Bakonyi betyárleves – Bakony outlaw’s soup

by | Jan 13, 2017 | Soups

Outlaw’s soup is a tasty and hearty dish of the Hungarian cuisine. This soup can be made with several meats and vegetables; because of its various ingredients outlaw’s soup is prepared otherwise in the different regions of the country. That’s why you can see outlaw’s soup recipes from the Alföld, Mátra, Bakony or Transylvania. Its origin isn’t clearly known, but  the outlaws of the 18-19th century probably cooked something like that using what they found in the bundle or in the pantry.

A bunch of dishes have been named after Bakony, the largest part of the Transdanubian Mountains. Those foods have one thing in common: they all contain mushrooms. Wild mushrooms are the best choice if they are available, but cultivated musroom varieties can be good too.

Bakonyi betyárleves - Bakony outlaw's soup
Bakonyi betyárleves – Bakony outlaw’s soup – photo: zserbo.com

Ingredients:

  • 500 g (~1 lb) lean pork
  • 1 tbsp lard
  • 1 onion
  • 1 wax pepper
  • 1 l (~4 1/4 cups) stock
  • 100 g smoked sausages
  • 2 medium potatoes
  • 1 medium tomato
  • 1 carrot
  • 1 parsley root
  • 1 small slice of celeriac
  • 3-4 bigger white mushrooms
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 1/2 tsp ground caraway seeds
  • 1/4 tsp thyme
  • 1 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1 tsp salt
  • small bunch of parsley leaves

Sauté finely chopped onions in lard. Add diced pork and sear until all sides turn white. Stir in chopped wax pepper. Sprinkle the meat with salt and paprika, then pour 1/2 l (~2 cups) water. Cover and over low heat cook until tender. Add more water as the cooking liquid boils away.

Meanwhile clean and dice potatoes, tomato, celeriac, carrot and parsley root. Slice the mushrooms and sausage, chop the parsley leaves. Once the pork is done, pour in stock and add the vegetables and sausage to the soup. Stir in crushed garlic. Season with ground caraway seeds and thyme. Cook until the vegetables are tender. Turn off the heat and add chopped parsley. Serve hot.

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Hungarian cottage cheese

This is what Hungarian túró looks like

You often ask me what kind of cottage cheese (or curd cheese or farmer's cheese - call it what you want) I use in the recipes. In Hungary the store-bought cottage cheese is dry and crumbly as you can see in the picture. So if a recipe calls for túró, I mean this type. If you can't obtain túró, you can try to make your own from whole milk. Click on the link below.

Metric system vs cup

In Hungary metric units are in use, all the recipes on this website are based on this system, so a kitchen scale is necessary. Since I’m not familiar with cup as a measurement unit, I convert grams to cups by using an online converter. The values in brackets, therefore, are only approximate volumes, so, please, double-check them before you start cooking.

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