Hungarian Caraway Soup – Köménymag leves

Hungarian Caraway Soup was one of the popular soups in Hungary. It’s delicious, healthy, simple, and quick. Caraway Soup (Köménymag leves) was very popular back in the days, but today is very divisive. This dish was one of the poverty meals, which was given when there was nothing else to eat. This was especially during and after the World Wars.

Though soup is a sad food for some, soup and caraway are a comfort food to me. This soup is deliciously comforting and I loved reading about the history!

Shelby

Today, for some people this soup comes with a sad memory, and they don’t even want to hear about it. Not to mention, to taste it. Some are fed about it. But, a minority of the people love it and adore it. Like me.

We at home didn’t really make it, I guess for the reasons I mentioned above. But I was lucky enough to taste the infamous Hungarian Caraway Soup in a restaurant in Transilvania. And I loved it. It was so delicious and interesting. Especially, since I know this dish has a history behind in my country.

[Picture] Ingredients for Hungarian Caraway Soup

The ingredients are very simple. As one of the poor people’s meals, this dish contained golden brown roux, water, and salt. This was the basic. When times got better, it was considered luxurious to add other ingredients like paprika and croutons.

Nowadays, some people love to stir in beaten eggs. I don’t practice that. But you can try it.

How to make the golden brown roux?

You would like to make this soup as our mothers and grandmas make the golden brown roux, but have no idea how to do it?

In this soup I used:

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp all-purpose flour

This is the basis for the roux. To have the golden brown color, you just have to cook the flour on medium heat until it seems to get a brown color.

NOTE: For my Hungarian caraway soup recipe, I don’t let it brown. That means that I stir constantly until the mixture is smooth, slightly thickened, and small bubbles begin forming, 30 seconds to 1 minute. The Caraway and the paprika powder will give a nice brown color to the soup already.

Substitute for the roux

Cornstarch is one of the most common ingredients as a thickening in recipes like sauces and stews. Has a texture and tastes like white flour. Easy to use and you can find it in every pantry.

If it happens, that you don’t have cornstarch at home, check out these Cornstarch Substitutes (from Whole Some Yum). Here you can choose 20+ Substitutes for thickening.

[Step by Step] Instructions for the Hungarian Caraway Soup

Let’s make the croutons. Cut up into little cubes of two slices of bread and toast them in the oven. Be aware that they will burn fast. So have an eye on it.

NOTE: if you love homemade bread and would like to use that instead – which you can use – check out Homemade Artisan Bread from Sally’s Baking Recipes. Make sure that you have time to finish the bread process before you start with the soup. It takes a total of 22 hours, but it is worth the job. So I would start with the bread the previous day.

Let’s start the Hungarian Caraway Soup now.

• Clean and cut a large white onion and braise it in the vegetable oil until seems transparent.
• Add the caraway seed after you braise the onion and keep mixing them.
• After 2-3 minutes, add the all-purpose flour. Mix it continuously. Flour has the purpose of thickening the texture of the soup. (This makes the roux in our soup) You can leave it out, but it will be fluid.
• Add paprika powder to the mixture. Mix it for a minute.
• Add little by little water or vegetable broth. You add as much water or vegetable broth to it as you want to make.
• Add salt and chicken bouillon powder to taste (or chicken bouillon cubes are good also).
• Leave it on low heat and let the soup for 15-20 minutes to boil.

• Add the soup into a strainer and let all the ingredients from the soup stay on a strainer and let the liquid flow down in a different pot.
• Throw out the ingredients and enjoy the soup with the croutons.

More Easy Soup Recipes

• Hungarian Cabbage Soup