Kielbasa sauerkraut soup with wild mushrooms

 

Fresh wild mushrooms are definitely not free, so I only tend to buy them for a specific recipe .... which I then do not make. Usually they're called for in some recipe that I don't have time or energy for at the point I would have intended to cook it. So if I'm half on the ball, the mushrooms get repurposed for something else before they go bad. If I'm not, it's some expensive compost fodder.

This recipe is so simple it really shouldn't have triggered that reaction. But it did. Three times. My ability to muster the energy and attention to cook a new recipe, and thus blog about it, is a pretty reliable indicator of how my life is going. For several months, mine was kind of off the rails working 12-hour days during the work week and several hours on weekends and faux vacations/holidays.

I'm not completely out of the woods yet workwise, but I finally had time for this recipe that comes together in less than an hour. Handy, since winter finally decided to reassert itself, and this helps take the edge off after a commute where people don't seem to remember where the lanes were the day before.

Polish hunter's stew

Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens, December 2023. I'd link to it online, but I can't find it on their site. Serves 4 passably well.

Ingredients

14-ounce kielbasa, sliced into ½-inch pieces
3 tablespoons olive oil
8 ounces mixed wild mushrooms
1 cup chopped onion
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons tomato puree
3 cups water
2 cups sauerkraut
½ teaspoon dried dill
Fresh dill for optional garnish

Method

Heat olive oil in a large deep skillet. Brown kielbasa. Remove from pan and set aside.

Add mushrooms, onion and salt to the pan. Cook, stirring often, until tender and the onion has started to pick up a bit of color. Add tomato paste and cook for 1 minute. Add water, sauerkraut and dill. Return kielbasa to the pan. Cover and simmer 15 minutes to allow mixture to heat through and flavors to blend. Serve topped with fresh dill leaves if desired.

Rating: Very hearty. Decent flavor, providing you like kielbasa, which is mainly what it tastes of. Not too time consuming to fix. Aside from the mushrooms, it's relatively pantry friendly, since the rest of the ingredients have staying power and you don't even have to have a decent broth on standby. I opted to add dried dill to the soup, since I had no fresh on hand, it not being summer when I'm overrun with it. I could see making it again the next time I want to play fresh mushroom roulette.