Lithuanian Cabbage Soup (My Mum's Recipe)
Some recipes carry memories more than instructions. Lithuanian Cabbage Soup is one of those dishes for me. It’s the kind of soup that quietly appeared on the stove throughout my childhood — simple, comforting, and always ready on a chilly day. My mum may claim she doesn’t like cooking much, but this soup is one recipe she’s made countless times, and during a recent week at home she passed on all her little tricks for making the best Kopūstų Sriuba.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 medium carrot thinly sliced into semi-circles
- 1 yellow onion thinly sliced
- 1.5 l (6⅓ cups) homemade chicken or vegetable stock/ broth
- 450 g (1 lb) cabbage white or green, shredded
- 200 g (0.5 lb) potatoes cut into pieces *see notes
- 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
- 2 bay leaves
- salt to taste
- sour cream to serve
- green onions or fresh herbs to garnish
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a frying pan over low-medium heat. Add the carrots and onions and sautee for 7-8 minutes until softened slightly.
- In the meantime, bring the stock/ broth to a gentle boil in a large soup pot.
- Add the shredded cabbage, and bring to a boil without covering the pan.
- Once boiling, add the potatoes, sauteed vegetables, peppercorns and bay leaves. Cover the pan with a lid and cook over low-medium heat for 10-12 minutes, or until potatoes are just tender.
- Taste, and adjust the seasoning. You may also loosen the soup by adding some boiling water to the pan.
- Divide the soup into individual bowls (we leave the bay leaves and peppercorns in the soup to be "fished out" for the person eating it), add a spoonful of sour cream, and garnish with fresh herbs of green onions.
Notes
In many Lithuanian soups, potatoes are not fully cut into neat cubes. Instead, the knife is inserted about ¾ of the way through the potato and the piece is then torn off. This creates rugged, uneven edges rather than smooth cuts. The irregular surfaces break down slightly as the soup cooks, releasing some of the potato’s natural starch and gently thickening the broth without adding flour or cream. This rustic technique also helps the potatoes absorb more flavor while keeping their soft centers intact.