Bacon

Polenta Soup

by:
January 16, 2016
0
0 Ratings
Polenta Soup
Photo by anka
  • Serves 4
Author Notes

Growing up polenta was a staple in our house; for breakfast with milk or yogurt, for lunch with goulash, paprikash, with sauerkraut soup, even leftovers polenta re-fried with smoked bacon and served with green salad was the meal on its own. —anka

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 200 grams (7 0z) bacon
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 6 juniper berries
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 liter (4 cups) water or stock (veggie or chicken)
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 100 grams (about 3.5 oz or ½ cup) instant yellow corn meal
  • 2 tablespoons oil
Directions
  1. Cut bacon into 1x1 cm pieces (it is easy to cut if you partially froze bacon), diced onion and crush juniper berries with the back of your knife or mortar and pestle.
  2. Place everything in frying pan; add 2 bay leaves and enough water to cover. By the time water evaporates you will have fat from bacon to cook onions on. At this point, you have to keep eyes on bacon, cook the way you like your bacon done
  3. Bring 4cups water, 2tbsp oil, ½ tsp smoked paprika and 1 tbsp sea salt to boil; adds polenta and whisk. Cook 4-5 minutes, turn the heat off and cover. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.
  4. To serve, place soup in a bowl and sprinkle with bacon and onion.
  5. For a vegan version, you can use sate mushroom and onion topping.
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  • anka
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2 Reviews

anka
anka July 18, 2016
Thank you Tania. So happy to hear this.
I almost can taste smokiness in the soup. First chance and I am going to make with smoked meat stock.
 
Tania -.
Tania -. July 17, 2016
I loved this soup! I lived in Switzerland and they have what they call Basler Mehlsuppe. It's basically toasted/browned flour soup; without any extras, really. This was easier.... toasting flour in a cast iron pan can be a slow process. I thought that polenta rather than flour seemed to change everything. I followed the recipe except that I used a smoked ham stock .
So good, and no one could believe it just started with polenta.