Vegan Żurek, an Easter, Polish fermented rye soup

I absolutely loved this soup when I used to live in Poland. It’s often served in a bread bowl, and I remember being mind blown by the concept. Soup = delicious, bread = delicious…. but soup IN bread? Omg!

I’ve always wanted to have it again, but it’s hard to find, and it certainly isn’t vegan! This year since this is, I believe, an Easter time recipe in Poland and it was Easter this weekend, I challenged myself to veganize it from the traditional version of the recipe, and I was blown away. I had to share how I did it! I also made a vegan version of the traditional lamb shaped pound cake (vegan recipe coming soon) that Europeans and Americans make around Easter time, and that was a success as well!

If anyone else wants to try this creamy, epic soup, I think you’ll love it! You’re totes welcome to experiment, and I would really appreciate it if you told me how your experience went and what you thought of the soup!

Some notes:

Typically the Polish version of the soup is cooked with the meat to flavor it, but vegan meats are not usually very tasty when boiled. Thus the pan frying beforehand. Instead the soup relies more heavily on vegetable flavorings, which is why celery and onion are included even though they are not typically present.

Usually it is served with a hard-boiled egg, but I have found that the vegan fried egg recipe was a fantastic topping and more closely matches the flavor and aesthetic than the hard boiled egg recipes that have been made with agar. Next year I will try it with Tabitha Brown’s vegan hard boiled egg recipe that uses pickled white mushroom caps. If you want the soup to have a little bit of egg flavor without all the effort, you could certainly just add kala namak salt and nutritional yeast to the soup and see how that fares.

Zakwas, aka fermented rye “starter”, is the base of the soup and it takes 5 days to make because it has to ferment. Personally I found that vegan yogurt was absolutely delicious with it and I may not bother with zakwas. At some point though I may want to just to see if the flavor is worth it, and if you do let me know what you think! You can learn more about the traditional process of making Żurek here.

Ingredients

Prep ingredients (can be done in advance)

• 1 package field roast white vegan sausage, pan fried and then sliced into thick coin shapes
• 1 package light life vegan bacon, pan fried in oil and then cut into strips

Soup ingredients 

• 3 carrots, cut thickly into rounds
• 2 stalks celery, chopped thickly
• 1/2 onion, cut thickly
• 2 cups vegan almond milk sour cream (will make it more sour) / yogurt (less sour) or zakwas*
  • If using Zakwas, only need 6 tbsp vegan sour cream
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled, pressed, and sliced
• 2 tbsp marjoram
• 1 tbsp celery seed
• 1 package of veggie broth
• 1 vegan bouillon cube

Fried “egg” topping, optional

• 1 package extra firm tofu, sliced into 4 thin, long squares (and you can round them) and then pan fried in oil
• egg dipping sauce recipe (goes on top of the tofu)
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon cornstarch
  • 2 tablespoons light oil (such as canola or vegetable)
  • 2 teaspoons nutritional yeast
  • ¾ teaspoon black salt (also called kala namak)
  • ¼ teaspoon turmeric

Other:

• Fresh bread, sliced
• Vegan butter (to top the bread with)

Recipe instructions

• Gather and prep all ingredients. The vegan meats can be prepared ahead of time, and fried egg topping can also be done in advance of when you’re ready to make the soup.
• Pour the vegetable stock into a large soup/stock pot. Bring to a boil.
• Add the onions, carrots, celery, and the bouillon cube to the pot and lower the heat until it’s simmering. Cook until about halfway done (not tender), about 10 min
• Add garlic, marjarom, and celery seed. If using zakwas, add that at this time and continue simmering.
• When the veggies are tender, turn down the heat and add vegan meats, and the vegan sour cream or yogurt. When it’s all heated through, turn off the heat.
• Serve the soup with the fried egg topping (recipe instructions here) and with sliced buttered bread.