How to Ferment Żurek Starter (Start This 3-5 Days Before You Actually Want Soup):

1. To begin your authentic żurek starter, grab a big glass jar and dump in the rye flour and lukewarm water. Mix it till it’s smooth-ish. Don’t stress if there are lumps.
2. Chuck in the smashed garlic clove, bay leaves, and allspice berries.
3. If you’re using the bread slice, throw that in too. It’s like giving the fermented rye soup base a headstart.
4. Cover the jar with a piece of cheesecloth or a clean kitchen towel and secure it with a rubber band. Don’t seal it tight or it’ll explode – for real, I learned this the hard way!
5. Stick the jar somewhere warm in your kitchen. On top of the fridge works great.
6. Once a day, stir the gloop with a wooden spoon. After a couple days, it’ll start bubbling and smelling sour. It might smell weird, but that’s how this Polish sour soup base is supposed to be!
7. After 3-5 days, when it smells sour but not like something died, your fermented rye starter is ready. Strain it through a sieve to get rid of the chunky bits.

How to Make Polish White Borscht at Home:

1. For this traditional kielbasa soup recipe, throw the kielbasa, pork (if you’re using it), onion, carrots, parsnip, leek, celery, garlic, bay leaves, allspice, and marjoram into a big pot.
2. Pour in the broth and crank up the heat to get it boiling.
3. Once it’s bubbling away, turn the heat down low, slap a lid on it, and let it simmer for about 30 minutes until everything’s tender. Your kitchen’s gonna smell amazing with this traditional Polish soup!
4. Fish out the meat. Once it’s cool enough to handle, chop up the pork if you used ribs.
5. Strain the broth – you can keep the carrots if you want, but my grandma always tossed all the boiled veggies when making biały barszcz. Your call.
6. Pour the broth back into the pot and add about 2 cups of your funky żurek starter. Bring it back to a gentle simmer. This is where your sour rye soup really develops its character!
7. In a separate bowl, mix the sour cream and flour till smooth. This next part’s important for your homemade white borscht – add a few spoonfuls of hot broth to this mixture while whisking like crazy. If you skip this step, you’ll end up with weird sour cream blobs in your soup, and nobody wants that.
8. Slowly pour this mixture back into the soup, stirring constantly.
9. Toss in the kielbasa, pork meat, and horseradish. Let it simmer for another 5 minutes or so. The horseradish gives this Polish Easter soup its distinctive zing!
10. Give it a taste and add salt and pepper till it makes you happy.
11. Ladle that bad boy into bowls and plop a halved hard-boiled egg in each one. Now you’ve got classic white borscht with eggs!
12. Sprinkle with fresh dill and parsley before serving and watch everyone’s faces light up when they taste your authentic żurek!