Croatian Sour Soup

This was one of my favorite recent trial recipes that have have done recently. Its hearty and the broth is a really lovely consistancy.
What you will need:
2 medium potatoes
1 large onion, diced
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
2 tablespoons oil
2 cloves garlic
1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 bay leaf
1 carrot, diced
1 parsnip, siced
2 stalks celery, chopped (you can include the green stuff on top if your stalk still has it)
2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
2 Tablespoons Cider Vinegar
5 cups vegetable stock
½ cup sauerkraut
Sour cream for topping
Fresh chives for topping

Ok, I realize that looks like a lot, I promise its not!
*First you need to peel and chop the potatoes and start them boiling in some salted water. They need to be partially cooked before they are added to the soup because the other stuff doesn't need to cook for quite as long in the broth.
*As that is cooking put the oil in the bottom of the soup pan and saute the onion and the paprika until the onion starts to soften. Add the garlic and saute a little bit more. This should only take about 5 minutes.
*Add the fennel, bay leaf, carrot, parsnip, and celery and continue to saute them, making sure that everything is coated in the oil and that the vegies have a good start on cooking. Stir every once in a while but not too much. This should take about five minutes.
*Sift the flour onto the cooking vegies. Mixing it in now prevents lumps! Stir it in well and let it simmer a little bit so the flour can soak up the liquid and the oil that is in the pan.
*Add the salt, pepper, vinegar, and vegetable stock and get it up to a simmer.
*Add the potatoes in to cook the last little bit (about 10 minutes) with the other ingredients.
*Stir in the sauerkraut and it is ready to serve.
This is really good with some rye bread (the stuff here doesn't have caraway seeds in it which I don't like) or any of the heavier breads out there. The sour cream and chives are just dolloped and sprinkled on top when the soup is served!