Goulash Soup
ZoOm Hungary
Goulash (Serves 4)
The Goulash Soup was the traditional meal of the Hungarian herdsmen or cowboys, the gulyases for centuries. The delicious beef soup has become the most typical and famous Hungarian dish by now.
Goulash soup can be cooked by almost all Hungarian women and men, all having their little secrets to improve the taste and quality.
Hungarian Goulash Soup
Ingredients for the soup:
- 500 g. (18 oz) beef shank
- 8 cl (1/3 cup) oil
- 200 g (7 oz) onions
- 20 g (3/4 oz) Hungarian red paprika
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1 teaspoon of caraway seeds or ground caraway
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 100 g (3.5 oz) green peppers
- 2 tomatoes
- 100 g. (3.5 oz) potatoes
- 2 carrots (diced)
- 1 turnip, (diced)
- ½ Celery root
- ¼ of a small tube of Goulash Cream spice mix (available in Hungary only)
- ¼ bottle of dry red wine
Hungarian Goulash Soup
Ingredients for the noodles (’csipetke’):
- 60 g (2 oz) flour
- 1 egg
- 2 g (generous pinch of) salt
Heat oil in a saucepan. Add the finely chopped onions and cook until translucent (glassy). Add the Hungarian red paprika powder while stirring the onion to prevent burning.
Add the chopped beef cubes and stir so the spicy onion mix covers the meat. Sauté it until the meat is brown all around.
Cover the meat with water, add the chopped garlic, the caraway seeds, the sliced green pepper, the chopped tomatoes, salt and pepper. Add the red wine. Cover and simmer on a low heat for 1–1.5 hours.
After 1 hour, check, and add more water if necessary, so the stew doesn’t burn.
When the meat is half cooked, add the potato, the celery, the carrot and the turnip, and you can add Hungarian Goulash Cream (a cream spice-mix made for Goulash).
Add hot paprika, salt and pepper to your liking to make it hot and spicy.
While cooking the soup, prepare the ‘csipetke’: make dough from the egg and the flour adding some water and salt. Pinch pea-size bits out of it and place into a floured bowl.
When the meat and the vegetables are almost done, add the ‘csipetke’ and cook it for another 5-10 minutes.
As well as taking on a fiery red color, the dish should resemble a rich soup and is a typical one-course meal.
The best Goulash Soup is made on open fire in a kettle. The bigger quantity usually means better quality. The Hungarian Kettle Goulash is usually made for 12-16 people. Multiply the ingredients accordingly!
