to taste
- Salt to taste
How to prepare, step-by-step:
-
Prepare ingredients:
Russian Sauerkraut Soup (Schi) Recipe: Step 1 -
Prepare pork broth: for that fill a 4.5-5qt cooking pot with water and bring it to boil; rinse meat with cold water, put it to the boiling water and boil for about 1.5-2 hours until the meat is ready (see the “How to Prepare Meat Broth” /cooking-tips/how-to-make-meat-broth.html if you need help preparing broth):
Russian Sauerkraut Soup (Schi) Recipe: Step 2 -
While broth is being prepared, skin and dice onions. Warm up a skillet with a bit of sunflower oil and fry onions over low heat until browned in color:
Russian Sauerkraut Soup (Schi) Recipe: Step 3 -
Skin carrots and grate them on large slots (you may also slice them with a knife); add carrots to the onions on the skillet; fry them together for 10-15 minutes, then remove from the burner:
Russian Sauerkraut Soup (Schi) Recipe: Step 4 -
When meat is ready, get it out of the broth, remove bones if you used bone-in meat; and slice meat into portion pieces:
Russian Sauerkraut Soup (Schi) Recipe: Step 5 -
Add meat back to the broth and bring broth to simmering:
Russian Sauerkraut Soup (Schi) Recipe: Step 6 -
Skin and slice potatoes and parsley root:
Russian Sauerkraut Soup (Schi) Recipe: Step 7 -
Add potatoes to the broth and boil for about 5 mins:
Russian Sauerkraut Soup (Schi) Recipe: Step 8 -
Add sliced parsley root:
Russian Sauerkraut Soup (Schi) Recipe: Step 9 -
Drain liquid from sauerkraut, if it is too sour rinse it with cold water first, then add it to the pot and let it cook for about 10 mins:
Russian Sauerkraut Soup (Schi) Recipe: Step 10 -
Then add fried carrots and onions from the skillet:
Russian Sauerkraut Soup (Schi) Recipe: Step 11 -
Add bay leaves, allspice and black peppercorns and salt to taste:
Russian Sauerkraut Soup (Schi) Recipe: Step 12 -
Boil soup until the potatoes are ready – soft when you pierce them with a knife (about 10-15 mins), then russian sauerkraut soup is ready! Serve it hot:
Russian Sauerkraut Soup (Schi)
View Comments
This sounds very good, maybe this way I can get my husband to eat sauerkraut.
I wonder if it is also possible to make with red cabbage and meat from a cow (don't know how it is called in english, beef I think?)
It is going in my to cook list.
Love from The Netherlands
Beef will work too. Red cabbage may give unusual color, but the taste, I believe, should be ok... However I never tried that myself :)
I tried to make pour with red cabbage. Never again! The taste was quite nice but the colour would put anyone off. It was quite scary artificial blue colour :(
I tried to make a Soup I meant to write :)
Yea, red cabbage may give a blue color, sometimes it is actually funny :) Try making red borscht with it :)
In response to the comment about sauerkraut in America tasting funny, try the refrigerated kind. Claussen is good, other types that come in a bag are usually available too, they're better than canned or jarred.
Thanks for the tip!
What is used for green schi? I only remember green, never tasted this version.
Probably sorrel? Is this the one you are asking about: https://www.enjoyyourcooking.com/soup-recipes/sorrel-pork-soup-green-borscht.html ?
Wait, perhaps I'm confusing it with Uxa... I think Uxa is the green sour one. I loved it. Your recipes make me want to cook soups all winter long. Especially now when it's 13C outside! Nothing better than a warm soupchik.
Uha is a fish soup, I have it here: https://www.enjoyyourcooking.com/soup-recipes/russian-fish-soup-uha.html
Is it possible to make this soup with vegetable broth to make it vegetarian?
Probably, never tried it however. Taste can be a bit plain w/o meat broth.
Do you ever make shchi with homemade sauerkraut (kvashennaya kapusta)? I find that store-bought sauerkraut in the US has some sort of chemical flavor that I can't quite used to, so we usually make our own. I wonder if cooking the store-bought sauerkraut hides the off taste.
Didn't make sauerkraut here yet, at home - yes we did cook with homemade always.