Tag: Recipe

How to Make the Cucumber Salad With Sour Cream That You Loved in Budapest

How to Make the Cucumber Salad With Sour Cream That You Loved in Budapest

Posted on by Budapest Guide

You know the feeling.

You sit down in a cozy Hungarian restaurant in Budapest. Maybe you ordered a giant Wiener schnitzel bigger than the plate itself. Maybe it was a rich beef stew with dumplings. And then… next to it comes that cucumber salad with sour cream.

Cold. Garlicky. Creamy. Fresh. Slightly sweet. Slightly sour. Crunchy enough to wake up your entire soul.

🥒💥

And suddenly you realize:
“Why is THIS side dish stealing the show?”

The good news? You can make it at home in about 10 minutes of actual work.

The dangerous news? Once you start making it, you may never stop.

The Legendary Hungarian Cucumber Salad (Uborkasaláta)

This is the version many Hungarians grow up eating. It is simple, cheap, and absurdly satisfying.

Ingredients

  • 1 cucumber (the long “snake cucumber” / kígyóuborka style)
  • 1 small onion
  • 0.5 tablespoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1 tablespoon vinegar
  • 1 dl sour cream
  • 1 garlic clove (crushed)

Step 1 – Slice the Cucumber and Onion

🥒 Thin slices are the secret.

Slice the cucumber as thin as possible. If you have a mandoline slicer, now is its time to shine. Slice the onion thinly as well.

Put both into a bowl.

Add:

  • the salt
  • the sugar

Mix everything together.

Now leave it alone for 30 minutes.

This is where the magic begins. The cucumber starts releasing lots of water, becoming softer while still keeping some crunch.

Your kitchen will already start smelling like a Hungarian grandma is secretly cooking nearby.

Step 2 – Make the Creamy Dressing

🧄 In another bowl, mix together:

  • sour cream
  • vinegar
  • crushed garlic

That’s it.

Simple ingredients. Massive flavor.

The garlic is extremely important here. Without garlic, it tastes good. With garlic, it tastes like Budapest.

Step 3 – Squeeze Out the Water

💪 This part matters more than people think.

Take the cucumber-onion mixture and squeeze out as much liquid as possible.

If you skip this, the salad becomes watery and sad.

If you squeeze properly, it becomes creamy and addictive.

Step 4 – Mix Everything Together

Add the cucumber and onion mixture into the sour cream dressing.

Stir everything well.

Now place it in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

Yes, waiting is painful.
But this hour changes everything.

The flavors blend together beautifully, and the salad becomes cold, creamy, and ridiculously refreshing.

What Should You Eat It With?

🍽️ Almost everything.

This cucumber salad is legendary next to:

  • Wiener schnitzel
  • Goulash
  • Fried chicken
  • Stews
  • Grilled meat
  • Potatoes
  • Even bread

Some people honestly eat it directly from the bowl with a spoon at midnight while standing in front of the fridge.

No judgment here.

Why Hungarians Love It So Much

Hungarian food is often rich, heavy, meaty, buttery, paprika-filled, and glorious.

This cucumber salad cuts through all that richness perfectly.

The cold sour cream cools everything down.
The vinegar wakes up your taste buds.
The garlic punches you gently in the face.
The cucumber keeps it fresh.

🥒❤️

It is basically the side dish equivalent of air conditioning during a Budapest heatwave.

Want the Real Experience in Budapest?

Of course, making it at home is fantastic.

But eating it in an authentic Hungarian restaurant in Budapest while hearing plates clatter, people laugh loudly, and waiters carrying giant schnitzels past your table? Different level entirely.

If you want the real deal, read more about famous Budapest restaurants such as:

cucumber salad in a budapest restaurant

And honestly… once you taste the cucumber salad there again, you will probably order extra bread just to clean the bowl afterward.

Asparagus cream soup recipe for dummies

Posted on by Budablogger

Some days ago I wrote that it is asparagus season in Budapest at the moment. It truly is, and probably the most popular asparagus meal in Budapest during such seasons is the Asparagus cream soup.

Celebrating the asparagus season I have recently made the cream soup of asparagus several times and here you can find the recipe. It is worth knowing that when I work in the kitchen and whatever I cook is cooked in a „for dummies” way. That means I do everything as easy possible, without loosing to much of quality and taste hopefully. That is why I dare to say that this recipe is so easy that anyone can make an asparagus cream soup following this recipe. If you like the end result or not, that is up to you.

Asparagus cream soup for dummies

Ingredients:

½ kg asparagus (green or white)
1 onion
oil/butter
salt
pepper
1 dl cooking cream (főzőtejszinhab)
1 spoon flour

Making the asparagus cream soup

Start with placing some oil and butter in the pot. Add the onion which should be cut to small pieces. Keep stirring to make sure that the onion does not get burned. After a while add the asparagus which has been cut into small pieces and let them stir together for 1-2 minutes. If there are parts of the asparagus that are very hard, almost like cutting tree, leave them and throw them in the garbage instead.

After this add enough water so that all the ingredients are covered and let them boil for 20 minutes until they are really soft. When you have reached this point you need to find your blender (turmixgep) and pour everything into it. Let the blender work everything for a minute and afterwards it actually starts looking like a soup!

At this point there is something very important that needs to be done. Find a sifter (szürő) and before pouring the soup from the blender back into the clean pot pour it into the sifter. Use a wooden spoon to push the soup through the sifter. In the end you will have a small portion left in the sifter which you can throw away and not use. It feels tragic to throw it, but the reason why you need to do this is the fact that it contain parts almost like fish-bones which can be really annoying if they end up in your soup, and they are capable of destroying the joy of soup eating (been there, done that).

Once the soup is back in the pot you can add the remaining water (if there is anything left). Take the cream and pour it into an empty bowl. Add 1 spoon of flour and mix them together and then pour it slowly into the soup. The cream gives the cream soup a much more creamy feeling, but if you are on a diet and want to skip extra calories, you can skip the cream.

If you have white pepper use that, but if not black pepper can also be used. I would add ½ teaspoon of pepper and probably around 3 teaspoons of salt, but since this is very different from person to person and amount of salt also depends on the quality of salt, you should taste yourself to give the soup a taste the way you like it!

In the end let the soup boil for 3-4 minutes and your asparagus cream soup masterpiece has now been finished.

Enjoy your meal and please write a comment and write whether you liked the end result or not. If you have further advices or any modifications you would like to add to the recipe, write a comment as well!

Chicken paprika with noodles recipe

Posted on by Budablogger

Chicken paprika is a very traditional Hungarian course, and it is something you can get served in lots of Hungarian restaurants in Budapest and you will also be served it quite regularly if you visit a Hungarian family in their own home and they will cook for you there. The basics of the Chicken paprika is very similar to the Goulash soup basics, but there are some major differences which you will find as soon as you study both the goulash soup and the chicken paprika recipe.

Chicken paprika is normally served together with noodle (often called dumplings), and as you combine these you will get a tasty lunch/dinner which will make your stomach full for quite a while, at least if you eat a lot of the noodles. First comes the ingredients, and afterwards I will tell you how to prepare this stuff!

Chicken paprika recipe for four persons

4 pieces of chicken leg
2 onions
1,5 tablespoons with sweet red paprika (powder)
1 tomato
1 white paprika (sweet)
170-200ml sour cream
2 tablespoons flour
some oil

How to prepare it?
Chop the onions into small pieces and put them in a pan together with the oil. Fry them until they get almost brownish. Remove the pan from the heat and add the sweet red paprika. Mix them, and add some salt and pepper as you do this. Put it back on the heat and add some water to make the food simmer. If the water turns into steam and disappears, add more water so that the ingredients will not get burned. You can now add the chicken, the tomato and the white paprika. If you have some „erös pista” (strong Hungarian paprika) or some „pörkölt cream” or similar stuff, you can add that as well at this point. Keep it on the heat until the chicken is tender and tasty. Add water if needed, just make sure nothing gets burned!

While doing this add the sour cream to a bowl. Add some flour first to the sour cream, stir it, and then add the rest. Make sure it is soft and nice. Before you add this to the pan, add some of the gravy for the pan to the sour cream mixture (do this twice).

You can now add the sour cream mixture to the pan with the rest of the ingredients. Let it simmer for some minutes, and then the Chicken paprika is finished.

Dumplings / Noodles:

2 eggs
about 350 gram flour
salt
water

How to prepare it?
Put 2,5-3 litres of water into a large bowl and put some salt in the water. Make sure the water is boiling. In another bowl you should add the eggs, the flour and the salt and add water. The dough should be quite thick, not at all watery. Later you can use a knife and cut it into smaller pieces and put them into the boiling water. If they get dissolved in the water or do not stick together, the dough is to watery. As the pieces of dough come to the surface of the water, the dumplings are finished and can be served together with the chicken paprika.

Chicken paprika made by Budablogger!

How did it succeed for Budablogger?

I used this recipe as I created Chicken paprika for the first time in my life. My father in law makes the best Chicken paprika in the world, so I thought my own would be a big disappointment to myself as I made it, but somehow I was quite satisfied. It tasted well, even my family liked it. The hardest thing was to get the dumplings perfect, but training makes master, so next time I try, it will get even better. Go for it, and write a comment to share how it went for you as you made Chicken paprika in your own kitchen!

Goulash soup recipe and history

Posted on by Budablogger

Before you can digest the history of the Goulash soup, start making it yourself. Here comes the recipe for the national food of Hungary!

Goulash soup recipe

Recipe for four persons
Cooking time: 90 minutes

Ingredients:
500-600g shank of beef
1 large onion
1 large carrot
1 parsnip
1 small celery
2 middle sized potatoes
4-5 pieces of parsley
3 teaspoons sweet paprika (powder)
3 bay leafs
1 teaspoon caraway grains
1 teaspoons black pepper grains
salt after taste
3 spoons oil
1 small green paprika (not necessary)
1 small tomato (not necessary)
2,5L water
(If you use these ingredients you will be able to make a really tasty and good Goulash soup.)

You should start cutting the carrot, the celery and the potatoes into same size pieces.

Put the onion (cut into small pieces) into a pot together with the oil and let them fry together. As it gets golden brown take the pot of the heating and add the paprika and the meat that has been cut into small pieces.

Goulash soup

After this you should add some of the water and let it steam together for a while. Later add the bay leafs, the caraway, the paprika and the tomato. Add salt and taste continuously (about 1 teaspoon). Let the mixture be boiling for around one-two hours to make sure the meat gets well cooked. As the meat gets almost soft you should add the carrots, the parsnip, the celery and after ten more minutes the potatoes. Together they should be cooked together for ten more minutes.

Taste the soup and if needed, add some more salt. Add some black pepper powder to the top of the soup and also the parsley cut into small pieces.

The Goulash soup should be served together with fresh white bread, and if you like strong stuff, add some strong paprika to the soup or maybe some Erős Pista (hot paprika on glass) to the soup as you are about to eat it.

Bon appetit!

Goulash soup history

The birth of the goulash soup origins in a time when the shepherds spent much time far away from home. Out on the open fields they made the goulash soup in the traditional cauldrons (kettles), or bogrács as we call it in Hungary. Today you can still see these cauldrons as Hungarians cook Goulash soup, fish soup and other traditional Hungarian food both in their gardens and at festivals around in Hungary.

The Goulash Soup is known as the national food of Hungary since the end of the 18th century. It was claimed that the unity of the Hungarians were helped forth by creating a local fashion (Hungarian clothes) and also by making the Goulash soup the national food of Hungary.

In reality the Goulash can not be called a traditional Hungarian course, since the paprika, which gives the special taste to the Goulash soup, only started to spread around in Europe in the 16th century as it was first found in America.

There are several types of Goulash soup available as you visit restaurants in all of Budapest and Hungary, but the best soups are normally the ones you get from a real Hungarian grandmother, giving her heart, soul and lots of ingredients into it.

The following recipe has been given to me by my mother-in-law, so if something goes wrong, she is the one to blame 🙂