🥔 Waxy potatoes, 2–3 cm chunks: 450 g (3 cups / 15.9 oz)
🧅 Onion, finely chopped: 150 g (1 cup / 5.3 oz)
🧄 Garlic, minced: 6 g (2 cloves / 0.2 oz)
🥓 Smoked pancetta/speck, small cubes (optional): 150 g (5.3 oz)
🫒 Olive oil or lard: 30 ml (2 tbsp / 1 fl oz)
🌿 Bay leaf: 1
🌰 Caraway seeds (classic): 2 g (1 tsp / 0.07 oz)
🌶️ Sweet paprika (optional, for color): 4 g (1½ tsp / 0.14 oz)
💧 Water or light stock: 1.2–1.5 l (5–6 cups)
🧂 Salt: to taste (≈10 g / 1¾ tsp)
⚫ Black pepper: 1 g (½ tsp / 0.04 oz)
Preparation
1️⃣ Beans: Soak 🫘 dry beans overnight; drain. Cover with fresh water and simmer 45–60 min until tender; drain. (Skip if using cooked.)
2️⃣ Base: Warm 🫒 fat in a pot. Sauté 🧅 onion 6–8 min until sweet; add 🧄 30 sec. Stir in 🥓 pancetta (if using) 3–4 min to render lightly.
3️⃣ Build: Add 🥬 sauerkraut, 🥔 potatoes, cooked 🫘 beans, 🌿 bay, 🌰 caraway, and 🌶️ paprika (if using). Pour in 💧 water/stock to cover by ~2–3 cm.
4️⃣ Simmer: Season with a pinch of 🧂 and ⚫. Cook gently 25–30 min until potatoes are soft and flavors meld.
5️⃣ Thicken naturally: Mash a ladleful of potatoes/beans against the pot and stir back in for body. Adjust 🧂 and ⚫ to taste. Rest 5 min and serve.
Total Time
🕒 Prep: 15 min (+ overnight soak if using dry beans)
🔥 Cook: 45–60 min (dry beans) + 30 min soup (or ~35 min with cooked beans)
⏳ Total: 1 h 30 min (~50 min with cooked beans)
Nutritional Value
🔋 Energy: ~330 kcal
💪 Protein: ~15 g
🧈 Fat: ~12 g
🍞 Carbohydrates: ~42 g
🧂 Sodium: ~860 mg
Advice
Rinse and squeeze the sauerkraut very well—you control the sourness. Mashing a few potatoes thickens the broth without a roux.
Why it works
Caraway + bay echo the kraut’s aromatics; potato starch naturally emulsifies with rendered fat for a silky spoon-coating body; a brief rest rounds the acidity.
Twist
Lenten/vegan: skip pancetta and use all olive oil; add 1 tbsp smoked paprika for depth. Istrian touch: finish with a thread of good olive oil and a grind of pepper.
Status
Alpine rustic, kraut-silky—Slovenian jota that tastes like a warm chalet. #grannyzen #sloveniansoup 🍲🇸🇮
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