🍲 Żurek (Polish Sour Rye Soup)
Żurek is a Polish soup soured with a fermented sourdough starter, giving it a distinctive tangy, slightly smoky flavor. It is cooked with sausage, potatoes and plenty of marjoram, and served with a halved hard-boiled egg in each bowl. It is filling yet light in texture, and sometimes presented in a hollowed bread bowl.
Diets
Allergens
Contains (in a typical recipe):
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 500 ml sourdough starter for żurek
- 1 l water
- 250 g sausage, sliced
- 300 g potatoes, diced
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 tbsp dried marjoram
- 4 hard-boiled eggs
- Salt, pepper, bay leaf, allspice
Method
- Simmer the sausage, onion, bay leaf and allspice in the water for 15 minutes.
- Add the potatoes and cook 15 minutes until tender.
- Stir in the sourdough starter and garlic and bring just to a simmer for 5 minutes.
- Season with marjoram, salt and pepper.
- Serve each bowl with a halved boiled egg.
How to make it lighter
- Use less sausage and more potatoes or vegetables to lower the fat per bowl.
- One egg per bowl adds roughly 75 kcal; half an egg is an option.
- Skip the bread bowl and serve the soup in a regular bowl.
History
Sour soups based on fermented grain starter have been eaten in Poland for centuries. Żurek is especially linked to Easter, when it is served with sausage and eggs, but it is eaten all year round.
Count it in one photo
Point your camera at the table — Me Nutrition recognises Żurek (Polish Sour Rye Soup) and every other dish, with calories and macros for each. Ate only half? Slide it.
Download on the App StoreSimilar dishes
Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →