Romanian Smoked Pork and Tarragon Soup
A traditional Romanian sour soup is great on cold days, served hot with a generous spoonful of sour cream and fresh bread.
Ingredients
- 300 gr smoked pork bones with meat attached
- 1 onion
- 2 carrots
- 1 parsnip
- 3 celery sticks
- 4-5 baby potatoes depending on size
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 bell peppers
- 500 Romanian bors
- 1/2 pack dried tarragon
- 1 tbso vegetable oil
- salt to taste
- sour cream to serve with
Instructions
- Peel and chop the onion, carrots and parsnip. Wash and chop the celery and bell peppers. Cut the potatoes into bite-sized pieces.
- Heat the vegetable oil in a large soup pot over medium heat.
- Add the chopped onion, carrots, parsnip and celery. Fry until the vegetables soften, stirring occasionally.
- Stir in the tomato paste and cook for another minute.
- Add enough water to comfortably cover the vegetables and leave room for the pork and remaining ingredients.
- Add the smoked pork bones and bring the soup to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for around 45 minutes.
- Add the chopped bell peppers and potatoes. Continue cooking until the potatoes are tender.
- Carefully remove the pork bones from the soup. Once cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the bones and discard the bones.
- Return the pork meat to the soup.
- In a separate saucepan, bring the Romanian borș to a boil.
- Pour the hot borș into the soup and stir well. Taste before adding salt, as the smoked pork and borș may already provide enough seasoning.
- Add the dried tarragon and let the soup simmer for another 5 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and serve hot with a generous spoonful of sour cream.