Zalewajka is a traditional rustic

soup Soup is a primarily liquid food, generally served warm or hot – though it is sometimes served chilled – made by cooking or otherwise combining meat or vegetables with Stock (food), stock, milk, or water. According to ''The Oxford Compan ...

made of diced and boiled

potato The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...

es and overflowed with sour rye made from

sourdough Sourdough is a type of bread that uses the fermentation by naturally occurring yeast and lactobacillus bacteria to raise the dough. In addition to leavening the bread, the fermentation process produces lactic acid, which gives the bread its dis ...

bread. It also often contains

Polish sausage Kielbasa (, ; from Polish ) is any type of meat sausage from Poland and a staple of Polish cuisine. In American English, it is typically a coarse, U-shaped smoked sausage of any kind of meat, which closely resembles the ''Wiejska'' ''sausage'' ...

and dried

mushrooms A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or another food source. ''Toadstool'' generally refers to a poisonous mushroom. The standard for the name "mushroom" is ...

Origin

The soup comes from central part of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. The first mentions of it appeared in 19th century in

Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...

and

Radomsko Radomsko () is a city in southern Poland with 44,700 inhabitants (2021). It is situated on the Radomka river in the Łódź Voivodeship. It is the county seat of Radomsko County. Founded in the 11th century, Radomsko is a former royal city located ...

. The basic component of diet for people from those areas were potatoes and mushrooms. Potatoes constituted the base of the majority of the dishes people from Łódź and Radomsko prepared. They were served in different ways like boiled,

mashed Mashed may refer to: * Mashed, that created from mash ingredients * Mashed, the result of a mashing * Mashed, the result of a mashup (music) * Mashed, a UK-based animation YouTube channel that parodies video games, anime and pop culture, owned by ...

or fried. Thanks to its simplicity in the 19th and 20th century zalewajka become popular around the country to places like

Kielce Kielce (; ) is a city in south-central Poland and the capital of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. In 2021, it had 192,468 inhabitants. The city is in the middle of the Świętokrzyskie Mountains (Holy Cross Mountains), on the banks of the Silnic ...

and Zagłębię Dąbrowskie.

Zalewajka recipes

There are a lot of recipes for this kind of soup which are different because of the region of Poland they were prepared.

Łódź

Main ingredients of the soup is bread sourdough, water, sausages and onion slices. Also added are

wheat flour Wheat flour is a powder made from the grinding of common wheat used for human consumption. Wheat varieties are called "soft" or "weak" if gluten content is low, and are called "hard" or "strong" if they have high gluten content. Hard flour, or ...

sour cream Sour cream (sometimes known as soured cream in British English) is a dairy product obtained by fermenting regular cream with certain kinds of lactic acid bacteria. The bacterial culture, which is introduced either deliberately or naturall ...

and potatoes. The potatoes are peeled, cut into small cubes, then put into water and boiled. Sliced sausages and chopped onion are fried on the pan. When the potatoes are almost boiled, sausage and bread sourdough are added. After careful mixing, flour with the sour cream and the pinch of salt is added.

Świętokrzyska

This recipe originated in the Świętokrzyskie region. It's quite similar to Łódź recipe, but garlic and bacon added and less of sour cream used. The cooking process itself is almost the same except putting bacon into the soup.

Radomsko

Zalewajka from Radomsko is similar, but with more spices like marjoram and dried mushrooms. Cooked the same way as in the recipes from Łódź and Świętokrzyskie but without meat.{{Cite web, url=http://www.festiwal-zalewajki.radomsko.pl/, title=Zalewajka - Festiwal Zalewajki. Przepis na zalewajkę, website=www.festiwal-zalewajki.radomsko.pl, language=pl-pl, access-date=2018-11-15

References