Swedabilly Kitchen

This soup idea was lightly adapted from another older recipe that I ran across on Reddit and squirreled away in my saved posts. This time, in the comments on an r/soup post requesting some sauerkraut soup recipes. HauntedMeow was kind enough to contribute this variation that they snagged from a church cookbook.

The flavor combination sounded intriguing, and like something which should be right up our alley. So, I had to save it to my digital Try Pile.

Sauerkraut soup is another thing that I did grow up eating sometimes at home. Like with my adaptation that turned into the Pork and Root Vegetable Stew with Miso a while back? I’m guessing my family’s style was pretty heavy on the migrated “Pennsylvania Dutch” influences. My mom’s take used more fresh pork and potato/carrot/etc., but no cream and simpler seasonings. Another dish that leans hard on the flavors of the stewed pork and vegetables. Good quality meat and kraut make the dish.

This version also uses simple ingredients, but the combination of cured meat, sour cream, and dill really does set it apart. And sounded very much worth a try!

We happened to have just the right amount of open sauerkraut and crème fraiche in the refrigerator, and some aging potatoes perfect for a soup or stew. So I picked up a pack of thin Polish-style smoked sausages, and decided to go ahead and give it a go.

This is a very easy meal to put together. I actually complicated the original recipe in several ways, trying to cook it the way I thought would give the best results to my own taste. (As is really par for the course around here!) I did follow the original ingredient list, other than the addition of some carrots and the bit of vegetable bouillon for a little umami flavor boost.

The soup turned out absolutely delicious, and I will definitely need to cook it again. These sausages worked well in there, but I would also be tempted to try some different smoky cured meat next time. The little hint of caraway flavor worked unexpectedly well in here, underneath the fresh dill pop that helped pull everything together. I also very much enjoyed the thicker, creamy broth and its contrast with the sharp kraut cutting through the richness.

If you’re into hearty soups and tart flavors, this is an excellent meal to try.

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Creamy Sausage and Sauerkraut Soup

This warm and hearty gluten free soup delivers a lot of flavor from simple ingredients. Perfect for cold weather.

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Active Time45 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr

Course: Main Course, Soup

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Comfort Food, Gluten free, Preserved vegetables, Sauerkraut, Sausage, Soups, Winter

Yield: 6 servings

Materials

• 250 g precooked smoked sausage of your choice (8 oz.) sliced
• 1 tbsp neutral oil of choice, or butter (optional) for browning the sausage and onion if needed

Vegetables

• 1 medium onion chopped
• 1-3 medium carrots sliced
• 4 medium firm boiling potatoes (or equivalent) cut bite-sized
• 450 g sauerkraut (16 oz., or 1 can) drained, with liquid reserved

Other major ingredients

• 1¼ liter water (5 cups)
• 250 ml sour cream/crème fraiche/gräddfil (1 cup) full fat is best
• 1 tbsp potato starch can substitute corn or another starch; use 2 tsp if you want the soup less thick

Seasonings

• ¼ tsp caraway seed
• 1.5 vegetable bouillon cubes enough to make 750ml/3 cups total
• 1 large bay leaf
• coarsely ground pepper to taste
• ½ tsp garlic powder or use fresh
• 1 tbsp fresh or frozen dill chopped
• salt to taste
• sugar small amount to taste, if the sauerkraut is extremely tart
• sprinkles of chopped dill or parsley, and pepper to garnish the top

Instructions

• Peel the potatoes if you prefer, and chop them into bite-sized pieces. Hold to the side, covered with cool water. We had rather small potatoes today, so I used 8 of those.
  
• Peel and slice carrots, and chop the onion. Hold to the side separately.
• Slice the sausage into bite-sized pieces. These were a thin version of a Swedish take on soft Polish kabanosy. Kielbasa or pretty much any other smoked sausage you prefer should be good.
  
• NOTE: This next part is best done in a fairly heavy-bottomed pot that you're planning to cook the soup in. I did this differently because I initially misjudged the size of pot this soup would need. I had hoped to simmer it all together in the potato pot shown above.

  For this size of batch, you will want at least 3 L/quarts of cooking capacity with room to stir. 4L would be better. Soups and stews do have such a talent for outgrowing their pans!
• Fry the sausage over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until it's starting to brown. (Add the little oil or butter to keep things from sticking if your sausage is leaner.) Then add the onions.
  
• Continue frying it around for a few minutes until the onion just starts picking up a little color around the edges. We aren't looking to cook it soft or deeply brown the sausage, just work up a little extra flavor.
  
• When that's looking about ready, add in the caraway seeds and fry them around too for another minute or so. If you want to use fresh minced garlic, this is the time to add that too.
• When that's ready, combine the sausage mixture in your soup pot with the potatoes, carrots, and water. Add in the bouillon, bay leaf, and pepper.

  Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat to simmer it covered for 20 minutes or until the potato and carrot is just fork tender.
  
• When the root vegetables are cooked, it's time to add in the sauerkraut and garlic powder. The veggies are unlikely to get much softer once the kraut acidity goes in.
  
• The original recipe I was working off specified to add the kraut undrained. This is up to your taste and the kraut you're using. I would suggest draining off most of the liquid and keeping it to add to taste later if you want it.

  The half a big jar I had to use up was sour enough that I just forked the cabbage out of the brine, and sort of wished I had drained it better. So, this remaining brine went back in the fridge.
  
• Bring back to the boil, and simmer covered for another 15-20 minutes, or until it's wilted down and softened to your taste. Turn down to the lowest heat.
  
• Place the sour cream in a heatproof container, and stir in the starch. Mix together until very smooth.

  Note: Potato starch will hold up better to the kraut acidity than corn. Tapioca starch is also good for that.

  This step is partly intended to help keep the cream from curdling or "splitting" in the hot soup. It's probably unnecessary with the 32% crème fraiche I was using, which can boil–but it will also serve to thicken the soup a little more.
  
• Dip out some of the hot broth, and gradually stir about a cup/250ml into the sour cream mixture to temper it.

  This is also intended to keep the cream from curdling, besides the starch glumping up together when it hits the hot broth.
  
• Our runny tempered sour cream mixture is ready to go into the soup! It should look very smooth.
  
• Carefully stir this through the soup. Since we used potato starch here, it thickened the soup as soon as it was mixed in. If you're using another starch or your soup has cooled down more, you may need to gently heat it some more before it will fully thicken.
• Adjust seasoning to your taste. This batch turned out just sour enough from that particular kraut that I needed to add around a teaspoon of sugar to help balance the flavors just a tad. The simmering and creaminess were not quite enough to mellow the edge off it. With less aggressively sauerkraut, this addition shouldn't be necessary.

  Add the dill. Stir in well, then let the soup sit off the heat for 5-10 minutes to let al the flavors blend.l
  
• Soups's on! This would be good served with some crusty bread, and maybe a green salad. But, it felt like enough of a meal on its own that we just ate big bowls for supper.
  

Today, I was in the mood for something warm, filling, and low effort. It’s been a low energy day, and my musculoskeletal system is protesting the weather.

Some type of one pot noodle dish seemed just about perfect. And the Instant Pot makes these much easier.

Prepared meatballs were also a very tempting protein source. They’re tasty, versatile, and pretty well dump-and-go for a quick meal. Especially now that we’re living in Sweden, I always try to keep a meatball supply ready in the freezer. Probably the majority of prepared meatballs here are gluten free by default, using potato products for the little bit of binder–but, it does always pay to read the ingredients carefully before you buy.

My first thought today was a basic tomato-based Italian themed meatball pasta, which I will also post the next time I throw some together. But, that would mean that I needed to grate some Parmesan, and also come up with some sort of side salad or other vegetable for a rounded meal.

So, then my mind turned to more Asian style noodles, including a good bit of vegetables alongside the protein for a complete one-dish meal.

Considering that I wanted to use the meatballs, a short pasta shape made more sense than long noodles. I’ve also found that they are easier to manage in a one pot dish. It may not be traditional, but frankly nothing about this is! It’ll still be delicious.

The vegetables we’ll need. This did require a little onion and cabbage cutting, but I opted to use a chunky frozen vegetable blend for the rest to add some color and variety. I didn’t end up chopping this neat twinned green onion tonight, because I realized we already had some leftover sliced in a jar.

The vegetables will cook pretty tender with this cooking method, but I’m fine with that tonight. If you prefer a more tender-crisp texture, you could also cook them on the side and add them in at the end once the seasoned pasta is cooked.

The ingredients otherwise are pretty simple. We have meatballs, pasta, and some seasonings. This particular size batch will only need half each of the pasta and meatballs.

Tonight I opted for bowties, because they hold up well for one pot cooking and don’t want to poke up out of the liquid nearly as much as something like penne. More important when you don’t want a very saucy dish and won’t be stirring it during the cooking! But, any short shape will work fine, you’re just likely to need more liquid to submerge it properly. You could also totally use spaghetti or linguine, broken in half to fit down inside the pot.

As for the seasoning sauce, we’re going for a rather international mix of ingredients. The Shaoxing rice wine used in so much Chinese cooking is unfortunately made with wheat, but substituting sake will give you a good flavor. And while we’re reaching for the sake, we might as well grab the mirin too for its distinctive sweet flavor which combines so well with sake. You can substitute a teaspoon of sugar if you don’t have mirin. Right now I have a bottle of Thai oyster sauce going, but generally I would buy Lee Kum Kee’s GF version. This brand is a little sweeter, but still pretty good.

Since we’re using beef-and-pork meatballs, I am going for a cow version of the local liquid equivalent of Better Than Bouillon tonight. You can use any broth component that you like, for the equivalent of 2 cups / 500ml of liquid. And since we’re going lazy and not frying any aromatics, I’m just opting for garlic powder rather than fresh.

Once you have the little bit of prep done and the seasoning sauce mixed and ready to go, this meal goes together in no time. And it definitely hit the spot tonight!

Gluten Free Lo Mein-Themed Meatball Pasta in the Pressure Cooker

An easy one-pot pasta meal with meatballs and plenty of veggies, cooked simply in the Instant Pot.

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 30 minutes mins

Servings: 4 servings

Course: Main Course, One Dish

Cuisine: American, Chinese, East Asian-inspired

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

  

• 1 small onion sliced
• 3-4 cups white cabbage (750ml-1L) shredded fairly thickly
• ¼ tsp salt mixed in to season the cabbage
• 200-300 g chunky frozen vegetable mix of your choice (just around ½ lb.)
• 1 large green onion Chopped, with the whites and green top separated
• 300 g frozen meatballs (just around ½ lb.)
• 200-250 g short dry pasta shape of choice (just around ½ lb.)
• 500-600 ml broth (2-2½ cups)
• OR water plus enough Better than Bouillon or crushed cubes to make 500ml/2 cups of broth

Seasoning Sauce

• 2 tbsp GF soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sake
• 1 tbsp mirin
• OR 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 tbsp GF oyster sauce
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• ¼ tsp ground white pepper can use black

At the End

• salt and white pepper to taste
• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
• sliced green onion green tops, to garnish

Method

 

1. After assembling your ingredients as detailed above, it's time for some simple layering.

   Start with your onions, the white part of the green onion (if using), and frozen meatballs.
   
2. Distribute the dry pasta over the top.
   
3. Pour over about half the liquid, and pour the seasoning sauce over the top.

   Rinse out the bowl with the rest of the liquid, and pour that in too.
   
4. This is roughly the liquid level we're going for: just barely up to the top of the dry pasta. No need to stir, just poke any pieces of pasta that are sticking up down into the liquid.

   We're aiming for most of the liquid to be absorbed, and the vegetables will contribute a little more as they cook.
   
5. Add the lightly salted cabbage, and then the frozen veggies to steam on the very top.
   
6. Cook on "Manual – High" for 5-7 minutes depending on your pasta. I know these Garofalo bowties need 7 to my taste.
7. Let the pressure natural release for 10 minutes before opening the valve.
8. Stir together, and evaluate pasta doneness and the remaining liquid level. If it's too watery and your pasta is not quite there, simmer uncovered for a few minutes until it's good.

   Also adjust the seasoning as required. I added a little more salt and pepper, but did not need to simmer.

   NOTE: the pasta will absorb a little more liquid as it rests.
9. Remove from the base, stir in the sesame oil, and let sit covered for 10 minutes before serving.

   Serve with the green onion tops, and whatever other garnishes you prefer. Enjoy!
   

It’s the time of year that apples are in prime season, and warm desserts start looking very tempting. I picked up some nice fresh cooking apples, and had been plotting some good things to do with them. There are so many appealing options!

I had already been considering turning some of them into a crumble or crisp. It’s so easy and delicious. Smulpaj (“crumb pie”, where “paj” is actually an old borrowing from English and pronounced the same way) is a very popular genre of dessert here anyway, so it occurred to me to try something a little different this time around, and just work off a Swedish recipe.

The one I settled on comes from Glutenfria Godsaker (“Gluten Free Goodies”). Everything I have tried from there so far has turned out great. The original recipe: Glutenfri äppelpaj med smuldeg. For a change, I didn’t even make any tweaks beyond using more apples than she called for because these particular apples were on the small side. (Mine worked out to 12 fruits in a 1kg bag, so I went with half of them for around 500g or 1 lb.)

The ingredients for this one really couldn’t be simpler. And the results turned out absolutely scrumptious!

The proportion of sugar called for here will give you a sweeter crumb topping than I would generally go for myself. If you’d prefer it a little less sweet, feel free to reduce the amount of sugar a little. Next time I will probably cut it back by maybe 25% to my taste. But, everyone’s is different, and this was wonderful as-is.

Gluten Free Swedish Apple Crumble

A Swedish take on one warming classic cool weather dessert. Fresh juicy apples are seasoned with cinnamon, topped with a gluten free oat crumb topping, and baked until golden and bubbly.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 25 minutes mins

Total Time 45 minutes mins

Course: Baking, Dessert

Cuisine: Swedish

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

  

• 500 g cooking apples (Just around a pound)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Crumb Dough

• 250 ml certified gluten free rolled oats (1 cup, or 100g)
• 225 ml gluten free flour blend (scant 1 cup, or 135g of what the original recipe writer used)
• 200 ml granulated white sugar (¾ cup, or 180g)
• 150 g cold butter (10 tbsp is close enough) cut into small chunks

Method

 

1. Start the oven preheating to 200℃ / 400℉.
2. Generously butter a large deep pie dish, or 8"x8" / 20cmx20cm baking dish.

   This recipe could easily be doubled to fill a 9"x13" / 23cmx33cm pan, though you may also need to increase the baking time a little.
3. Peel, core, and slice the apples.
4. In a mixing bowl, place your dry dough ingredients and stir well to combine. Work the butter chunks through to make a crumbly mixture.

   I started out trying to cut the butter in with a fork, but soon got my hands in there.
   
5. Lay the apples into the buttered dish, and sprinkle the cinnamon over top.
6. Add the crumb topping.
   
7. Bake for around 20-30 minutes, or until browned on top and bubbling up around the edges. The smell will be amazing toward the end.

   Mine went for 25 minutes in this pan and oven, and possibly could have gone a few minutes longer for more browning. Using all white sugar here, though, it won't get as dark.
   
8. Let rest for 15 minutes, then serve warm with some vanilla ice cream or the classic here: vaniljsås, or vanilla custard.