I’m Hungarian. For me the Goulash (Hungarian: “gulyás”) is a soup. Generally we cook the Goulash from beef, but I like better the Goulash with pork, caraway and bay leaves.
Fun fact: Every Hungarian family has a traditional, authentic Goulash’s recipe but no two recipes are the same. This is my recipe.
I don’t care what Goulash is the real. I like this soup anytime but it is a very good comfort food in a cold winter day.
Servings: 4 people
Ingredients
- 400 grams pork ham (or beef shank) (chopped into bite sized pieces)
- 1 onion (diced)
- 300 grams carrot (sliced into bite sized rounds)
- 1 parsnips (sliced into bite sized rounds)
- 1 tablespoon Hungarian paprika powder (sweet)
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon carraway powder
- 2 cloves garlic (chopped)
- 3 potatoes (diced)
- 1 tomato (diced)
- 1 Hungarian yellow wax pepper or red bell pepper (diced)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- sunflower (or canola) oil
Instructions
- Heat the oil (or lard) in a large pot (or a Dutch oven) and add the onion and a pinch of salt. Cook slowly until the onions are clear and glassy.
- Add the meat to the onion and cook over high heat, stirring, until the meat is no longer pink (about 5-10 minutes).
- Remove from the heat and add the paprika powder, stirring, add 3 liter of water and back to the heat. (Note! If the paprika powder is burn, the soup will be bitter.)
- Add the carrots, the parsnips, the bell pepper, the tomato, the bay leaves, the cloves of garlic, the caraway powder and the salt.
- Bring to a boil, cover, reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the meat is almost cooked.
- Add the potatos to the soup and cook for about 20 more minutes.
Notes
I like the Goulash with crushed chili (hot red pepper flakes) or fresh jalapeno.