Meat Soup – Lihakeitto

This is a typical Finnish countryside soup that is also very popular in Sweden. In very old recipes, no piment, pepper or bay leaves were used, and the vegetables were potatoes and swede turnip and maybe pasternak. Carrots and leek are more “modern” additions from the 50ties. Note this dish takes quite some time, but it is worth it.

Turnip is the most “classical” Finnish vegetable and together with potatoes one of the corner stones of old Finnish food. The earth in Finland does not have much nutrition for plants, and it was common to burn the forest and then plant turnips, this is called “kaski”. That changed later with the wide introduction of fertilizer.

This dish was also cooked in great batches for the army, a recipe for 150 hungry soldiers can be found at: https://hotellijaravintolamuseo.fi/lotta-svard-ruokaa-koko-komppanialle/

Ingredients:

400-600 g Boneless Cooking Beef (with bone works also very well and gives a nice taste, but increase then the amount of beef)

2 litre Water

1 Large Onion

1-1½ Teaspoons Salt

6 Piment

6 White Pepper

1-2 Bay Leaves

2 Medium Carrots

250 g Swede Turnip

200 g Root Celery

200 g Pasternak

1 Small Leek

6 Medium Potatoes

Freshly hacked parsley

Instructions:

Wash beef in cold water. Cut the onion into small pieces. Add onion, salt, spices to the water and cook the beef half-ready (about 1.5-2 hours). If foam appear, remove it. Remove the beef and cut it into small cubes. Filter the broth or just take out the spices with a slotted spoon.

Clean the vegetables. Cut the carrot, turnip, celery and pasternak in small cubes. The potatoes are cut into wedges and the leek into slices. Add the vegetables to the broth and cook for 20-25 till they are soft.

Add the meat and check the taste. Add hacked parsley.