Main Page
National cuisine
Sour cabbage soup with sauerkraut stew

Sour Shchi with Canned Stewed Meat

Traditional shchi (Russian cabbage soup) with a modern twist — but tasting like it came straight from a Russian wood-fired oven. Shchi is one of Russia's best-loved dishes, at least in our family, where we make this soup all the time and never tire of it. To my mind, real shchi can only be made with sauerkraut — rinsed first and braised separately — and in a meat broth. That's what gives you a hearty, fragrant, rich soup. (The summer version, of course, is the exception: made with sorrel and nettle.) When you don't have meat broth on hand, you can use canned stewed meat (beef or pork). It won't spoil the shchi at all — it's delicious, satisfying, and much quicker to cook than starting from a piece of meat.

Маслова Татьяна

Recipe author

Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Canned stewed meat

335

Sauerkraut

500

Onion

Carrots

Potatoes

Bay leaf

Allspice

Water

2.5

Fresh herbs

Salt

Vegetable oil

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 18 % 2 g

Fats 36 % 4 g

Carbohydrates 45 % 5 g

58 kcal

GI: 100 / 0 / 0

Cooking method

Step 1:

The ingredients.
Step 2:

Rinse the sauerkraut and braise it in a separate, heavy-bottomed pot for 25–30 minutes.
Step 3:

Peel, chop, and sauté the onion in vegetable oil.
Step 4:

Peel the carrots, grate them on the coarse holes, and add them to the onion.
Step 5:

Peel the potatoes and cut them into cubes.
Step 6:

Mash the stewed meat with a fork.
Step 7:

Add the diced potatoes and the stewed meat to a pot of boiling water.
Step 8:

Once the potatoes are nearly done — check them for tenderness — add the sautéed carrot and onion, season with salt, and add the peppercorns. Add the cabbage last.
Step 9:

Cook another 5 minutes, adding the bay leaves to the simmering soup. Turn off the heat and let the shchi rest.
Step 10:

Our shchi rests for about an hour, sometimes less. Then someone gives in and pours themselves a bowl of rich, fragrant soup. Be sure to sprinkle it with fresh herbs.