A traditional Polish potato and dill pickle soup (Zuppa Ogórkowa), with sour cream and carrots. Hearty, easy and delicious and perfect with sandwiches.
If you love dill pickles, you’ll love this dill pickle potato soup! Even if you just like dill pickles, you will love this soup :) It may sound a little odd and gimmicky at first read, but this traditional soup (Zuppa Ogórkowa) is a classic in Poland.
This Polish dill pickle soup is both hearty and delicious, combining potatoes, onion and carrots, with sour cream and dill, for a lovely creamy and satisfying soup. Enjoy it on its own or as a great side for sandwiches.
Ingredients and substitutions
A few notes about the key ingredients …
Potatoes – Russet potatoes (baking potatoes) are the best option for this soup, as they soften quickly and break apart a bit as they cook, contributing to the thickness of the soup. While you can use other potatoes here, the texture of the soup may not be the same and it may take longer for the potatoes to soften.
Sour Cream – a full-fat sour cream is best for this soup, as the higher fat content minimizes curdling when it is added to hot soup.
Dill Pickles – you will need jarred dill pickles, as you will need both the pickles and the dill pickle juice (the pickle brine) from the jar for this soup. Look for nice Polish dill pickles.
Fresh Dill – fresh dill is especially nice in the soup, so I would recommend it if you can. Otherwise, you can use dried dill, using about 1/3 of the amount specified.
How to make potato and dill pickle soup
First Steps: Gather and prepare the ingredients. Start the soup by melting a pat of butter. Add the onions and carrots and cook, stirring regularly, for 4-5 minutes. Add the cubed potatoes and cook another couple of minutes. Add the chicken broth and dill pickle juice. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until the potatoes are very tender.
Finish the soup: Blend the soup with an immersion blender (or in small batches in a blender). Add the sour cream mixture, the shredded dill pickles and dill. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve with fresh dill, chopped dill pickles and/or a dollop of sour cream.
Recipe tips!
- You can puree the soup as little or as much as you like, for a chunkier or smoother finished soup. If you need to use a blender, be sure to blend in small batches and place a tea towel over the top while blending. Don’t over-fill the blender, as the steam can cause the lid to dislodge. Blend just about 1 cup at a time.
- To prevent the sour cream from curdling in the soup, always use full-fat sour cream (lower fat sour cream is more prone to splitting) and make sure to is at room temperature when added to the soup. I like to stir a spoonful of the warm soup into the sour cream mixture to warm it a bit more, before adding to the soup. Add in small amounts and whisk well after each addition. Avoid boiling the soup after adding the sour cream.
- Be sure to taste your soup at the end of cooking and adjust seasoning as needed, adding more salt and freshly ground pepper. If you feel like it needs a little more dill flavour, you can also stir in another tablespoon of pickle juice. Keep in mind though that if you are garnishing the soup with fresh dill and/or chopped dill pickles, more dill flavour will be added through the garnishes.
Variations
- Add pan sautéed slices of kielbasa.
- Use garlic dill pickles to add some garlic flavour to your soup.
Making ahead, storing and freezing
You can easily make this soup ahead and re-heat to serve. It shouldn’t thicken in sitting in the refrigerator, but if it does a bit, thin with a splash more chicken broth.
Keep any leftover dill pickle soup in the refrigerator for about 3 days, or freeze for longer storage.
What to serve with dill pickle soup
Dill Pickle Soup makes a great side soup with something like a Reuben Sandwich or make some Pretzel Buns and make some pastrami sandwiches.
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Ingredients
Soup:
- 2 Tablespoon butter
- 1/2 cup onion, diced, about 1 med onion
- 1 cup carrot, grated, well packed, about 1 large carrot
- 3 cups russet baking potatoes, peeled and chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
- 3-4 Tablespoon dill pickle brining liquid, from the jar
- 1/2 cup full-fat sour cream, at room temperature
- 2 Tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup dill pickles, grated
- 1/2 Tablespoon fresh dill, chopped
Garnish Options:
- 1/4 cup dill pickle, finely diced
- 1/2 Tablespoon fresh dill
- Dollop of sour cream
Instructions
- Take the sour cream out of the fridge before you start, so that it will come to room temperature before it is added to the soup.
- In a large pot over medium heat, melt the butter, then add the onions and carrot. Sauté for about 4-5 minutes or until softened. Add the potatoes and 1/2 tsp each salt and the 1/4 tsp pepper. Cook, stirring, for about 2 minutes.
- Add the broth and dill pickle liquid. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer gently, for about 20-30 minutes or until potatoes are very soft (time will depend on how small or large the potatoes were chopped).
- Use an immersion blender in the pot to purée about half the soup, leaving some chunks (or transfer about half the soup in batches to a blender and purée until smooth, then return to the pot).
- In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream and flour. Drizzle in about 1 Tbsp of the warm soup and whisk in (to warm the sour cream mixture a bit). Gradually add dollops of the sour cream mixture into the soup, whisking really well after each addition until blended, until all the sour cream mixture has been added. Stir in the shredded pickles. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring often, for 5 to 10 minutes or until warmed and slightly thickened. Stir inthe fresh dill. Taste the soup and and season to taste with additional salt and pepper.
- Serve soup with additional fresh dill for garnish, some diced dill pickles and/or a dollop of sour cream.
Notes
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Hi! I’m Jennifer, a home cook schooled by trial and error and almost 40 years of getting dinner on the table! I love to share my favourite recipes, both old and new, together with lots of tips and tricks to hopefully help make your home cooking enjoyable, stress free, rewarding and of course, delicious!
This is such a good recipe. I made it with kielbasa that had been sliced and pan seared. It complemented the potatoes and pickles perfectly. This is my new favorite soup. Hearty, easy, delicious.
Thanks Tim! So glad you enjoyed it :)
I Love it. I did garnish with additional chopped pickles.
So glad you enjoyed it, Cathy :) Thanks so much!
This was amazing. So Good. I had watched another you tube video but it called for too much butter. Your recipe was spot on. Loved it. I did put a little old bay seasoning in it but that is the only thing that I did different.
So glad you enjoyed it, Vicki! Thanks so much :)
I was researching some comfort soup for these cold days and look what I found. This soup is ‘stick to your ribs’ quality and delicious. I am not a fan of dill pickles, so I had my doubts. This combination of dill pickles, fresh dill, and the dill pickle liquid make this soup star quality.
Thank you Jennifer.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Carole Ann! I am not a really big dill pickle lover (like some in my family :), but I agree, it is such a wonderful flavour in this soup. Thanks so much!
I’ve never heard of this soup before, and that’s a shame because it’s right up my alley! I’ll devour anything involving ‘taters and I love pickles, so this is a must try recipe!
Thanks Cheyanne. It’s a delicious soup!