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Polish mushroom soup with drop dumplings
zupa grzybowa z kluseczkami
A clear Polish soup of diced root vegetables fried in butter and simmered with bay, then filled with diced mushrooms and fresh thyme and served with tiny egg dumplings dropped from a spoon. A recipe by Wrocław chef Grzegorz Pomietło, published by the City of Wrocław; made here with cultivated mushrooms.
- Servings
- 4
- Preparation
- 20 min
- Cooking
- 45 min
- Total
- 1 h 5
- Difficulty
- Easy
Equipment
- Soup pot
- Second pan of boiling salted water for the dumplings
- Two teaspoons or tablespoons
Ingredients
The soup
Drop dumplings (kluseczki kładzione)
Method
Clean, wash and dice the carrot, parsley root, leek, celeriac and onion. Fry them in the butter until lightly coloured.
Timer · 8 min8:00Cover with water, add the bay leaf and seasoning and cook at a low simmer.
Why A low temperature keeps the broth clear and lets the root vegetables give their sweetness slowly.
Timer · 20 min20:00Clean the mushrooms, dice them and add them to the simmering vegetables. Season with pepper, salt and thyme and simmer until the mushrooms are cooked through.
Timer · 15 min15:00For the dumplings, mix the flour, salt and egg into a thick paste; add a little more flour if it is too runny. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and drop in pieces smaller than a spoonful, pushing the paste off one spoon with another. Cook until they float.
Why Cooking them separately keeps their starch out of the clear soup.
Timer · 3 min3:00Put the dumplings into bowls, ladle the soup over and finish with chopped parsley.
To drink & serve with
Editorial suggestion: rye bread, or a spoon of sour cream stirred in at the table.
Substitutions
- Fresh mushrooms → Frozen mixed mushrooms, as the source allows. Editorial suggestion: a handful of shop-bought dried boletes (podgrzybki or porcini), soaked, added with their strained soaking water for a deeper flavour.
- Butter (vegan) → Oil; leave out the dumplings or make them without egg.
Common mistakes
- Boiling the soup hard: it turns cloudy.
- Dumplings that are too big: they stay raw in the middle. Keep them smaller than a spoonful.
Storage & reheating
Refrigerate within 2 hours and eat within 2 days; reheat until boiling. Store the dumplings separately or they turn soft.
Safety
Use cultivated or shop-bought mushrooms, or wild mushrooms only if a qualified expert has identified them with certainty: some highly toxic species closely resemble edible ones, and phone apps are not reliable (Anses). Never give picked wild mushrooms to young children. Cook wild mushrooms for at least 20 minutes. Contains celery (celeriac), egg, gluten and milk.
Allergens
Celery · Egg · Gluten · Milk
Check labels: stock, bacon and sauces can contain further allergens.
Dietary
vegetarian
Polish cooking without mushroom soup?
Asked about the mushroom glut in the woods of Lower Silesia in autumn 2022, the Wrocław chef Grzegorz Pomietło of the Art Hotel wondered who could imagine Polish cuisine without bigos, mushroom dumplings or mushroom soup: hardly anyone. For soups he recommends aromatic bay boletes (podgrzybki), and he advises drying boletes and porcini, which keep their taste and smell, but not gilled mushrooms such as chanterelles, which can turn bitter.
His soup, published by the City of Wrocław, is a clear vegetable broth with diced mushrooms and fresh thyme, served with kluseczki kładzione, small dumplings dropped from a spoon. The atlas makes it with cultivated or shop-bought mushrooms.
Mushrooms: buy them or have them checked
Every autumn the French food-safety agency Anses warns about poisoning from picked mushrooms. It advises picking only mushrooms you know perfectly, having any doubtful harvest checked by a pharmacist or mycological society, never relying on phone identification apps, never giving picked mushrooms to young children and always cooking wild mushrooms for at least 20 minutes. For a recipe like this one, cultivated mushrooms or shop-bought dried and frozen ones are the safe choice.
How it connects
Place
- origin Poland In preparation
