You might have noticed that I have not updated this blog in a long time. I did not stop cooking, that is for sure but I realized that a culinary journey around the world, while entertaining, is stressful in itself. I simply did not find the time to write out long posts anymore and did not want to put out subpar content either. Which is why I stopped.

But I decided that it’s the right time to return, with a slighty different concept: I simply want to share dishes that excite me, cooking techniques that I did not know before and simply share great tasting food with you! And this is where we are today. And the first dish I am looking at very certainly fulfills my criteria.

We are talking about Erdäpfel-Petersiliensuppe, or in English: Potato-parsley soup. I found this recipe while making a culinary trip around Austria. It’s a very simple yet clever way of making soup by combining two soup bases together to get the full flavour out of all parts of your ingredients. This clever approach made it a staple in my kitchen and definitely deserving of a spot in this blog.

Here is what you will need:

• 4 medium sized potatoes
• 1-2 carrots or other root vegetables
• 30g butter
• 30g flour
• 50g fresh parsley
• 1 onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1ts caraway
• 1ts marjoram
• 400ml stock. Veggie or meat broth, does not matter. Obviously fresh is preferred but a good premade one without yeast extract is also fine

As I said before this is a two component soup so we will be needing two pots to cook with.

Here is how to go at it:

1. Cut the potatoes in 1cm cubes. Keep the skin on. Do the same with the root veggies and the stems only of the parsley (should you have stems)
2. Bring the potatoes, root veggies and parsley stems to a simmer in slightly salted water that barely covers them all.
3. Mortar the caraway, then add it to this first soup.
4. Keep the lid on and let the first soup cook away while preparing the second.
5. Cut the onion, parsley and marjoram in small pieces. Peel and crush the garlic.
6. Add everything with the butter to a second pot and heat it up on medium heat under constant stirring. Wait for the onions to soften up, this should take about 10 minutes.
7. Add your flour to the mixture, creating a roux. Heat it up a bit and let it cook for 2-3 minutes so you don’t have raw flour taste in your soup.
8. Very slowly add the stock in batches, always bringing everything to a boil before adding the next portion. This should create a nice, thick broth.
9. At this point your veggies in the first broth should be done. Recheck and wait a bit longer worst case.
10. Pour your second soup completely into the first soup. Stir it all up carefully, you don’t want to break your veggies. Bring it to a boil one last time and season with salt and pepper if you want. Done!

The result should be a nice, creamy soup. We used everything from our ingredients, not only the parsley leaves but the stems, too. You can also replace basically any ingredient in the dish, use different herbs, root vegetables or even add leftover cream from the day before if you have it lying aorund. The technique of making two seperate soups, one purely to cook the veggies in (and not waste the delicious stock you create) and one roux-based one that is packed with flavour, is what gives this dish it’s amazing taste.

It’s quick, it’s without waste and it’s definitely a go to for when I just have some veggies lying around!

And at the end of the day never forget: Cooking is about food that tastes incredible. If you think marjoram just does not taste good? Leave it out! Not a fan of a roux? Try making a tomato base or simply thicken up some stock. Make it your dish!