Bacon Caraway Potato Soup

I couldn’t resist. A friend placed a vintage cookbook before me – and even though the food at the birthday dinner party I was attending was fabulous – and even though my kids were asking for a second enormous slice of decadent chocolate caramel birthday cake, I was oblivious. I was lost in the blast from the past cookbook. (Really, I was, it wasn’t until later that the kids told me later their request had wisely been refused by the smart host.)

This particular vintage cookbook was simply The Hungarian Cookbook, circa 1940, and given to my friend by a farmer friend who likes to drop off small bags of paprika at her home on any given Sunday. While I have dined at plenty of traditional Polish and Hungarian (or “Old Europe”) style restaurants in Chicago, none had many of the dishes found in this cookbook. One interesting one which caught my eye was simply “Caraway Soup.”

Below is my take on the simple soup. I added milk, onions, potatoes and bacon – because an enriched caraway broth didn’t sound quite as appetizing as it would be with bacon. (Isn’t everything better with bacon?) I skipped the fussy step of straining out the caraway seeds by adding a few less than the recipe specified. And I added whole eggs instead of egg yolks only to bolster the protein content (and because my kids love the little egg ‘noodles’ formed when adding hot egg whites to soup, which I often do.) The kids and I both adored this velvety soup with sweet caraway flavor and salty bacon…so much so that we ate it all before my husband got home!

Bacon Caraway Potato Soup

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• Author: by Serena Ball, RD

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Description

Bacon and caraway jazz up this velvety potato soup – which is actually low-fat, thanks to some simple tricks.

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Ingredients

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• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup green onions, white and light green parts only (or shallots) chopped
• 1 tablespoon caraway seed, lightly crushed with mortar & pestle
• 1/4 teaspoon sweet paprika
• 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups low-fat milk
• 2 eggs whisked together with 1 tablespoon water
• 2 large potatoes, cubed, cooked, and kept warm
• 4 slices bacon, cooked, crumbled

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Instructions

1. Melt butter in large saucepan. Saute onions until soft and add caraway, paprika and flour; cook for 2 minutes stirring constantly.
2. Add salt and stock; cook stirring occasionally until soup is thickened, about 5-6 minutes. Stir in milk and cook until just beginning to bubble.
3. Remove soup from heat and stir in eggs until soup is smooth and you see little ‘egg white noodles’ forming.
4. Divide potatoes among soup bowls. Pour soup into bowls and crumble bacon on top.

Do you make potato soup? Do you ever eat Hungarian food?