How to make - Eastern European Nail Soup

 

The cabbage in the soup becomes sweet and in a few minutes you can put a filling tasty bowl in front of someone flavoured with caraway the flavour of Eastern Europe.

Eastern European Nail Soup, but it could be made with an axe head, a button, or even a stone

Dish description: Eastern European vegetarian soup with cabbage, and vegetables, easy, inexpensive, quick.

Eastern European Nail Soup, but it could be made with an axe head, a button, or even a stone

Story

So a returning soldier travelling home across vast lands (instead of soldier insert pilgrim, tramp, or nowadays; refugee) and he is starving and finding a village he knocks on every door asking for something to eat. Everyone he asks says that they are sorry but just have enough to get by.

Unable to go on and he sits by his cooking pot over a fire, which contains nothing but a nail and some water (instead of nail insert stone, axe head, button or even a piece of wood) and a curious villager asks what he's cooking, 'Oh, nail soup he replies, delicious, but would be better with an onion'. The villager thinking that he will get some soup goes and finds an onion, to other curious villagers he says the soup would be better if they could just add a carrot, or a potato, or a bit of cabbage, a piece of garlic, a tomato etc. Eventually a great soup is made. The soldier then removes the inedible object, and he and the villagers eat a wonderful meal. It's a European Folktale that makes you want to donate to a food bank.

In Ukrainian folklore the soldier removes the axe head from the soup and says he'll eat it on the way. 

I'm sure I have enjoyed this soup in Latvia or Lithuania, it's a Eastern European minestrone, and if you like caraway you'll love this poverty potage, made for nothing.

Recipe and ingredients

Soften an onion in a little oil, add diced carrot, diced potatoes, sliced garlic, chopped cabbage, a tin of  chopped tomatoes, salt, a tablespoon of sugar, a tablespoon of caraway seeds, water. Simmer till cooked, add a splash of lemon juice and serve.

Enjoy

Andrew