I’ve spent the last couple of years exploring my family history in old-fashioned ways. I’ve been knitting, dyeing textiles, exploring herbal remedies… and cooking.
My family comes from Northeastern Poland and had a local diet à la 19th century (except they came to the US in the 1960s!). I vaguely remembered a summertime blueberry soup from my visits, so i asked my Mom for the family recipe. Mom explained that it was often served during summer harvest when my grandmother had to feed a farm work crew with not much time for cooking. My mom also couldn’t help but mention that it took longer for her and her sister to pick the wild blueberries than it did to make the soup.
Noodles are optional, but certainly make for a more filling soup.
Blueberry Soup
15 minutes (without noodles)
40 minutes (with noodles)
3/4 pint ripe blueberries
a pinch of salt
sugar (raw and to your liking)
Wash your blueberries. Bring them to a simmer with 1 1/2 cups water (filtered, if you have it). Add a pinch of salt and enough sugar for soup on the sweet side, or less if you prefer. The more ripe the blueberries, the less sugar you’ll need and the tastier the soup will be. Simmer about 10 minutes.
Noodles
1 cup AP flour, plus more for kneading
1/4 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 egg
warm water
When starting the soup, put a pot of salted water on the stove and bring to a boil.
Mix the flour and salt on a cutting board or in a bowl, then make a mound with a crater in the center. Add the egg and start to work it in, adding warm water as needed. You want a smooth dough. Cut the dough in half and roll it out on a floured board. I remember my great-aunt cutting long beautiful noodles, all the same width, using just a knife and a consistent stroke – so that’s what i tried to do. let’s just say i have some practice ahead of me, but no one was complaining. My goal was 1/4″ or a little smaller.
Move the noodles to a lightly floured surface (i used a cookie sheet) and let the dough sit for a few minutes. Cook in batches. I used a medium sized pot, so I placed a handful of noodles in the boiling water for about 7 minutes, but depending on the width, this may take longer. Check to see if they’re ready with a taste (once your noodle’s cooled slightly).
Drain the noodles and put as many as you’d like in a bowl. Ladle the soup over the noodles. In my opinion, this soup is best served at room temperature, but can be eaten hot or cold.
Mom also suggested that leftover crepes can be made into noodles for this soup. Roll up a crepe and cut into matchstick-width noodles. Ladle the soup over them.
