Żurek is a great soup both for Easter and for an ordinary day. There are several options for making sour rye soup, one is a ready-made powdered soup bought in a store, another is sourdough sour rye soup, and in my opinion the best is sour soup with homemade sourdough. Sourdough is very easy, it is made by itself, the ingredients are widely available, and the taste of the soup is amazing. It’s really worth making the leaven yourself to get your favorite flavor, so it’s worth experimenting with spices 🙂

Ingredients:

1 cup of wholemeal rye flour (can also be type 720)
3 cups of lukewarm boiled water
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and lightly crushed (the sour rye soup will have a slightly garlic flavor, so you can add less)
10-12 peppercorns
3 bay leaves
3 grains of allspice

Procedure:

Pour the flour into a liter jar, gradually add water and stir all the time with a wooden spoon so that there are no lumps. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix everything together. Cover the jar with gauze or a cloth diaper, wrap it with string and put it in a warm place for 5 days. I put the jar in the kitchen. During these 5 days, you need to stir the leaven with a wooden spoon once a day. Ready sourdough can be used immediately for sour soup or stored for several days in a refrigerator in a twisted jar.

Enjoy!