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!

Red Root Soup

I made this soup because all things root and tuber seem to be plentiful here in Finland and they are really delicious! This is super simple and I think turned out really well. I actually really liked the color of the broth that is mostly due to the beets. The recipe is really simple and doesn't require specific measurements of the ingredients and can be altered if you have more of one thing or another or just prefer the flavor or texture of one thing versus another.

     Basic ingredients list:

• Onion
• Garlic
• Olive oil
• Stock/Water/Stockcube
• Oregano
• Bay Leaf
• Salt
• Pepper
• Potatoes
• Beets
• Carrots
• Parsnips
• Celery
• Crushed tomato

First thing that needs to be done is that the onions and garlic need to be chopped up and sautéed until clear in the olive oil at the bottom of the pan that you are going to cook this all in. This gets the flavor of the onion out and into the oil rather than just boiling off into the water. After that is done, add the hardest vegetables in (the potatoes and the beets) as they will have to cook the longest along with the spices to the pan and add enough water or stock to cover them. The potatoes don't actually need quite as much time as the beets do to be done, but cooking them a little past that lets them melt a bit into the soup. Once those are part way done (should be 10-15 minutes but will depend on the size of the chunks you cut the veggies in) add the rest of the ingredients and cook until everything is done. Super simple and very yummy! This is a healthy and versatile soup that could be changed based on preferences and what you happen to be able to get your hands on.