I have a personal story about this soup! In 2005 I was stationed in Germany with the US Army. I attended a conference in my spare time in Małe Ciche - a very small ski resort town way out in the mountains of southeast Poland. The people who lived in that town all farmed and all simultaneously helped to run the town's hospitality business. The food I ate was made by mothers and their children in the large log cabin B&Bs. Several of the nights I stayed there, this soup was served as the first course. The dill, sausage and potato were such a perfect combination! The memory of this soup stayed with me for many years afterward. I even did my best to recreate it once I actually learned how to cook. Today, I learned that it's a real thing, and that Chef John calls it Polish Potato soup. It's pretty much exactly as I recreated it minus the dill pickles. Now I know!

as a Polish guy, I have to say this recipe is pretty accurate to the genuine way we do it in Poland. I particularly liked the idea of adding the potatoes in two batches - while not exactly traditional, it definitely gives the soup an interesting twist and pleasant textural contrast. just a few quick notes and observations: 1. there's no need to use olive oil in this recipe; in most Polish households we use lard or just plain vegetable oil, or maybe some butter, if we're feeling extra fancy. 2. if you don't want your sour cream to curdle, you can scoop a couple tablespoons of hot broth (or even plain hot water) into a cup of sour cream (preferably at room temperature, and in ratio of roughly 1:1 of hot broth to cream), mix it thoroughly, and then add the warm broth-cream mixture to the soup; this pre-warming step should prevent the cream from curdling. but still, it's pretty common in Poland to eat home style potato soup with slightly curdled sour cream particles: the curdles are not a bug, they're a feature. 3. the long cooking time is due to acidity of pickle juice preventing the potatoes from fully softening; if you're pressed for time, feel free to cook the vegetables and potatoes first, and only then add the pickles and pickle juice to adjust the acidity. BTW: you want to get the pickles of the sour, lacto-fermented type, not the sweet-crunchy type, they make a huge difference in the finished dish. also, genuine Polish style lacto-fermented cucumbers ("ogórki kiszone") almost always come with a handful of garlic, horseradish and dill fronds thrown into the jar - you may want to add them to the pot and simmer them with the rest of the veggies to enhance the flavour of the soup. some dried wild mushrooms won't hurt you, too. 4. feel free to substitute smoked kiełbasa sausage with smoked bacon, smoked pork ribs or any other fatty smoked meat. you may also try substituting cucumber pickles with lacto-fermented cabbage, or some other lacto-fermented veggies. you may even try some Korean style kimchi, but please don't call it "traditional Polish potato soup" if you do :) the potato soup at its core is not gourmet cuisine, but rather a simple peasant dish, a way to turn leftover meat scraps and whatever vegetables you have on hand into a hearty and nourishing meal, so there are multiple variations and few hard rules. 5. I strongly recommend adding a teaspoon or two of dried majorjam and a couple of cloves of garlic to the vegetable mix, they beautifully complement the smoky flavour of the sausage. you may also try adding a quartered or roughly chopped hard-boiled egg to the bowl, if you so fancy. and don't forget to garnish the finished bowl of your potato soup with a big handful of chopped fresh dill and parsley leaves!

Fun fact: There is classic love-comedy polish song from one of major singers from 60's and 70's, Wojciech Młynarski called "Kartoflanka", which means "Potato soup". Song is about two people falling in love over patato soup in staff canteen.

Celery stalks have become somewhat popular in Poland only in last couple decades, we'd use root celery instead and cut it like a potato, and to add something green, we'd go for green onions, chives, parsley, or lovage. Other that that, it's pretty authentic.

Soup never gets enough credit. Great recipe. Thanks.

You're never out of the loop, when making potato soup.

Good polish recipes in English are very appreciated. -guy who married into Poland

Oh yea, "Bramboračka" My favorite soup since childhood. Greetings from Czech Republic!

I highly recommend dark rye bread with such a soup!

Cheers from Poland Chef John. You have fans here!

"Grand Puba of potato zupa" - as a Polish fan of hip-hop I fully endorse this mix of Brand Nubian and Polish cuisine

First time in Poland last year, fell in love with stuffed cabbage rolls

If you have trouble with the sour cream staying broken in the soup, you can temper the sour cream. Just pour maybe a quarter to a half cup of the hot broth into your portion of sour cream and stir/whisk thoroughly, then pour it all into your soup. I'm allergic to dairy, and this really helps with the dairy-free sour creams, too. I learned to do this for my pickle soup.

Years ago I flew into Syracuse feeling sick as a dog and stopped by a local polish restaurant Eva’s. They had a similar-ish pickle soup on the menu that day and it pretty much cured my cold on the spot. Good stuff, I’ll have to give this a try.

As polish myself I approve of this recipe Chef John, more or less how my grandma does it (minus the celery, but it does look fitting here). Now I crave this sour/savoury delicacy.

I love the additional attention being brought to the meditation of cooking. That's something I'd like to focus on and appreciate more!

I am Polish😉 Absolutely Healthy**

Def trying this out Chef J! And I promise to only use Polish ingredients....cause Im in Poland:) I am after all, the Bradly Coop, of what goes in my soup.

I'm in MN and experiencing the warmest winter in 100 years. I love soup, and yes the process is so fun. I feel a recipe is just a really good suggestion, make it your own.

Chef John, thank you for introducing us to this soup. We made it last week. It is delicious. I never thought pickles would be good in a soup. They add such a subtle but definite taste. We ate it for three days in a row it was so delicious. We paired it with some Tuscan olive oil bread from a bakery. Delicious!

This looks delicious! My babcia would probably use a non- flavored vegetable oil (instead of olive) and at least 2 tsp of Vegeta (instead of just salt). The sour cream and dill are spot on!

Darn you, Chef John! You now have me adding dashes of cayenne to almost every single thing I make 😂😂😂

potato soup and rustic bread was a staple for breakfast and dinner in our house, often just with onions and potatoes with coconut cream instead of dairy. it's the epitome of comfort, the humble spud is fit for people of all walks of life. Cheers to my favorite veg, the POTATO 🥔🥔🥔

bon apetite from Poland!

Oh, this really looks good... As a German I love making me a nice hearty potatoe soup once in a while. We use other soup veggies for the base and my meat of choice typically is a chunk (500-1000g) of pork neck or pork shoulder which was marinated over night in the fridge, using a healthy amount of pepper and salt, as well as finally give it a good massage with a hot mustard, before sealing it in a zip lock..

Today I very much enjoyed this episode. And the Polish Man's Tummy is wanting some Polish Zoup.

Dear Chef John. The real super bowl will be whatever bowl is full of this soup.

Dziękuję

Looks like the perfect soup for a cold, rainy day.

This soup look so good and tasty. 😋

Polish food is so good. Cheers! 👍🏻👍🏻✌️

Kiełbasa is the polish word for sausage. It's the category and not a type of sausage. There so many kiełbasy in Poland and not only one :)

Watching snow fall and build up. This soup sounds sooo gooood! Thanks Chef John 😄😊

Yes!! My good buddy from Poland 🇵🇱

It seems like a mix of couple polish soups, but the vibe is there.

Never heard of a polish potato soup. But I am from north east Poland. My husband says that he knows this, but he comes from the capital. And he says that one does not add pickled cucumbers to potato soup. You mixed potato and and cucumber soup. And the cucumber soup is made out of laktofermented cucumbers, never pickles. But anyway love your show Chef.

Wow a polish soup, nice one ! But I'd say it is not a "potato soup", we call it ogórkowa (pickle soup), but what we do instead is we add a lot more pickles, usually not diced but grated, around 4-5 big pickles for the amount you showed and the juice from pickles we add it as well just a little bit more though, man I love ogórkowa ngl, especially with some good fresh bread with butter on top of it as a side.

Great suggestion to have the potatoes at two levels. Unfortunately I couldn't make it exactly as I was limited to ingredients on hand. The tips you gave made whatever it is I cooked so very yummy. The best part was making it with my daughter.

I love making soups and this one looks delightful! I'll be making this one soon. Thank you...

Thanks Chef. You have given me back a piece of home that was lost, now found.

one step closer to you making the polish sour soup

I made your recipe this week and loved it- so delicious! Poland has some of the best soups!

and thanks for the "smash and mash" technique...nice easy way to thicken the soup!

I like every single thing about this recipe.

Started feeling under the weather today. Said I wanted soup and here’s the recipe I needed

Dill? Pickles? No way! Two of my favorite things. I can't wait to try!

I agree.....cooking...esp chopping veggies is super calming to me! I do it just to feel better sometimes

It's true! Something about cooking is just excellent for the mental health. Always calms me down and makes me happy by the end. And I might well give this soup a try soon as I'm polish myself :D and I don't have much experience with the food of my people, so this would be a good introduction

Easy recipe. Everyone loved this. The pickles and pickle juice was awesome. Thanks Chef John!

A new video from Chef John is like a new episode from my favourite series.

I love soup! Watching it come together, smelling it while it simmers, home getting warmer and yes filled with love. Oh yes indeed , I love soup!

Loves me some comfort soup. I had some Tuscan white bean, tomato sauce and spinach soup and LOVED it.

Kiełbasa means sausage in Polish... and we probably wouldn't use the olive oil. Apart from that looks delicious. Fun fact - reverse the amount of potatoes and pickles and you have more classic polish soup - ogórkowa.

Definitely a different kind of soup that I’ve seen looks amazing. I’m gonna have to try it.

As a Polish American, oddly I've never had this, but maybe something similar. It's on my list.

Dziękuję!!

I made this the same day this was posted as I had the ingredients. IT WAS SO DELICIOUS 😊 definitely a keeper recipe. The tang from the dill pickles, pickle juice, dill and sour cream was amazing.

Your voice gives me good eats vibes, I'm here for it.

Excellent - will try this for sure. I love soups (I've just finished a bowl of delicious cauliflower soup).

Looks like another great recipe, I cant wait to try it!

Thx. I'm gonna make this this week. My gf loves soup and potatoes. Your assasins fried were fantastic and froze easily.

Had to try seeing I have polish heritage and it was excellent

I made this today. Outstanding!

❤Oh my. For me, the Zen absolutely is in every step of the preparation just like you mentioned. I am definitely going to add the dill pickles and juice in the next batch. Along with all of the fresh cut dill and sour cream I bet it is delectable. As always, all the beat. Joyce

We just made this tonight for the first time and it was SO good and really easy to make. We had some kielbasa from the polish deli so we used that. For garnishes we fried some up really crispy and we made a horseradish cream with fresh dill. It was so delicious and comforting I know we will be adding it to regular rotation!

Man.. that WAS relaxing to watch! I love this type of soup, and I like that in your version, I could still see all the oil rise to the top, throughout the years I thought I was doing something wrong, apparently not xD I personally replace the sausage with a beef sausage or mushrooms like you said, it looks amazing, thank you for all of the awesome videos throughout the years John

Looks great. I have slightly different version using French Onion Dip, whole Cream and Butter. 😊Thanks for sharing with me.

Acidic brine or vinegar inhibits potatoes from breaking down. Adding that at the end of cooking will save you time and you won't need a masher. Hi from Lithuania ;)

its called kartoflanka :) greets from poland!

Looks delish @ thank you. Will make.

Zurek and Barszcz are the Polish soups that use rye or wheat starters.

Just made this and it was fantastic!

Now I want to be Polish.;)

As always I tried it and enjoyed.

i made this last night for dinner, supper good, love the pickly flavor with the cream, awesome. i did add to much pickle juice, my pot is not big enough for the full recipe so i halved it, but not as well as i though. tasted good still and i will totally make it again!

A deeply spiritual episode. Thanks!

Yeah celery is not a typical thing to use for us, if anything celery root or celeriac i think its called. They are similar on flavour, i think celeriac is a bit tad more sweeter after cooking. Diced pickles is... strange. I don't think any soup i saw made, made myself or saw recipe for had them diced so big. If anything they would be grated, but not for this soup. Rather to be eaten on side if anybody would want some(but stil lweird af to do), but more of lacto fermented ones than simple pickles. But adding brine from those would be something I could imagine to expect in some recipes altough it can make potatoes 'crisp' in texture over time. From other things we never fry on olive oil, if anything it would be either on butter, lard or canola/sunflower oil. But polish-style i would name that for sure, it does have the spirit(in a sense!) :D

Now when your recipe is finished & I will make a bigger batch of soup , I put 1/3 of it in a separate pan & slice up a blood sausage ( 5 oz.) in mine( I am Irish) & add that to mine also, is delicious

The video smells so good! Greetings from Houston TX!

Coming from a polish amarican family we only ever made a much simpaler version with just kelbasa, potatos and cabbage. The first time i made it myself i added carrots and cellary. Next time ill try to remembur to add the pickles and sour cream and see how it turns out.

This Polish potato soup recipe looks very polished. Enough that I'm sure I'd polish off a few bowls of it if I make it.

omg looks beautiful, tasty, and comforting! win-win-win !

Something about this soup intrigues me. 😋

Smacznego!!!

I used to watch your super bowl wing toss every year. Glad to see you're still making content

I love your accent....always makes me fall in love with you and food❤❤❤

Cannot WAIT to try this!!!

Long time fan! Keep up the good work!

That looks fantastic and delicious!

Dinner tonight! We used home grown white sweet potato too because we ran out of spuds. Gorgeous soup.

I don't know all polish soup recipes. But when a polish recipes calls for celery, it usually refers to celery root. Still looks tasty though 😁

I made this Soup and it is Delish, Chef John's recipes will get you 99.9% there - since the recipe calls for fresh dill that is not available in my area this time of year, I put in 3 Tablespoons of dried dill weed. The only thing I would do differently is add more Kielbasa, just a personal preference.

My Mom always said not to add the pickles before the potatoes are fully cooked (because supposedly they will not soften in acidic water from the fermented brine) and now Chef John tells me something else. My biggest cooking gurus disagreeing.

It's Soup! Make it as you like it!

Had many "onesy twosy" vegetables; carrots, broccoli, onions, beans, potatoes, a few pieces ham, a sausage in the fridge that I wanted to use up. Made a terrific variation of your recipe.👍 It turned out delish! Could be a full meal with some bread, cheese, olives etc...two thumbs up!

I made this almost exactly the same as the recipe except I increased the kielbasa amount 20%, added a couple slices of chopped up bacon, and a couple bay leaves. Was really good, I told my friend at work about it the day before I made it he made a face about pickles in soup, but I brought him a bowl the next day and he apologized for having doubts.

This looks like a great recipe. If it wasn’t the middle of summertime here in Melbourne I would fire it up tonight

I make almost this exact soup but with smoked bratwurst instead of kielbasa, no pickle, but add cabbage. My husband loves it!

Polish food is soooo good ❤

Another exceptional recipe from Chef John! Over the years and my inept analysis of foods, I have come to the realization the variance of ingredients is based on what was readily available. Now while the readers of this post are getting the knee jerk reaction of, "Duh!", consider that the author of this pairs his dishes with the wine he used to deglaze the pan. In other words, "What's made together, stayed together." Anywho, I am looking forward of Chef John's rendition of Marmitako. And yes, he probably has done it and I have missed it.