Goulash meatball soup
An authentic Hungarian goulash - which this is not - would be a relatively thin soup, flavoured with meat, paprika, onions, and not a great deal else. If you’re lucky, you might get dumplings. Mmm dumplings.
The more recognisable modern pan-European bastardisation of goulash - which this is also not - is a beef stew with tomato and peppers, and that 1980s bistro sour cream dollop on top.
What this actually is, is a riff on goulash flavours turned into a relatively easy soup that’s plenty hearty for winter.
The dumplings became a handful of meatballs, it gets extra tomato and peppers for body, and the sweet potato helps thicken and take off some of the sour edge. The caraway seeds come from Elisabeth Luard, who notes in European Peasant Cookery that it’s the only traditionally acceptable non-paprika spice. They’re in the meatballs here so that you get to enjoy the paprika soup on its own, the mix it up a bit on the bite.
Don’t worry too much if you don’t have sweet Hungarian paprika. Perfectly standard just-sold-as-paprika paprika works absolutely fine. It may be slightly milder, so chuck in an extra half teaspoon if you think its coming out a bit limp towards the end.
Very quickly: the “sweet” differentiates it from “smoked” or “hot”, and being Hungarian (instead of Spanish, which I think is typical in UK supermarkets) means it’ll have a slightly richer, deeper flavour, potentially with less heat. Here I’m personally using Hungarian sweet and Spanish smoked. It has a light kick overall.
Ingredients:
Smoked (left), Sweet (right)
Beef mince, 300g
Passata, 300ml
Beef stock, 600ml
Sweet potato, 1 medium (about 350g)
Peppers, 2 medium (red or red & green)
Onion, 1 large
Smoked paprika, 1/2tsp
Sweet paprika, 2tsp (Hungarian if you can find it, use a little more if you can’t)
Caraway seeds, 1/2tsp
Breadcrumbs, about 35g fresh but don’t sweat the detail
Chives, about 2tsp when chopped
You probably want some bread to serve, too. Serves about 4.
Instructions:
Peel the sweet potato and dice into roughly 2cm cubes. Dice the onions and peppers similarly. Roughly chop the chives, and measure everything else out if that’s how you roll.
Heat a hefty saucepan or lidded casserole to medium with a bit of oil in it and fry the onions, stirring periodically, for a few minutes (7-8 or so) until softening and taking a little colour. Raise the heat slightly, add the peppers and fry them off for another 5 or so minutes, again, stirring a bit. Then the potato: same drill. 7-8 minutes, stirring now and then to stop anything catching, until there’s a bit of colour.
Add the paprika, work it round for a minute or so, and then the passata. Stir this in well to amalgamate any tasty bits from the bottom, then add the stock. Reduce the heat to bring to to a low simmer, then put a lid on it and leave it for at least 45 minutes, ideally an hour.
Plenty of time to make meatballs.
Mix together the minced beef, caraway seeds, breadcrumbs and chives with a good grate of black pepper and a little salt. Shape this into little balls by rolling a good pinch of it around between your palms. Aim to make them quite small. My draft notes say “like a petite testicle” if that helps at all.
When the soup is that the end of its simmering time, remove the lid and either with a masher or just the back of a spoon against the pan, mash at least a third of the sweet potato into the broth, and give it a good stir together.
Add the meatballs, and simmer for another 10 minutes until cooked.
Optionally: garnish with a dollop of crème fraîche or sour cream before serving, ideally with some nice bread, maybe a little scatter of chives on top. Sure, why not.
There isn’t a massive amount of meat here, the idea being it’s more a heavy soup than a light stew, but of course you can mix it around. Heck, you can take it vegan with chunks of spiced seitan, I reckon. For lunches I’d maybe thin it a little, as it’s still pretty substantial.